ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>NAND L&#256L BH&#256&#298 (c. 1633-1713)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="NAND,LL,BH*"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279NAND L&#256L, BH&#256&#298 (c. 1633-1713), poet famous in the Sikh tradition and favourite disciple of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. His poetry, all in Persian except for <i>Joti Big&#257s</i>, which is in Punjabi, forms part of the approved Sikh canon and can be recited along with scriptural verse at Sikh religious <i>d&#299v&#257ns</i>. Nand L&#257l adopted the pen-name of "Goy&#257", though at places he has also subscribed himself as "L&#257l", the word being the last part of his name. He was a scholar, learned in the traditional disciplines of the time, and his image in Sikh history is that of a man loved and venerated. He is stated to have been born in 1633. By caste he was a Khatr&#299, a class distinguished in Mu<u>gh</u>al times, like the K&#257yasthas, for proficiency in Persian, which at that time was the language of official business. His father, Munsh&#299 Chhajj&#363 Mall, who was an official in the secretariat of Prince D&#257r&#257 Shukoh, Sh&#257h Jah&#257&#7749's eldest son, accompanied him on an expedition to <u>Gh</u>azn&#299 in 1639 and was assigned to an army unit stationed there at the end of the operation. He summoned his family from India to join him in <u>Gh</u>azn&#299 where his son Nand L&#257l spent his childhood and early youth.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His father dying in 1652, Nand L&#257l was left to struggle in life for himself. Some minor post was offered to him in <u>Gh</u>azn&#299, but he decided to return to India. Mult&#257n was the ancestral family seat and it was here that Nand L&#257l settled amid a number of Hindu families like his own that had seen service under the Mu<u>gh</u>als. That quarter of the town had come to be known as &#256<u>gh</u>&#257 Mohall&#257, in association with the resident Hindu officials who were known as &#256<u>gh</u>&#257s, an honorific employed for Hindus who had acquired the trappings of Muslim culture.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Mult&#257n the S&#363bad&#257r, Wasaf <u>Kh</u>&#257n, who had known his father well, offered the talented youth the post of <i>munsh&#299</i> or secretary. By dint of his ability and hard work, Nand L&#257l soon rose to be the principal secretary (M&#299r Munsh&#299). He was also posted to administrative appointments and is stated to have become deputy governor of the province. Nand L&#257l continued in the service of the Mu<u>gh</u>al State, securing eventually an appointment on the personal staff of Prince Mu'azzam, Aura&#7749gz&#299b's eldest son. When he relinquished service cannot be determined exactly. The surmise that he was dismissed by Aura&#7749gz&#299b owing to his father Chhajj&#363 Mall having been a favourite of D&#257r&#257 is falsified by the fact that he continued long in service under Prince Mu'azzam. The story that he stood in fear of being forcibly converted to Islam also does not seem credible, for a number of non-Muslims continued to serve under Aura&#7749gz&#299b and forcible conversion did not affect the court or the official class. Aura&#7749gz&#299b in any case left Delhi in 1680 to campaign in the Deccan, never to return to the capital. The most likely reason why Nand L&#257l left Delhi and came to the shelter of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh was to seek peace during his advancing years. With his mystical cast of thought he was naturally led to Anandpur where Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh was inculcating faith in One Supreme God, called by him Ak&#257l-Purakh, and arousing the downtrodden Hindus to seek a life of self-respect and dignity. As a protector of <i>dharma</i>, Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh was known far and wide, being the son of Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur, who had become a martyr to freedom of conscience when Aura&#7749gz&#299b's persecution of non-Muslims was at its height.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; According to <i>Gur&#363 K&#299&#257&#7749 S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i>, Nand L&#257l arrived in Anandpur on the Bais&#257kh&#299 day of 1739 BK/29 March 1682 and received Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's blessing. He spent his days with the Gur&#363 in mystical contemplation and composing poetry in which his spiritual experience is the pre-eminent element. He is said to have kept a good <i>la&#7749gar</i> or free kitchen at Anandpur which was commended by the Gur&#363 as a model for others to follow. His poetry in Persian, of this period, has passed into the Sikh religious tradition and is held in great reverence. Besides Nand L&#257l, a number of other poets kept Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh company. These others wrote mostly in Braj&#299 Hind&#299, which was acquiring the status of a classical medium. Nand L&#257l appears to have been Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's sole Persian poet.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nand L&#257l's name as the favourite disciple of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh has passed into the Sikh tradition and his devotion is commended as an ideal to be followed. A <i>Rahitn&#257m&#257</i> or code of Sikh conduct is ascribed to him, besides another called <i>Tan<u>kh</u>&#257hn&#257m&#257</i>, or a manual of penalties for infringement of the religious discipline. Doubt has been expressed as to whether these two are of Nand L&#257l's composition. Both are in the usual Braj idiom current in Sikh religious literature. In each Nand L&#257l is represented as being the seeker eliciting information from the Gur&#363 as to the right doctrine and the right conduct for a Sikh. The <i>Rahitn&#257m&#257</i>, as the text shows, was composed in Samvat 1752 Bk corresponding to 1695 of the Christian era, while the <i>Tan<u>kh</u>&#257hn&#257m&#257</i> was composed after the formation of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth. Therein occur some of the famous affirmations attributed to Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh, as to one Sikh hero combating one and a quarter lakhs and the hope that the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 shall one day hold sway. Not much in detail is known about Bh&#257&#299 Nand L&#257l's life with the Gur&#363 at Anand pur. After the Gur&#363 evacuated Anand pur in the winter of 1705, Bh&#257&#299 Nand L&#257l went to his original home at Mult&#257n where he occupied himself with preaching the Gur&#363's word and teaching Arabic and Persian. For the latter purpose he opened a regular school which was in existence until the occupation of the Punjab by the British in 1849. Among his writings may be mentioned <i>Zindag&#299 N&#257m&#257h, Gañj N&#257mah, Joti Big&#257s, Rahitn&#257m&#257, Tan<u>kh</u>&#257hn&#257m&#257, Dast&#363rul-Insh&#257, Arz ul-Alf&#257z, Diwan-i-Goy&#257</i> and the <i>Rub&#257&#299y&#257t</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nand L&#257l died in Mult&#257n in AD 1713.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh, ed., Bh&#257&#299 Nand L&#257l <i>Granth&#257val&#299</i>, Malacca (Malaya), 1968<BR> <li class="C1"> Santokh Si&#7749gh, Bh&#257&#299, <i>Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i>. Amritsar, 1927-35<BR> <li class="C1"> Padam, Pi&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh J&#299 de Darb&#257r&#299 Ratan</i>. Patiala, 1976<BR> <li class="C1"> Macauliffe, Max Arthur, <i>The Sikh Religion</i>. Oxford, 1909<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>Guru Gobind Singh</i>. Chandigarh. 1966<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurbachan Si&#7749gh T&#257lib<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>