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Bhat Vahis (or Bhat Banis) were scrolls or records maintained by Bhats. [1][2] The majority of Bhat Sikhs originates from Kurukshetra and migrated to Kapurthala Punjab were amongst the first followers of Guru Nanak.The majority were from the Gaur Brahmins which eventually mentioned by Bhats in Bhat Vahi Multani Sindhi and same thing mentioned by Giani Gurdit Singh in Bhatt Te Uhnah Di Rachna.[1][3] The Bhats also contributed 123 compositions in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib (pp.1389–1409), known as the "Bhata de Savaiyye". There hereditary occupations consisted of bards, poets, missionaries, astrologists, genealogists, salesmen. [4]
Bardic tradition as a source of Sikh history
[edit]These bards constantly attended upon or visited their patron families reciting panegyrics to them and receiving customary rewards. They also collected information about births, deaths and marriages in the families and recorded it in their scrolls. These scrolls containing information going back to several past centuries formed the valued part of the bards` hereditary possessions. A group of Bhatts was introduced to Guru Arjan, Nanak V, by Bhatt Bhikha who had himself become a Sikh in the time of Guru Amar Das.
According to Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 21, and Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, he had once visited Guru Arjan with the sangat of Sultanpur Lodhi. Some of the Bhatts who came into the Sikh fold composed hymns in honour of the Gurus which were entered in the Guru Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan. These Bhatts and their successors too maintained their vahis in which they recorded information concerning the Gurus, their families and some of the eminent Sikhs. These old vahis are still preserved in the descendant families, now scattered mostly in Haryana state. Their script is bhattakshari, a kind of family code like lande or mahajani. During the late 1950s, a researcher, Giani Garja Singh, obtained Gurmukhi transcripts of some of the entries pertaining to the Guru period, from Guru Hargobind (15951644) to Guru Gobind singh ji. Some of these were published as footnotes to Shahid Bilas Bhai Mani Singh, edited by Giani Garja Singh and published by Punjabi Sahitya Akademi, Ludhiana, in 1961.[citation needed]
Reliability
[edit]According to historians, Bhat Vahis have to be used with caution when retrieving contemporary evidences. There are Vahis that were written by Bhatts who were in attendance of the Gurus, such as Vahis written by Bhatt Narbud Singh who accompanied Guru Gobind Singh to Nanded, and on the other hand, there are also some of the Vahis that were not written as eyewitnesses but instead after the occurrence of an event.[5]
Historian Harbans Singh mentions:
On the whole, these Bhat Vahis are a mine of information of historical and sociological value. [5]
Historian Jeevan Deol while talking about Bhat Vahis says:
The authenticity of some of the bhatt vahi extracts published by Garja Singh is, however, rendered doubtful by the fact that neither the originals nor the extracts made by him seem to be present in any institutional collection in the Punjab.[6]
Dr. Balwant Singh Dhillon mention:
Guru Kian Sakhian is said to be largely based on the Bhatt Vahis which its author has got from his ancestors. Originally, he wrote it in Bhattakhri, a peculiar form of Devanagari without vowel symbols. In 1868 Chhajju Singh, a descendant of the author converted it into Gurmukhi. However, its original in Bhattakhri and its second version in Gurmukhi are no longer extant, which puts a big question mark on the very origin of this document.[7]
See also
[edit]- History of Sikhism
- Writers of the Guru Granth Sahib
- Sikh scriptures
- Sakhi
- Janamsakhis
- Sikh art and culture
References
[edit]- ^ a b Dilagīra, Harajindara Siṅgha (1997). The Sikh Reference Book. Sikh Educational Trust for Sikh University Centre, Denmark. ISBN 978-0-9695964-2-4.
The Bhatts were the bards who used to recite poetry praising the glory of the rulers, the warriors and the holy men. Bhatts, who were associated with the Sikh Panth belonged to Kaushish-Gaur Brahmin family. Most of them belonged to Sultanpur (district Kapurthala). Several families of the Bhatts still live in the villages Bhadson (Ladva), Karsindhu (Safidon), Talaunda (Jind) and several other villages of Haryana. There were several Bhatt devotees of Guru Sahib. Some of them composed their verses in praise of the missionary contribution of Guru Sahib. The following 11 Bhatts are represented in Guru Granth Sahib (pp. 1385-1409): Bhikha, Kalh, Jaalap, Kirat (martyr), Mathura (martyr), Salh, Bhalh, Balh, Haribans, Nalh, Gayand. The Bhatt Baani celebrates the contribution of the first Five Naanaks. The Bhatts present all the Guru Sahib as one light and when one Guru installs his successor, he also merges his light in him (the successor). to quote Bhatt Kalh, "From Guru Nanak Sahib (the light merged into) Guru Angad Sahib and from Guru Angad Sahib to Guru Amar Das Sahib and then Guru Ram Das Sahib and then Guru Arjan Sahib (p. 1407)." This Sikh concept has also been depicted by Shaheed Bhai Kirat Bhatt who says that Guru Angad Sahib was ever a part of Guru Nanak Sahib (p. 1406) and Shaheed Bhai Mathura Bhatt in his first Swayya (p. 1408).
- ^ Singh, Jagraj (2009). "The Bhatts of the Punjab". A complete guide to Sikhism. Chandigarh, India: Unistar Books. pp. 245–46. ISBN 978-81-7142-754-3. OCLC 319683249.
The Bhatts are Brahmins, who sang praises of their patrons (Jajmans) and maintained the registers called Vahees, mentioning accounts of various happenings in different parts of the Punjab including birth and death records of their Jajmans, since ancient times. There are two major subdivisions of Brahmins namely Gaur and Sarsut (Saraswat) Brahmins. The Gaur Brahmins lived on the banks of the river Ganges on the eastern side of the Saraswati River (now Ghagar) in the Ganga-Jamna divide, while the Sarsut Brahmins lived on the western side of the Saraswati river in the Punjab. The Bhatts are a sub-sect of the Sarsut Brahmins. In the pre-modem times they inhabited numerous villages in the Punjab along the banks of Saraswati River in and around Pehowa, in Karnal district. Some of the Bhatts came to Guru's Darbar during the pontificate of Guru Arjan Dev soon after the demise of Guru Ram Dass and their hymns are found recorded in Guru Granth Sahib, under the heading, "Bhattan Dey Sawayye". A Bhatt Vahee related with the events in the ...
- ^ "Panjab Digital Library - Digitization of Bhatt Te Uhnah Di Rachna". www.panjabdigilib.org. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
- ^ www.DiscoverSikhism.com. The Encyclopedia Of Sikhism - Volume I A-D.
- ^ a b The encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Harbans Singh. Patiala: Punjabi University. 1992–1998. p. 353. ISBN 0-8364-2883-8. OCLC 29703420.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Deol, Jeevan (1998). "The Mīṇās and Their Literature". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 118 (2): 172–184. doi:10.2307/605889. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 605889.
- ^ www.DiscoverSikhism.com. Guru Kian Saakhian - Tales Of The Sikh Gurus.
- History of the Sikh gurus: a comprehensive study, Surjit Singh Gandhi
