BIOGRAPHY AND WRITINGS OF BHAI SAHIB BHAI NANDLAL JI
English Translation by Professor Ujagar Singh Bawa, Ph.D. (Cornell)
Published by The Washington Sikh Centre/ The Sikh Forum, P.O. Box 7061. 7500 Warfield Road, Caithersburg. MD 20898, USA Much like England’s greatest poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) there is scant biographical information about the poet laureate of the Khalsa Panth, Bhai Nan Lal ‘ Goya’. One therefore marvels at the fact that a development economist of distinction, resident in USA should, in his retirement, have come up with a vastly impressive volume on the medieval poet who wrote almost exclusively in Farsi – the mellifluous language of Persia, the modern Iran.
In a short opening chapter, Prof Ujagar Singh Bawa traces the ancestry of Nand Lal, his birth in Ghazni, Afghanistan, circa 1633. Here it is necessary to mention that Indian merchants had long been exploring the ‘Silk Route’ to and from central Asia and Mainland China for centuries. Kandhar, Kabul and Ghazni had served as outposts, until Guru Nanak (1469-1539) consolidated the Sikh-Hindu Sangat (congregation) in these ancient cities. Ironically, the market town of Chazni, in East Afghanistan, has been notorious in Indian history as one-time capital of Mahmud Ghazni (A.D. 1000) who invaded and looted India nine times!
Not much is known of the younger days of Nand Lal except that his scholarly father vigorously carried forward the Sahajdhari tradition, and felt compelled to serve the Mughal durbar in early 17th Century. The pert-scholar son, however, become known for his erudition and theological profundity. With the advent of Aurangzeb (1618-1707), who ascended the Mughal throne by imprisoning his father Shah Jahan, and decimating his brothers, Nand Lal become apprehensive about his own safety and escaped to the sanctuary of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) at the Fortress town of Anandpur, where he not only re-discovered the kindred spirit of poetry but also the illustrious object of his poetic genius in the young and handsome Guru Gobind Singh already known for the celestial splendour of his durbar.
Since the partition of India in 1947, there has been a grievous set-back in the traditional teaching of the Farsi language and literature, which, as court language had attained a remarkable felicity as well as philological profundity during and after the Mughal period, right upto the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1781—1839). Significantly – if sadly – the book under review uses the Gurmukhi script for the Farsi text of Bhai Nand’s ghazals, thus shutting out the vast Punjabi populace in India and Pakistan (and indeed in Iran) from the ineffable quality of his poetry in classical Farsi.
The sizeable output of Bhai Nand lal ‘Goya’ is easily divided into: Ghazaliyat, Rubayaat and the more spiritual-philosophic Zindagi Naamaa and Jang Naamaa. Zindagi Naama is a long ode to the Divine Grace and a plea for moral re-assertion. Jang Naama, on the other hand, celebrates the poet’s heroic vision of Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh as the messengers of God – inspired expression of the poets adoration. The translator’s proficiency in Farsi language is evident from the outset. He captures the Poet’s devotion and depth, his pathos and felicitous phraseology, to an incredible degree. The themes range from history, folklore and morality, to philosophy, to adoration of the Divine Master.
The format, as well as Romanized version in Gumukhi script, makes it easier for the lay reader to comprehend and enjoy the poetry, with text on the left hand page and translation – in Punjabi and English – on the right-hand page. It is abundantly clear that enormous effort and patience have gone into the production of such a lucid translation of rare quality. Transliteration can, at times, be jarring.
This volume, worth its weight in gold, offers fresh insights into the life and times of Guru Gobind Singh, as the Badshah-Darvesh, the incomparable hero who liberated the spirit of India forever and, while engaged in lifelong struggle, probed the depths of theological philosophy, even as he presided over the Royal court complete with a clutch of poets – including Bhai Nand Lal – who poured forth their-Soul in classical Braj Bhasha, Farsi and Punjabi, to convey the insightful universality of the emergent Sikh value system. Indeed the translation is welcome and long-awaited re-assertion of South Asia’s composite culture.
| Comments () >> |
 |
| Write comment |
| You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet. |
 |
