Bhai Gurdas

Bhai Gurdas was a leading figure of early Sikhism, and the Sikh who wrote out the first copy of the Guru Granth Sahib under Guru Arjan Dev Ji's supervision. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born in 1551 in a Bhalla Khatri family at Goindwal, the only child of Ishar Das, a cousin of Guru Amar Das Ji, and Jivani. He lost his mother when he was barely three and his father when he was twelve, and he never married.

Key moments

• 1577: he gave the labour of his hands to the excavation of the sacred pool at Amritsar.
• He studied Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures at Varanasi, and Guru Ram Das Ji initiated him into Sikhism in 1579. He travelled through Agra, Lucknow, Varanasi, Burhanpur, Rajasthan, Jammu and the Chamba hills, preaching Guru Nanak's word.
• After Guru Ram Das Ji left the world in 1581 he returned to Punjab and made Amritsar his home.
• 1604: Guru Arjan Dev Ji chose him as his principal helper in compiling the Adi Granth. The entire text was inscribed by Bhai Gurdas. The copy written in his hand is still kept in the family of the Gurus' descendants at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district.
• Tradition says he recited the Gurus' hymns to Emperor Akbar when the Emperor visited Kartarpur in 1596 to 1597, and that the Emperor was deeply impressed.
• Under Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji he and Baba Buddha were entrusted with building Sri Akal Takht Sahib in front of the Harimandar, and he was given charge of the premises. He led a batch of Sikhs to Gwalior, where the Guru was detained, and taught the young Tegh Bahadur the ancient classics while Baba Buddha trained him in archery and horsemanship.
• 25 August 1636: he dies at Goindwal.

His writings. He composed Vaaran in Punjabi and Kabit Savaiye in Braj. The Encyclopaedia says this poetry forms part of the accepted Sikh canon and is sung along with gurbani at congregations, and that Guru Arjan Dev Ji put his seal of approval on it by calling it the key to the scripture. Wikipedia's article on the Vaaran says there are 40, traditionally attributed to him, and cites the Gurbilas Patshahi Chhevin (1718) for Guru Arjan Dev Ji ordering him to compose forty Vaaran. It adds that in the twentieth century many Sikh thinkers described them as the kunji, the key, to the scripture.

What he is remembered for: the Encyclopaedia calls him the bulwark of Sikhism for many years, an expounder and exemplar of the Sikh way of life with wide learning in ancient texts and philosophy. He is the hand that wrote the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604, and a poet whose verse explains the Gurus' teaching in plain, vivid language.