Sikh Gurus with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana

Bhai Bala ( pa, ਭਾਈ ਬਾਲਾ 1466–1544), born in Talwandi Rai Bhoi into a

Sandhu Sandhu or Sindhu is a clan or family name found among the Punjabi Jatts in India and Pakistan. It is Punjab's second largest Jatt clan. The etymology is connected to the word ''Sindhu'', the native name for the Indus river. Notable people with ...

Jat family (now called

Nankana Sahib Nankana Sahib () is a city and capital of Nankana Sahib District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is named after the first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak, who was born in the city and first began preaching here. Nankana Sahib is the mos ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

),McLeod, W.H., Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1968. was a childhood friend and lifelong companion of

Bhai Mardana Bhai Mardana ( pa, ਭਾਈ ਮਰਦਾਨਾ; 6 February 1459 — 1534) was one of the first Sikhs and longtime companion of Guru Nanak Dev, first in the line of gurus noted in Sikhism. Bhai Mardana, a Muslim, accompanied Guru Nanak Dev on h ...

and

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also referred to as ('father Nānak'), was the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated w ...

. According to the Bhai Bala Janam Sakhis, he traveled with Guru Nanak and

on all of their great journeys around the world including

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

, and around

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He supposedly died in Khadur Sahib, in his late 70s, in 1544.Max Arthur Macauliffe, 1909

Historicity

There has been considerable discussion as regards to Bhai Bala's existence, particularly within the Sikh academic field. The reasons for this are:

Bhai Gurdas Bhai Gurdas ( pa, ਭਾਈ ਗੁਰਦਾਸ; 1551 – 25 August 1636) was a Sikh writer, historian and preacher who served as the Jathedar of the Akal Takht from 1606 to his death in 1636. He was the original scribe of the early version o ...

, who has listed all Guru Nanak's prominent disciples (in his 11th Var), does not mention the name of Bhai Bala (this may be an oversight, for he does not mention Rai Bular either). However

Bhai Mani Singh Bhai Mani Singh was an 18th-century Sikh scholar and martyr. He was a childhood companion of Guru Gobind Singh and took the vows of Sikhism when the Guru inaugurated the Khalsa in March 1699. Soon after that, the Guru sent him to Amritsar t ...

's Bhagat Ratanwali, which contains essentially the same list as that by Bhai Gurdas, but with more detail, also does not mention Bhai Bala. There are a number of other anomalies, which Dr. Kirpal Singh has explicated in his Punjabi work 'Janamsakhi Tradition.'Singh, Dr Kirpal, Janamsakhi Tradition (An Analytical Study). Singh Brothers, 2004.(page 10) According to H.S. Singha, some scholars argue that Bhai Bala was a genuine person, however his ''Janamsakhi'' hapiographies had been corrupted by heretical

sects A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

such as the

Minas Minas or MINAS may refer to: People with the given name Minas * Menas of Ethiopia (died 1563) * Saint Menas (Minas, 285–309) * Minias of Florence (Minas, Miniato, died 250) * Minas Alozidis (born 1984), Greek hurdler * Minas Avetisyan (1928� ...

, Handaliyas, and others. The earliest extant ''Bala'' version rendition of the Janamsakhis itself claims to date to 1525 but this has been refuted by W.H. McLeod.

References

External links

Sikh history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bala, Bhai 1466 births 1544 deaths 16th-century Indian people Guru Nanak Dev People whose existence is disputed Sikh saints Converts to Sikhism from Hinduism

Historicity

See also

References

External links