Bhai Bala
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}{{Short description|Companion of Nanak (1466–1544)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| religion = Hinduism (birth)
Sikhism (convert)
| name = Bhai Bala
| birthname = Bala Sandhu
| image = Bala_with_Nanak.jpg
| birth_date = 1466
| death_date = 1544
| birth_place = Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi, Punjab
| father = Chandar Bhan Sandhu
| death_place = Khadur Sahib
| cremation_place = Precincts of the modern Gurdwara Tapiana Sahib
| native_name = ਭਾਈ ਬਾਲਾ
| native_name_lang = pa
| native name lang = pa
| caption = Bhai Bala seated to the right of Nanak
}}
File:Cremation of Bhai Bala.jpg
File:Sikh Gurus with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana.jpg style painting from the late 19th century depicting the ten Sikh Gurus with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana.]]
Bhai Bala ({{langx|pa|ਭਾਈ ਬਾਲਾ|translit=Bhāī Bālā}}; 1466–1544) was a companion of Guru Nanak. Born in Talwandi into a Sandhu Jat family, Bala was also a close associate of Bhai Mardana.
Biography
According to the {{Transliteration|pa|Bhai Bala janamsakhis}}, he traveled with Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana on all of their great journeys around the world including China, Mecca, and around India. He supposedly died in Khadur Sahib, in his late 70s, in 1544.McLeod, W.H., Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1968.Max Arthur Macauliffe, 1909
Historicity
There has been considerable discussion as regards to Bhai Bala's existence, particularly within the Sikh academic field. Bhai Gurdas, 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's Bhagat Ratanwali, which contains essentially the same list as that by Bhai Gurdas, but with more detail, also does not mention Bhai Bala.{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Bhupender |title=Baba Nanak Shah Fakir |date=23 December 2022 |publisher=Blue Rose Publishers |isbn=9789357046602 |edition=1st |pages=23 |quote=4. Bhagat/Gyan Ratnavali by Mani Singh: This work was written around the eighteenth century (between AD 1675 and 1708) by Bhai Mani Singh, a devotee of Guru Gobind and is only an exposition of Bhai Gurdas's first canto. It does not pretend to add to the information on Guru Nanak. Historic value of Bhagat Ratnavali is immense because it is based on the first Var of Bhai Gurdas and contains no imaginary events. Also, it records all episodes in chronological order and avoids errors of other janamsakhis. Bhagat Ratnavali is significant, in the sense that in the list of Guru Nanak's companions and disciples, contained in this book there is no mention of Bala Sandhu.}} There are a number of other anomalies, which Dr. Kirpal Singh has explicated in his Punjabi work {{Transliteration|pa|janamsakhi}} tradition.Singh, Dr Kirpal, Janamsakhi Tradition (An Analytical Study). Singh Brothers, 2004.(page 10){{Cite web |url=http://sikhnerd.com/downloads/sikh/janamsakhi_tradition_dr_kirpal_singh.pdf |title=Janamsakhi Tradition – An Analytical Study |author=Dr. Kirpal Singh |accessdate=8 September 2012 |archive-date=1 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301121457/http://sikhnerd.com/downloads/sikh/janamsakhi_tradition_dr_kirpal_singh.pdf |url-status=dead }}
Trilochan Singh counters some of the points raised by stating that Mehma Parkash and Mani Singh {{Transliteration|pa|janamsakhi}} both mention Bhai Bala. Bala is further mentioned in Suchak Prasang Guru Ka by Bhai Behlo written during Guru Arjan Dev’s time. Bhai Behlo says, “Bala discarded his body there, At the holy city of Khadaur, Angad, the master, performed the rites, Graciously with his own two hands.” He also raises the point that Bhai Bala’s family is still living in Nankana Sahib{{Cite book |last=McLeod |first=W. H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5100963 |title=Early Sikh tradition : a study of the janam-sākhīs |date=1980 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-826532-8 |location=Oxford |page=15 |oclc=5100963}}[http://allaboutsikhs.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17 A Gateway to Sikhism | Early Gursikhs: Bhai Bala Ji - A Gateway to Sikhism] and that Bala’s samadhi exists in Khadaur.{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Dr. Trilochan |url=http://ignca.nic.in/Asi_data/48740.pdf |title=Guru Nanak: Founder of Sikhism: A Biography |pages=492–494}} According to H.S. Singha, some scholars argue that Bhai Bala was a genuine person, however his {{Transliteration|pa|janamsakhi}} hagiographies had been corrupted by heretical sects such as the Minas, Handaliyas, and others.{{Cite book |last=Singha |first=H.S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqIbJz7vMn0C&dq=bhai+bala+mother&pg=PA28 |title=The Encyclopedia of Sikhism |year=2000 |page=28 |publisher=Hemkunt Press |isbn=9788170103011 |access-date=19 Aug 2022}} The earliest extant Bala version rendition of the {{Transliteration|pa|janamsakhis}} itself claims to date to 1525 but this has been rejected by New Zealand historian W.H. McLeod.{{Cite book |last=McLeod |first=W. H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5100963 |title=Early Sikh tradition : a study of the janam-sākhīs |date=1980 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-826532-8 |location=Oxford |page=16 |oclc=5100963}}
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080327142650/http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/gurus/bhaibala.html Sikh history] (archived)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bala, Bhai}}
Category:16th-century Indian people