Gilded panel made by the craftsmen of Kucha Fakirkhana depicting bhagat Dhanna the Jat and his life-story (sakhi) from Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai, Amritsar, ca.1904
Bhagat Dhanna, also known Dhanna Jat, Dhanna Jatt, Dhanna Bairagi or Sant Dhanna (born 1415[1]), was a mystic poet and a Vaishnav devotee whose three hymns are present in Guru Granth Sahib.[2][3]
There are a number of mystical stories about the divine powers of Dhanna Bhagat. One such states that once he was ploughing his fields, a large number of Sannyasins (Hindu religious mendicants) came to him hungry and sought food. Dhanna Bhagat gave them all the seeds he had kept for sowing his fields, and ploughed the fields without sowing seeds. The fields produced no food grains, but gourds. When his jagirdir (feudal lord) came to collect the levy, Dhanna Bhagat offered two gourds. Surprised and insulted, the Jagirdar broke the gourds in anger, only to find that they were full of pearls. Bhakti-saint Meera refers to this story in her poem, "sun lijo binati mori, main sharan gahi prabhu teri".[5]
Legacy
Early Sikh literature claims Dharam Singh, one of the inaugural Panj Piare quintet, was the reincarnation of Bhagat Dhanna.[6][7]
Indian filmmaker Kidar Nath Sharma made Dhanna Bhagat in 1945 which starred Kamal Zamindar in the title role. In 1974, Bhagat Dhanna Jatt, an Indian Punjabi-language film starring Dara Singh, was released.[8]
Gallery
Detail of Bhagat Dhanna from a fresco, circa mid-19th century.
Fresco depicting figures associated with the compilation of the Guru Granth Sahib and its contents, Dhanna is located on the extreme right-most on the very edge, from Gurdwara Baba Atal, Amritsar
Bhagat Dhanna Jat Temple in Dhuan Kalan Village, Tonk District, Rajasthan
Bhagat Dhanna Jat Gurudwara in Dhuan Kalan Village, Tonk District, Rajasthan
References
^Datta, Amaresh (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo, Volume 1. Sahitya Akademi. p. 79. ISBN9788126018031.
_from_Gurdwara_Baba_Atal_Rai,_Amritsar,_ca.1904.jpg)
