Court barber and devotee; one hymn in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
Bhagat Sain
A barber by trade who became known across northern India as a devotee. His one hymn in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in Raag Dhanasari at ang 695, says that singing God's praise is the true form of worship. All accounts agree about his trade, but they differ on where he worked and who taught him.
Life, as tradition tells it
The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that every account makes him a barber. Macauliffe places him at the court of Raja Ram of Rewa, then called Bandhavgarh, and describes the many duties of a court barber of that time, from simple surgery to arranging marriages and singing. He says that Bhagat Sain's real happiness lay in serving holy men.
Bhai Gurdas, as cited in the Encyclopaedia, counts him as a disciple of Ramanand, drawn there by the fame of Bhagat Kabir. Macauliffe reasons from this link that he lived around the end of the fourteenth and the start of the fifteenth century. No source gives dates for his birth or passing.[EoS][Macauliffe]
In Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
BaniDB gives his hymn in Raag Dhanasari at ang 695, beside hymns of Bhagat Trilochan, Bhagat Pipa and Bhagat Dhanna. It takes the form of an arati, the temple rite of waving lamps and incense. As the Encyclopaedia reads it, praise and meditation on the Name are the highest worship and carry a person to liberation.
He is also named by others in the scripture. A hymn of Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji at ang 487 says that the barber's name was heard in every house and that he was counted among the devotees. Bhagat Ravidas lists him with those who crossed over, at ang 1106.[DB][EoS]
What the sources disagree on
- Where he served
Some accounts place him at the court of Rewa, and others at the court of Bidar in South India.[EoS][Macauliffe]
- His teacher
Bhai Gurdas names Ramanand. Those who follow the South Indian tradition name Jnanadeva. The Encyclopaedia's entry on Ramanand treats the wider list of his low-status disciples, including Bhagat Sain, as chronologically impossible.[EoS][EoS]