The journeys: what can be said, with Bhai Mardana and Bhai Bala
Bhai Mardana on the road
The rabab player was Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji's companion, and the Puratan stories make him a figure of affectionate comedy.
The Puratan Janamsakhi, as retold in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, gives Mardana a human appetite. They had not gone far from Sultanpur when he said he had to eat at once. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji pointed to a village of Uppal Khatris, and there Mardana was given a splendid meal and plenty to take away. When he came back loaded with a bundle, Guru Ji rolled on the ground laughing. Mardana saw what he had made of himself, and threw it away.
Another time, in open country, a storm came on, then fire, then rain. Mardana covered his face, lay down and said goodbye to life, complaining that he would have neither shroud nor grave. Guru Ji told him to raise his head and take up the rabab. Mardana tuned it, and Guru Ji sang a verse saying that where fear of God is present no other fear remains.
How do we know?
A close source supports this story, and a second independent source agrees.
The bond is attested; the individual comic stories are tradition.
- Early sourceShows Mardana with Guru Ji as the rabab player at Baghdad. (pauri 35)[Src]
- Early sourceLists him among the followers. (pauri 13)[Src]
- Later traditionRetells Puratan stories about his hunger, an overloaded bundle and a great storm.[EoS]
- ScholarshipNotes that one early source barely mentions him and that the Puratan's fondness for quoting hymns made him prominent, so his association is secure while the details are not. (pp. 171-172)[McLeod]
