Bibi Bhani and the service at Goindwal
The marriage to Bibi Bhani
Mata Mansa Devi sees the young hawker and tells the family to find a husband like him.
Macauliffe tells how Mata Mansa Devi saw Bibi Bhani playing one day and said that it was time to find her a husband. An agent was about to set out on the search when she noticed a boy selling things outside her door and said that they should look for a youth like him.
Sri Guru Amar Das Ji told the agent to wait and studied the boy. There was no need for a search, he said, since the boy had no equal. After questioning him on what a father-in-law wants to know, he sent gifts to the boy's family at Lahore and arranged the betrothal.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
The Bhani entry has him at work on the Baoli in 1554, but the Goindwal entry dates the start of the digging to 1559. These two dates from the same reference work do not fit together, and the sources read here do not resolve them.
- ScholarshipGives the wedding date and says the parents saw his character and steady service.[EoS]
- ScholarshipConfirms the date and describes him as a Sodhi from Lahore who was then serving at the Baoli.[EoS]
- Later traditionNarrates the choice of the boy at the door and the betrothal.[Macauliffe]
