Junagadh
Narsinh Mehta, also Narsi Mehta, roughly 1414 to 1481, is the Adi Kavi, the first poet, of Gujarati, and the author of the single most widely known devotional song in India.
Where: born at Talaja, in Bhavnagar district, and lived at Junagadh, in Saurashtra, Gujarat, under the Girnar hills.
His caste: Nagar brahmana, which in Gujarat was a high status literate community, and which matters entirely for what happened later.
His childhood
- Both parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother
- He did not speak until he was around eight. The tradition says a passing sadhu made him repeat two words, and the words were Radha Krishna
- He married Manekbai, and they had a daughter, Kunwarbai, and a son, Shamaldas
The household
He lived in his elder brother Bansidhar's house, as a dependent, with his wife and children.
And his brother's wife despised him.
The accounts are specific about it: she taunted him continuously for being idle, useless, contributing nothing, eating what others earned, and spending his time singing.
And she was not wrong about the facts. He did not work, he had no income, and he sang.
The taunt that ended it: on one occasion she said something he could not stay for.
He walked out.
The forest
He went to a ruined Shiva temple in the forest outside the town and stayed there without food.
Seven days, in the accounts.
What happened: the tradition says Shiva appeared, and asked him what he wanted, and he said he did not know, and was told to ask for what Shiva himself valued most.
And Shiva took him to Vrindavan, and showed him the rasa lila.
The torch
The detail everybody remembers.
He was given a torch to hold, so that the dancing could be seen.
And he became so absorbed watching that the torch burned down into his hand, and went on burning, and he did not notice.
Krishna noticed, and stopped it, and asked what he wanted.
And he asked to be allowed to go on seeing it.
What he did afterwards
He went back to Junagadh and began to sing, and did not stop for the rest of his life, and did not take up any occupation.
And he went to sing in the neighbourhoods the Nagars would not enter.
The Excommunication
What he did
He went and sang in the settlements of the communities his own caste treated as untouchable.
And he ate with them.
A note on terminology: he and later Gandhi used the word Harijan for these communities. That term is now deprecated in India, is regarded as patronising by the communities themselves, and is not used here. The constitutional term is Scheduled Castes, and Dalit is the term most widely used by the communities.
What it meant for a Nagar brahmana to do this
Everything, socially.
The Nagars were a high status, literate, prosperous community with a strict sense of their own boundaries. A Nagar who ate with untouchables and sang in their neighbourhoods had:
- Lost his own ritual status
- Made his family unmarriageable
- Made his children unmarriageable, which is the part that mattered
- Placed himself outside the community's protection entirely
And that is what happened. The Nagars of Junagadh excommunicated him, and the accounts describe sustained hostility from his own caste for the rest of his life.
Why he did it
His own answer, in the songs: that the distinctions are not real, that the deity does not observe them, and that the singing had to happen where the people who wanted it were.
And the practical answer: those were the people who came.
The tests
The Nagars did not simply exclude him. They set out to prove him a fraud, and the tradition records several attempts.
The best known: he was challenged to demonstrate that his claims about the deity were true, and the test set was that a garland should be placed on him by the image at the Damodar temple, in public.
The accounts say it happened.
How to hold that: it is a devotional account of a miracle. What is historical is the shape of the situation, and it is depressingly recognisable: a community that had excluded somebody then demanded he prove himself, on terms it set, in public.
The financial episodes
Three of them, and they are the most loved stories in Gujarat.
One. The Mameru.
His daughter Kunwarbai was pregnant, and her husband's family expected the mameru, the gifts a woman's parents send at the simant, the ceremony in the seventh month.
The expectations were substantial and public, and a family that failed to meet them humiliated its daughter in front of her in laws for the rest of her life.
Narsinh had nothing.
What the accounts say happened: he went anyway, singing, and the goods arrived, in quantity beyond what anybody had asked for, brought by a merchant nobody could identify afterwards.
Kunwarbai nu Mameru is one of the most sung stories in Gujarat and has its own genre of songs.
Two. The Hundi.
A party of pilgrims travelling to Dwarka needed money and asked him to write them a hundi, a bill of exchange, which they would cash at the other end.
He wrote one for seven hundred rupees, drawn on a merchant at Dwarka named Shamalsha Sheth.
There was no such merchant.
And at Dwarka the hundi was honoured, by a man of that name who could not afterwards be found.
Three. His son's wedding, funded in the same way.
What these stories are doing
They are all about a man with no money and obligations he cannot meet.
That is the actual situation of most people who have ever sung these songs, and it is why the stories are told: not because of the miracles but because of the position he was in when they happened.
And note what the obligations are. Not personal wants. A daughter's dignity at her in laws' house, a son's wedding, a debt to travellers. Social obligations that a man was expected to meet and could not.
The Prabhatiya, and the Rest
Around 740 padas survive under his name, and they fall into recognisable groups.
The Prabhatiya
His signature form, and the one Gujarat is fondest of.
Prabhat means dawn. A prabhatiya is a song sung at daybreak, and the tradition is that you sing them before the light comes, before the household starts, before anything else.
Their content: not devotional in the ordinary sense. The prabhatiyas are philosophical, and they are about waking up in both senses.
His most famous one begins, in substance:
When I wake and look, I do not see the world. When I sleep, the whole thing is there. It is like the confusion of the rope and the snake, or the bracelet and the gold: without the gold there is no bracelet, and the shape is not a second thing.
That is Advaita, stated in a dawn song, in Gujarati, using a bangle and a rope.
And another, equally quoted, on the nature of the world as appearance and on the uselessness of arguing about it.
Why sing philosophy at dawn: because that is the moment when the world is just coming back, and the transition is the subject.
The other groups
One. Shringar padas.
A very large body on Krishna and the gopis and the rasa lila, in the erotic register, and they are among the most sensuous things in Gujarati.
This is the same phenomenon as Jayadeva, Vidyapati, Chandidas, Annamacharya and Kshetrayya elsewhere in this series, and it is the direct consequence of what he was shown in the forest.
Two. Vairagya padas.
On detachment, impermanence, and the uselessness of what people spend their lives on.
Three. The autobiographical narratives.
And these are unusual, because he wrote them about himself:
- Kunwarbai nu Mameru, on the gifts for his daughter
- Hundi, on the bill of exchange
- Hamaro and Putra Vivah, on his son's wedding
- Jhari, Shraddha and others
A poet writing narrative poems about his own financial humiliations, and about being rescued from them, is not a common thing, and it is why Gujarat knows his biography as well as it does.
Four. Sudama Charit, on Krishna's poor friend, which is a natural subject for him.
His losses
His wife Manekbai died. His son Shamaldas died.
And what he is recorded as having said is one of the hardest lines in Gujarati:
Bhalu thayu, bhangi janjal. Sukhe bhajishu Shri Gopal.
It is well. The entanglement is broken. Now I shall worship Gopal in peace.
How to hold that. It has been quoted approvingly for five hundred years and it is worth being careful with.
What it is: a man in extremity saying the only thing he could say, and it is entirely characteristic of him.
What it is not: a model for how to receive a bereavement, and this app will not present it as one.
Grief is not a failure of detachment. If you have lost somebody, the correct response is to grieve, to be looked after, and to accept help. Bereavement support exists, Tele MANAS 14416 in India is free and 24 hours, and there is no spiritual requirement to feel better about it than you do.
And it is worth noticing that Narsinh Mehta had already lost both parents as a child, had been thrown out of his brother's house, and had been excommunicated by his caste, and that a man in that position saying it is well when the last of his family goes is not obviously describing a state of peace.
His end: at Mangrol, in Junagadh district, around 1481.
What to Take From Him
One. Vaishnav Jan To, as a checklist.
It defines a religious person without mentioning caste, ritual, temple, scripture, belief or renunciation. What it lists is conduct, and almost all of it is conduct toward other people.
Feel the pain of others. Help without taking credit. Speak ill of nobody. Do not lie. Do not want what belongs to somebody else. Regard every woman as your mother.
None of that requires any religious commitment to check, which is why the song travelled as far as it did, and it is worth running down the list occasionally.
Two. He was thrown out for eating with people.
A Nagar brahmana who sang in Dalit neighbourhoods and ate there lost his ritual status, his community's protection, and, crucially, his children's marriage prospects.
He did it anyway, and his own caste spent the rest of his life trying to prove him a fraud.
And the standing note: caste discrimination is illegal in India under Article 17, the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. National SC Commission helpline 1800-180-0203, and complaints may be filed at any police station.
Three. The money stories are about obligations, not wants.
The mameru, the hundi and the wedding are all about a man who could not meet social obligations that fell on him: his daughter's standing in her husband's house, a debt to travellers, his son's marriage.
That is the position most people who sing these songs have been in, and it is why the stories are loved. The miracle is incidental; the situation is the point.
Four. The prabhatiya.
Songs sung at daybreak, before the household starts, and their content is philosophical rather than devotional: the world appearing and disappearing, the rope and the snake, the bangle and the gold.
As a practice: the first few minutes after waking, before the day starts, before the phone, is a real gap, and the tradition put its hardest material there deliberately.
Five. And the thing not to take.
His line on his wife's and son's deaths, that the entanglement was broken and he could now worship in peace, has been quoted approvingly for five hundred years.
It is not a model. Grief is not a failure of detachment, and a person who has lost somebody is entitled to grieve, to be looked after, and to accept help. Tele MANAS 14416, free, 24 hours.
A daily practice from this entry:
- Radhe Krishna, which are the two words he is said to have first spoken
- Vaishnav Jan To, listened to or sung, with the words in front of you at least once. Recordings exist in every Indian language and many others
- One prabhatiya, at daybreak, before anything else
- And the checklist, run down honestly once a month
A closing thought
A boy who did not speak until he was eight, whose first words were a god's name, grew up in his brother's house being told daily that he was useless and ate what others earned, which was true.
He walked out, sat in a ruined temple for a week without food, and came back saying he had been shown something.
Then he went and sang in the streets his own caste would not walk down, ate with the people there, and was excommunicated, which cost his children their marriages.
And the song he wrote defining what a religious person is does not mention caste, ritual, temple or scripture. It says: one who feels the pain of others, who helps them and does not take credit for it, who speaks ill of nobody, who does not lie, and who does not want what belongs to somebody else.
Four hundred and fifty years later a man in Gujarat made it the song they sang before every prayer meeting of the independence movement, and it is now sung in a hundred countries.
The Short Version
Who: Narsinh Mehta, roughly 1414 to 1481, born at Talaja in Bhavnagar district and resident at Junagadh, Gujarat. The Adi Kavi, the first poet, of Gujarati, and a Nagar brahmana, which is a high status literate community and matters entirely for what happened.
His childhood: orphaned young and raised by his grandmother, he did not speak until around eight, and the tradition says a passing sadhu made him repeat two words, Radha Krishna.
The household: he lived as a dependent in his elder brother Bansidhar's house with his wife Manekbai and two children, and his brother's wife taunted him continuously for being idle, contributing nothing and eating what others earned, which was factually true. He walked out, sat in a ruined Shiva temple in the forest without food for seven days, and the tradition says Shiva took him to Vrindavan and showed him the rasa lila. He was given a torch to hold, became so absorbed watching that it burned down into his hand without his noticing, and when asked what he wanted, asked to go on seeing it.
The excommunication: he went back to Junagadh, sang for the rest of his life, took no occupation, and sang in the settlements of the communities his own caste treated as untouchable, and ate with them. The Nagars excommunicated him, which cost him his ritual status, his community's protection and his children's marriage prospects, and they spent the rest of his life trying to prove him a fraud.
The money stories: the mameru for his daughter Kunwarbai's simant, the hundi for seven hundred rupees drawn on a merchant at Dwarka who did not exist and was honoured anyway, and his son's wedding. All three are about a man who could not meet social obligations that fell on him.
His works: around 740 padas, including the prabhatiya or dawn songs, which are philosophical rather than devotional and use the rope and snake and the bangle and gold; a large body of shringar padas on the rasa lila; vairagya padas; and narrative poems about his own life.
Vaishnav Jan To: his most famous song and Gandhi's favourite bhajan, sung at his prayer meetings for decades and now in dozens of countries. It defines a religious person entirely by conduct and mentions caste, ritual, temple, scripture, belief and renunciation not once.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Narsinh Mehta?+
A fifteenth century Gujarati poet, roughly 1414 to 1481, born at Talaja in Bhavnagar district and resident at Junagadh in Saurashtra. He is the Adi Kavi, the first poet, of Gujarati, and around 740 of his padas survive. He was a Nagar brahmana who was excommunicated by his own caste for singing in the settlements of communities treated as untouchable and eating with them, and he is the author of Vaishnav Jan To, the most widely known devotional song in India.
What does Vaishnav Jan To say?+
It defines a religious person entirely by conduct. Call him a Vaishnava who feels the pain of others, who helps those in trouble and does not let pride enter his mind because of it, who respects everybody and speaks ill of nobody, who keeps speech action and thought steady, who regards all women as his mother, who does not lie, who does not touch what belongs to another, who is untouched by delusion and attachment, who has the name of Rama on the tongue and in whom therefore every place of pilgrimage is contained, who has abandoned greed and deceit, and who has conquered lust and anger. It does not mention caste, ritual, temple, scripture, belief or renunciation even once.
Why was Narsinh Mehta excommunicated?+
Because he sang in the settlements of the communities his own caste treated as untouchable, and ate with them. The Nagars were a high status, literate, prosperous community with a strict sense of their own boundaries, and a Nagar who did this lost his ritual status, his community's protection, and, crucially, his children's marriage prospects. The Nagars of Junagadh excommunicated him and then set out to prove him a fraud, setting public tests, and the accounts describe sustained hostility from his own caste for the rest of his life.
What is a prabhatiya?+
A dawn song, from prabhat meaning daybreak, and Narsinh Mehta's signature form. The tradition is to sing them before the light comes, before the household starts, before anything else. Their content is philosophical rather than devotional in the ordinary sense: they are about waking up in both senses. His most famous one says in substance that when he wakes and looks he does not see the world, and when he sleeps the whole thing is there, and compares it to the confusion of the rope and the snake and of the bangle and the gold, since without the gold there is no bangle and the shape is not a second thing.
What are the Mameru and the Hundi stories?+
Two of the most loved stories in Gujarat, both about a man with no money and obligations he could not meet. In the Mameru, his daughter Kunwarbai was pregnant and her husband's family expected the gifts a woman's parents send at the simant in the seventh month, expectations that were substantial and public and whose failure would humiliate her in front of her in laws for life. Narsinh had nothing, went anyway singing, and the goods arrived in quantity, brought by a merchant nobody could identify afterwards. In the Hundi, pilgrims travelling to Dwarka asked him for a bill of exchange, he wrote one for seven hundred rupees drawn on a merchant named Shamalsha Sheth who did not exist, and at Dwarka it was honoured by a man of that name who could not afterwards be found.
What did Narsinh Mehta say when his wife and son died?+
Bhalu thayu, bhangi janjal, sukhe bhajishu Shri Gopal: it is well, the entanglement is broken, now I shall worship Gopal in peace. It is one of the hardest lines in Gujarati and has been quoted approvingly for five hundred years. It should be handled carefully. It is a man in extremity saying the only thing he could say, and it is not a model for how to receive a bereavement. Grief is not a failure of detachment, and a person who has lost somebody is entitled to grieve, to be looked after and to accept help. Tele MANAS in India is 14416, free and 24 hours.
About the author
Pandit Ravindra Sharma · Vedic Rituals & Bhakti, 22+ years
Pandit Ravindra is the Vandnaa editorial team's resident specialist on aarti, chalisa, and daily devotion. He has performed home and temple pujas across Varanasi and Delhi for over two decades and contributes the bhakti-focused articles on this site.
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