Person · nirguna bhakti poet-saint
Dadu Dayal
Also known as Dādū Dayāl, Dādūdayāl, Dadu, Dadu of Naraina
Dadu Dayal (1544–1603), a cotton-carder of the Pinjara caste, became the leading Sant poet of Rajasthan, preaching a 'middle path' that was neither Hindu nor Muslim and rejecting caste, idols, pilgrimage and scripture for remembrance of the divine name. His 5,000 Braj verses, gathered by his disciple Rajjab as the Dadu Anubhav Vani, echo Kabir. The Dadupanth he left at Naraina near Jaipur later turned Vaishnava and Brahmin-led, and even supplied armed ascetics to Jaipur State.
- Date
- 1544–1603
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — Life known mainly from hagiographies by his disciples Jangopal and Raghavdas.
Worth knowing
When he died at Naraina in 1603 his body was left in the wilderness rather than cremated or buried, refusing both the Hindu and the Muslim rite. His name may itself be a softened form of the Muslim names Daud or Allahdad.
His birth at Ahmedabad comes only from his disciple Jangopal, and later hagiography recast his low-caste and possibly Muslim origins as Brahmin. His meeting with Akbar is known only from Dadupanthi sources. His birth year is given as 1544 or 1545.
Connections (5)
- InfluencedKabir
Dadu belonged to the later Sant movement that Kabir had shaped, and Kabir was his strongest influence. At Sambhar, where he moved in 1573, he had a vision of Kabir and began his spiritual career; his songs use much of Kabir's imagery, along with that of the Nath yogis and Sahajiya Buddhists. One Dadupanthi tradition later claimed Dadu was Kabir reborn. The hagiographies also contrast them: Kabir is hostile to kings, Dadu talks to them but refuses their gifts.
- Traditional linkAkbar
Dadupanthi tradition, recorded by his disciple Jangopal, says that in 1585 Dadu met Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri on the recommendation of Raja Bhagavantdas of Amber, and advised the emperor to give up his kingdom because wealth obstructs the spirit. The meeting appears only in Dadupanthi sources. Jarosław Zapart and Monika Horstmann think it may have a historical basis, since Akbar was at Fatehpur Sikri that year and often met holy men privately; others treat it as invention.
- Historical linkAmber Fort
In 1579 Dadu moved with his four children and disciples to Amber, then ruled by the Kachhwaha raja Bhagavantdas, whose residence was near his, and he stayed until 1593. Rajput and Mughal grandees, Raja Birbal and Man Singh I among them, offered him patronage, which the early hagiographies say he refused. Amer remains one of the five thambas, or sacred settlements, of the Dadupanth, alongside Naraina, Bhairana, Sambhar and Kalyanpura.
- Traditional linkGuru Gobind Singh
A Sikh tradition of a gurmata, a binding decision of the Khalsa, centres on Dadu's shrine at Naraina. Camping there on a journey through Rajasthan, Guru Gobind Singh tilted an arrow towards the shrine as a mark of reverence; the Panj Piare then fined him 125 rupees, because reverence for tombs was to be rejected. The story presents it as a test of whether his Sikhs understood the rule, and has the Guru, pleased with them, pay the fine.
- Historical linkSawai Jai Singh II
Dadu rejected the caste order, but the sect he left was remade under the Kachhwaha court. Under Sawai Jai Singh II heterodox bhakti sects were pressed to adopt the identity of one of the four orthodox Vaishnava sampradayas or lose their leadership, and Jai Singh ruled that the Dadupanth's head must be a celibate Brahmin, a rule kept until the early 21st century. The sect's leader Jaitram reorganised it at Naraina to keep state patronage.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Dadu Dayal" and "Dadupanth". Winand M. Callewaert, "Dadu and the Dadu-Panth: The Sources", in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds), The Sants (1987); David N. Lorenzen, Bhakti Religion in North India (1995).
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