Chandar Bhan Brahman

Chandar Bhan Brahman also known as Chandra Bhan and Chandrabhan was a Punjabi^[1] poet of the Persian language born in Lahore of the Mughal Empire. His date of birth is unknown; he probably^[2] died in the year 1662–63 . He belonged to a Brahman family, and chose "Brahman" as his pen name. His father Dharam Das was a government official in the Mughal service. Brahman served as a secretary (Munshi) to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628–1658).

As a poet, Chandar Bhan managed to write very complex metaphors in an otherwise very straightforward language.^[3] Chandar Bhan's pen-name "Brahman" allowed for ingenius wordplay because of the use of "idol" (Persian but, sanam) as a metaphor of the - human or Divine - beloved, and as the lover as "idol worshipper". By his time, the Persian Muslim lover calling himself an idol-worshipper with tongue in cheek (even when he/she meant the love of God) had become a cliché already, but Chandar Bhan added a new twist to it because it was also fact with him.

Brahman was influenced by and developed a strong respect for dervishes and yogis. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was very impressed by Barahman's knowledge of Persian literature, calligraphy and Persian poetry. Brahman was appointed as court secretary and he was given responsibility for maintaining Shah Jahan's personal diary. He wrote a long essay in four chapters, the Chahar Chaman ("The Fourfold Flowerbed"), with chapter three containing his memoirs.^[4] Other topics are the daily routine of the emperor, the provinces of India, and philosophical ideas.^[5] He also edited a selection of his letters, the Munshi'at-i Barahman (Letters of Brahman), which contain letters to the royal family, to nobles (and some Sufis), to poets, letters of recommendation, and letters to his father.^[6]

Notes

1. Dhavan, Purnima (2019). "Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal Punjab". In Green, Nile (ed.). The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca. University of California Press. p. 167. doi:10.1515/9780520972100-009. ISBN 978-0-520-97210-0.
2. This is the commonly assumed date. However, Rajeev Kinra cites a document in which Chandar Bhan was honoured at Shah Jahan's burial. This means he must have been alive in 1666. See Rajeev Kinra: Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, p. 58.
3. Rajeev Kinra: Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, p. 220.
4. Rajeev Kinra: Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, p. 170-173.
5. Brahman, Chandar Bhan (March 2007). Yunus Jaffery (ed.). Chahār Chaman [The Fourfold Flowerbed] (in Persian). New Delhi: Alhoda / Iranian Centre of Persian Research. P. 181-204. His philosophical sketches comprise the fourth "flowerbed".
6. Rajeev Kinra: Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, p. 174—180.

Bibliography

• Brahman, Chandar Bhan (2005), S.H. Qasemi and Waqarul Hasan Siddiqi (ed.), Munshi'at-e Brahman [The Letters of Brahman] (in Persian), Rampur: Rampur Raza Library, ISBN 8187113804
• Brahman, Chandar Bhan (March 2007), Yunus Jaffery (ed.), Chahār Chaman [The Fourfold Flowerbed] (in Persian), New Delhi: Alhoda / Iranian Centre of Persian Research, ISBN 9789644392382
• Kinra, Rajeev (2015), Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, California: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520286467, retrieved 27 September 2021
• Kulshreshtha, Jagdish Narain (1976), A critical study of Chandra Bhan Brahman and his work (PDF), Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University, retrieved 27 September 2021
• Kumar, Anu (15 November 2016), "The Brahman in the Mughal Court" (PDF), The Wire, India, retrieved 27 September 2021

External links

• Ahwaal o Aasar-e Chandrabhan Brahman va Divan e Parsi (Farsi) - Life and works of Chandar Bhan Brahman and his collected Persian poetry