Bards/Bhatts in Adi Granth: Bhatt Bhalh

Only one Swaiya of Bhatt Bhalh is available comprising of 4 lines, written in praise of Guru Amardas the 3rd Guru. Surprisingly enough, this small poem is impregnated with symbolic imagery, refined poetic vocabulary, beautiful syntex, and impressive expression. He says

Innumerable rain drops pour from the clouds
Myriad are the colourful flowers
That bloom in Basant (spring)
Countless beams the sun originates,
Countless rays the moon releases.
Unfathomable is the depth of the sea,
Innumerable waves dance their way to the ocean.
Like Shiva’s meditation, deep and unbounded,
Infinite is your knowledge, True Guru Amardas!
I can not comprehend the span of your virtues
Says Bhalh the poet,
You yourself are the master of your mystery.

Specimen of Bhalh’s poetry

Myriads are the rain drops, vast is the vegetation on earth, Numberless are the colours and flowers of spring,

Who can count the endless dance of the waves of the Ganges, Who can catch the echo of the song they sing?

Countless beams of moon and sun are unable to reach The depth of the fathomless king. (sea)

SHIVA’s power of concentration, may assess this countless treasure of the mystic sea,

But thy praises, O, Guru Amardas, are beyond imagination and behove only thee. (1-22)

Adi Granth, p. 1396