Nand Ram

Nandram, one of the poets who kept Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) company, was the son of a well-known Sufi poet, Vali Ram. He had been in the service of Dara Shukoh, who, having lost the struggle for succession to his father's throne, was executed by his brother, Emperor Aurangzeb, in 1659. When he came under the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh is not known.

Two of his poems, Nand Pachisi and Karkha Guru Gobind Singh Ka, both in Gurmukhi script, have survived. The former describing Kaliyuga, the ontemporary Age of Darkness, was written in 1687 and the latter an ode on the life of Guru Gobind Singh, sometime after the battle of Chamkaur (1705).

References

1. Padam, Piara Singh, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji de Darbari Ratan, Patiala, 1976.

2. Sekhon, S.S. and K.S. Duggal, A History of Punjabi Literature, Delhi, 1992.