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{{Short description|Punjabi poet}}'''Chandar Bhan Brahman''', name also spelt as '''Chandra Bhan''' and '''Chandrabhan''', was a [[Punjabis|Punjabi]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dhavan |first=Purnima |chapter=Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal Punjab |date=2019 |title=The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca|editor-link=Nile Green |pages=167 |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Nile |chapter-url= |doi-access=free |publisher=University of California Press |language=en |doi=10.1515/9780520972100-009 |isbn=978-0-520-97210-0}}</ref> poet of the [[Persian language]] born in [[Lahore]] of the [[Mughal Empire]].

== Biography ==
His date of birth is unknown; he probably died in the year 1662–63.{{NoteTag|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 {{Cite book |last=Kinra |first=Rajeev |title=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28646-7 |series=South Asia across the disciplines |location=Oakland, California|p= 58}}}} 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).<ref name=":0">{{cite website |first=Anu|last=Kumar |title=The Brahman in the Mughal Court|website=The Wire |location=India |date=15 November 2016 |url=https://thewire.in/books/the-brahman-in-the-mughal-court |format=PDF|ref={{sfnref|Kumar, The Brahman in the Mughal Court|2016}} |access-date=27 September 2021 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite book |first=Jagdish Narain|last=Kulshreshtha |title=A critical study of Chandra Bhan Brahman and his work|publisher=Aligarh Muslim University |location=Aligarh |year=1976 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144508082.pdf |ref={{sfnref|Kulshreshtha, A critical study of Chandra Bhan Brahman|1976}} |access-date=27 September 2021 }}</ref>

As a poet, Chandar Bhan managed to write very complex metaphors in an otherwise very straightforward language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kinra |first=Rajeev |title=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28646-7 |series=South Asia across the disciplines |location=Oakland, California |p=220}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Brahman was influenced by and developed a strong respect for [[dervish]]es 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kinra |first=Rajeev |title=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28646-7 |series=South Asia across the disciplines |location=Oakland, California |p= |pages=170-173}}</ref> Other topics are the daily routine of the emperor, the provinces of India, and philosophical ideas.<ref>His philosophical sketches comprise the fourth "flowerbed". See {{cite book |first= Chandar Bhan |last=Brahman |editor=Yunus Jaffery |date=March 2007 |title=Chahār Chaman |trans-title=The Fourfold Flowerbed |url= |language=Persian |location=New Delhi |publisher=Alhoda / Iranian Centre of Persian Research |isbn=9789644392382 |pp= 181-204}}</ref> 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 [[Sufism|Sufis]]), to poets, letters of recommendation, and letters to his father.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kinra |first=Rajeev |title=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28646-7 |series=South Asia across the disciplines |location=Oakland, California |pages=174-180}}</ref>

== References ==

=== Notes ===
{{reflist|group=note}}{{notelist}}

=== References ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |first= Chandar Bhan |last=Brahman |editor=S.H. Qasemi and Waqarul Hasan Siddiqi |date= 2005 |title=Munshi'at-e Brahman |trans-title=The Letters of Brahman |url= |language=Persian |location=Rampur |publisher=Rampur Raza Library |isbn=8187113804}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/details/AhwaalOAasarEChandrabhanBrahmanVaDivanEParsiFarsi/page/n95/mode/2up Ahwaal o Aasar-e Chandrabhan Brahman va Divan e Parsi (Farsi)] - Life and works of Chandar Bhan Brahman and his collected Persian poetry

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:1660s deaths]]
[[Category:Year of death uncertain]]
[[Category:17th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Lahore]]
[[Category:17th-century Persian-language poets]]
[[Category:17th-century Indian male writers]]

{{India-poet-stub}}

Chandar Bhan Brahman - Revision history

Arshelina at 21:48, 30 April 2026