Book Description

DADU: LIFE AND POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Dadu Dayal (1544-1603) was a Bhakti poet/saint from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. 'Dadu' means brother and 'Dayal' means 'the compassionate one'. He was found by an affluent businessman floating on the river Sabarmati. He later moved to Amer near Jaipur Rajasthan, where he gathered around himself a group of followers, forming a sect that became known as the Dadu-panth. Dadu's compositions were recorded by his disciple Rajjab and are known as the Dadu Anubhav Vani, a compilation of 5,000 couplets, many of them bhajans and dohas. Dadu spent the latter years of his life in Naraiana. Five ashrams are considered sacred by the followers: Naraiana, Bhairanaji, Sambhar, Amer, and Karadala (Kalyanpura). He was born in 1544, and died in 1603. He made his living by sewing skins into bags for raising water from wells, until eventually he was initiated into the religious life by the sadhu Sundardas. Dadu had no book-learning but his natural genius and the vision gained by his devotion made him a lover of beauty and a poet. Here are 85 of his wonderful, powerful bhajans & dohas in the correct rhyming form for the first time. 120 pages. Introduction to Bhakti Poets Series TULSIDAS, KABIR, VRIND, LALLA DED, RAHIM, VYASA, JAYADEVA, DADU (approx. 110-120 pages each... others to follow) Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu, Hindi and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Lalla Ded, Mahsati, Baba Farid, Iqbal, Vrind, Rahim and others, and his own poetry, fiction, biographies, plays, children's books and 12 screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com