SUKHDEV

SUKHDEV, a Kanyakubja Brahman from Uttar Pradesh, was one of the scholars and poets attached to Guru Gobind Singh. According to his own evidence, he was born at Kapilnagar and educated at Varanasi. He had been at the courts of several chieftains and officials, Hindu and Muslim, before joining Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta in 1687. He presented his Chhand Vichar Pingal, a treatise on prosody, to the Guru who rewarded him handsomely for it.

He completed Adhyatam Prakash, a work on Vedanta philosophy, much read and revered by Nirmala scholars to this day, on Assu sudi 11, 1755 Bk/6 September 1698 according to its colophon..A manuscript of Adhyatam Prakash is preserved in the Central Public Library at Patiala, and that of Chhand Vichar Pingal in the Khalsa College Library at Amritsar. Sukhdev`s three other extant works are panegyrics on three of his former patrons.

References :

1. Bhalla, Sarup Das, Mahima Prakash. Patiala, 1971
2. SukhaSingh, Gurbilas Dasvin Patshahi. Lahore, 1912
3. Padam, Piara Singh, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji de Durban Ratan. Patiala, 1976
4. Vidiarthi, Devinder Singh, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Abhinandan. Amritsar, 1983