KHUSHAL CHAND, RAJA

KHUSHAL CHAND, RAJA, or Khushal Rai (d. 1752), an official under the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-48) and a writer and poet of some merit, described himself as a NanakpanthI, i.e. a follower of Guru Nanak, his father Jivan Ram, and grandfather, Anand Ram Kayastha, had also served in the Mughal court. Khushal Chand`s Tankhi Muhammaashahi, 1748, in Persian prose, gives an account of the successors of Aurarigzib from Bahadur Shah I to the death of RafT udDaula ShahJahari II. It contains a detailed account of the massacre at Delhi of Banda Singh Bahadur and of the Sikhs captured with him, including the story of a young boy who chose to die along with his brothers in faith declaring himself to be a Sikh although his mother had obtained a royal decree for his release on the pica that he was not.

Resides, Khushal Chand composed many songs and hymns in Hindi, Punjabi and Rekhta, a manuscript of which is preserved in the Central Public Library, Patiala (MS. 568). In his compositions, 5ic lias used sixty odd different metres specifying the raga or musical measure and even the rhythm in each case, which fact testifies to his knowledge of music as well as of prosody. He was a devotee of the Gurus and there are references in his verse to their teachings and to the events of their lives. The word Khalsa occurs at several places in his poetry, in its prevalent Sikh usage as a collective name for the Sikh commonwealth P.S.P.

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