CHANDRA SAIN SAINAPATI,

CHANDRA SAIN SAINAPATI, commonly referred to as Sainapati and counted among the “fifty-two poets” of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), was the son of Bal Chand, an educated Man Jatt of Lahore. His original name was Chandra Sain, Sainapati being the pseudonym he had taken. Chandra Sain, taught by one Devi Das, joined the group of Guru Gobind Singh`s poets, and rendered into Hindi verse Chanakya Niti, the well known Sanskrit treatise on statecraft and diplomacy. His Sri Gur Sobha, a versified life sketch of Guru Gobind Singh describing his major battles, the creation of the Khalsa, and events following the evacuation of Anandpur, is a work of much historical value.

It was completed in 1711. The poet also lived for some time at Wazirabad, in the present Gujranwala district of Pakistan, where he translated into Bhakha verse a Sanskrit work on medicine, Ram Binod, earlier translated by a Hindi poet, Ram Chandra, in 1663 in mixed prose and verse. Sainapati entitled his translation, made at the instance of his friend, Jagat Rai, a Brahman vaid or physician of Wazirabad, Sukh Sam Granth. Besides these three works, a fragment containing two karakhas, a prosodic form, describing the battles of Bhangani and Fatehgarh Fort (Anandpur), respectively, also survives.

References :

1. Ganda Singh, ed., Sri Gur Sobha. Patiala, 1980
2. Santokh Singh, Bhai, Sri Gur Pratap Sura/` Granth. Amritsar, 1926-37
3. Gian Singh, Giani, Twarikh Guru Khalsa. Patiala, 1970
4. Padam, Piara Singh, Darbari Ratan. Patiala, 1976