The Hindī Biography of Dādū Dayāl

Book excerpt: During the past few decades some lengthy studies have been devoted to Dadu and the Dadupanth. When writing a biography of Dadu, authors often give a list of sources without apparently having consulted the works they mention, with the result that most literature on the subject now available is to a great extent merely the result of copying from earlier writers. Often, a mass of details about Dadu is given without a clear distinction being made between early documents and later information arising from tradition. In most cases the composition of an original work was followed by a wave of sectarian historians who indulged in laudatory embellishments to the point of the most fanciful miracle mongering. A critical edition of the Hindi Biography of Dadu, by Jan Gopal was urgently needed because it shows that within one generation after its redaction the original version was greatly expanded and delicate issues in it were `explained`. Both versions are given here, with an English translation and commentary.