Bhai Ghanaiya

The water at Anandpur

Bhai Ghanaiya, also written Kanhaiya, was born in 1648 at Sodhra, near Wazirabad, and died in 1718, by the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism’s dates.¹ He was among the Sikhs of Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur when the town was besieged for months by Mughal and hill armies and supplies ran short, the siege that ended in the evacuation of Anandpur. The Encyclopaedia dates the siege to May to December 1705; J. S. Grewal and Harpreet Singh place it in 1704.^4,6,7

What tradition remembers. Sikh tradition remembers Bhai Ghanaiya carrying water to the wounded there, friend or foe. Some Sikhs complained to the Guru that he was reviving the fallen enemy soldiers, and he was brought before the Guru.^1,5 He did not deny it. His answer is given in different words: in the Encyclopaedia, that he had seen no Mughals or Sikhs on the field, only the Guru’s face in everyone; in Jaswinder Kaur Mahal’s account, that he gave water only to the Guru and saw no one else.^1,5 The Guru blessed him and told the Sikhs that he had understood the teaching.¹ Mahal and Harpreet Singh add that the Guru gave him a box of ointment for the wounds, and Harpreet Singh that no one was to stop his water service; the Encyclopaedia entry does not mention the ointment.^1,5,6

What the record shows, and what it does not. No document of 1704 or 1705 recording the water episode was found in the research behind this entry; that search was bounded and is not proof that none exists. The story comes down through Sevapanthi writing. The first life of him, Bhai Sahaj Ram’s Parchi Bhai Kanhaiya, was written between 1728 and 1740; it was not seen, so whether it contains this episode is not confirmed here.^1,2 The Encyclopaedia tells the episode as biography, and its bibliography is Sevapanthi literature.¹

The Sevapanthis

Bhai Ghanaiya is counted the founder of the Sevapanthis; seva is usually translated as service. Bhai Seva Ram led the order after him, and Bhai Addan Shah, third in succession, laid down its code of conduct, which is why it is also called Addanshahi.^1,3 Mahal says the name Sevapanthi itself comes from Bhai Seva Ram.⁵ Many schools and colleges are run under the order today; Sant Nischal Singh, its head from 1950, founded several in Yamunanagar, especially for women.^5,8

A link not made here. Some popular accounts call his band of water-carriers the first “Red Cross”. No source read for this entry makes that link, and the Red Cross’s own history begins with Henry Dunant at Solferino in 1859 and the committee founded in 1863.⁹