Narsinh Mehta

Narsinh Mehta Biography

Narsinh Mehta was a saint-poet from Gujarat who was an exponent of Vaishnava poetry. He is acclaimed as Adi Kavi (First poet) of Gujarati literature. He is the writer of famous bhajan – ‘Vaishnav Jan To’, Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite. He lived during 15^th century (1414 – 1481) in Gujarat and also known by the names, Narsi Mehta and Narsi Bhagat. As a pioneer poet of Gujarati literature, he is known for introducing literary forms to Gujarati literature like "Pada", "Aakhyan ", & " Prabhatiya ".

He was born in the year 1409 in Talaja, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. He lost his parents when he was 5 years old and was brought up by his grandmother. He started speaking only at the age of 8. He married Manekbai in the year 1429 and the couple stayed at his brother’s place in Junagadh. But Narsinh had to face insults and hard words from his sister-in-law. It’s believed that on one such occasion he left home and did meditation for 7 days and Lord Siva appeared before him. Lord took him to Vrindavan and showed raas-leela of Krishna. He resolved to compose around 22,000 kirtans or compositions. After this dream like experience, he returned back and thanked his sister-in-law for insulting him. Later he lived in a sadhu’s life style. He and Manekbai had two children and they lived in poor living conditions.

According to folklore stories, Lord Krishna helped him in many poor financial situations. He lived till 79 and died at Mangrol. He is a pioneer poet of Gujarati literature. But most of his works are available in other languages which have been preserved orally.  The oldest available manuscript of his work is dated around 1612.

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Updated: March 01, 2014