Hina

Narsinh Mehta  is well known all over India as a bhakta–poet. His devotional bhajans are sung to this day – mostly in Gujarat and Saurashtra – since he wrote them in Gujarati. He was born in a Nagar Brahmin family, in Talaja, a village near Junagadh in 1414. Scholars give slightly varying versions of certain episodes, dates and names regarding his life. He was either born dumb, or had a speech disorder. By the age of five his parents expired. So his grandmother, Jayakunvar, raised him. His brother Bansidhar, seventeen years older than Narsinh, had a wife named Gauri. Narsinh often used to accompany his grandmother to the Hatkeshwar Mahadev mandir for darshan and to listen to bhajans. Once when he was eight–years–old, Jayakunvar approached an ascetic at the mandir. The ascetic glanced at little Narsinh and prophesied that he would become a great bhakta. But Jayakunvar informed him of the boy’s handicap. The ascetic then gave him a herb and asked him to chant, Radhe Krish...