Dayaram (1777âÂÂ1853) was a Gujarati poet of medieval Gujarati literature and was the last poet of the pre-British Gujarati school. He is known in Gujarati literature for his literary form called garbi, a lyric song. He was a follower of Pushtimarg of Hindu Vaishnavism. Dayaram, along with Narsinh Mehta and Meera, is considered a major contributor during the Bhakti movement in Gujarati literature.
DayÃÂrÃÂm was born on 16 August 1777 in Chanod on the bank of the Narmada River. He was born as the second son of PrabhurÃÂm and MahÃÂlaká¹£më into a SÃÂá¹ÂhodaràNagar Brahmin family who belonged to the à ÂÃÂá¹ khÃÂyaá¹Âa à ÂÃÂkhàof the RÃÂ¥gveda. His siblings, elder sister á¸ÂÃÂhëgaurë and younger brother Maá¹Âià Âaá¹ kar, died at the age of nine and two, respectively.
His father was a clerk. He had very little education, and he was interested in devotional songs of the Vaishnava temple. At the age of eight, he had his yajñopavëta and was married, but his wife died after two years of marriage. His father arranged his second marriage with a bride-price of six hundred rupees. However, the marriage never went through as his father would die when DayÃÂà Âaá¹ kar was ten and his mother, too, died two years later. He then resided with his maternal uncle, RaghunÃÂtha in á¸Âabhoi and Chanod. In the nearby village of Karanali, an ascetic named Keà ÂavÃÂnand was living, and DayÃÂrÃÂm requested to be his student. Keà ÂavÃÂnand, at first, rejected him, but later admitted him after DayÃÂrÃÂm made a satirical poem criticising him. DayÃÂrÃÂm as a boy was mischievous; he and a group of friends would tease women collecting water at the river and throw stones at their pots. Once DayÃÂrÃÂm broke a goldsmith's wife's pot which was on her head, and she demanded to be compensated. DayÃÂrÃÂm, having no money to pay, fled the village and the goldsmith's wrath, with the local villagers believing he committed suicide in the NarmadÃÂ. At the age of fourteen in the village of TenatalÃÂv, he met a Puá¹£á¹ÂimÃÂrga scholar named IcchÃÂrÃÂm Bhaá¹Âá¹Âajë. IcchÃÂrÃÂm encouraged him to travel across India on a pilgrimage of religious places, and travelled for fourteen years until settling back in Dabhoi at the age of twenty-six. His contact with IcchÃÂrÃÂm Bhaá¹Âá¹Âajë turned him to his religious interest. Later he would visit the four DhÃÂmas. He visited NÃÂthadvÃÂrÃÂ, the most central Puá¹£á¹ÂimÃÂrga site and location of à ÂrënÃÂthajë, seven times and drank the water of the YamunàRiver four times. At NÃÂthadvÃÂra gave a eulogy of à ÂrënÃÂthajë so impressive that the MÃÂhÃÂrÃÂj gave him an expensive scarf from BanÃÂras. Once after visiting MahÃÂkaleà Âvara in Ujjain he was travelling to Nasik he and his pilgrim party was ambushed by bandits in a jungle disguised as pilgrims. Three people were killed and the rest kidnapped. The chief robber was a MarÃÂá¹Âha named MÃÂnÃÂjë Angre who demanded five hundred rupees as ransom for DayÃÂrÃÂm. DayÃÂrÃÂm composed a poem about his trouble which he sang for three days until he was freed by MÃÂnÃÂjë and given fifteen rupees. In Tirupati at the shrine of BÃÂlÃÂjë the Mahant or head of the shine was in the habit of kidnapping and extorting money from pilgrims. When DayÃÂrÃÂm escaped at night he was recaptured he was not released until the Mahant was certain DayÃÂrÃÂm was insolvent. Once in Baroda, his disciples Raá¹Âachoá¸ÂbhÃÂë and GirijÃÂà Âaá¹ kar were singing his poems accompanied with tambà «ràand tablàin public in DayÃÂrÃÂm's presence. A BÃÂvàor ascetic pointed out a mistake GirijÃÂà Âaá¹ kar made on the rhythm when playing the tablÃÂ, but DayÃÂrÃÂm dismissed the mistake as minor. The BÃÂvàclaimed that any competent musician wouldn't make such a mistake. DayÃÂrÃÂm then challenged him to play the tablàto his singing, and the match continued the entire night until DayÃÂrÃÂm sang a lyric so complex the BÃÂvàmade a mistake. DayÃÂrÃÂm, though having beaten the BÃÂvÃÂ, gave him his golden necklace worth roughly three hundred rupees. While DayÃÂrÃÂm remained a bachelor throughout his life, he found companionship at the age of forty-six with RatanbÃÂë, a forty-five-year-old former child widow of a goldsmith caste. The pair lived together with DayÃÂrÃÂm preparing the meals due to his higher caste. DayÃÂrÃÂm claimed that she had been his wife in a former life. When he had fallen sick in 1842, he created a will in which he left her twenty five rupees out of the six hundred he had to his name. When he later died in 1853, he left her one thousand rupees worth of gold jewelry, but the ornaments were stolen by his relatives instead and she spent the last fourteen years of her life in poverty.
He was initiated into Pushtimarg (Brahmasambandha) in A.D. 1803-04 by GosvÃÂmë VallabhalÃÂlajë of the VanamÃÂḷëjë temple in Nathdwara. However, he sometimes had disputes with the MahÃÂrÃÂjas of the sect. Once when his guru Puruá¹£ottamajë MahÃÂrÃÂja of Bundi-Kotah came to á¸Âabhoi rumours reached him that DayÃÂrÃÂm was short-tempered and should be banned from the local temple. Puruá¹£ottam agreed to this and in response DayÃÂrÃÂm composed verses criticising him. When Puruá¹£ottam went to meet him at his house, DayÃÂrÃÂm threw his tulsë kaá¹Âá¹Âhë at him after which the MahÃÂrÃÂj apologised and personally put the kaá¹Âá¹Âhë back on his neck. On another occasion a MahÃÂrÃÂja had come to Dabhoi and DayÃÂrÃÂm was invited to pay respects. However DayÃÂrÃÂm would only go on the condition that his seat would not be lower than that of the MahÃÂrÃÂja. The MahÃÂrÃÂja grudgingly agreed, but when the time came the seat that DayÃÂrÃÂm was going to sit on was removed. A furious DayÃÂrÃÂm then tore up his tulsë necklace and left. Due to this incident he stopped receiving money from a Puá¹£á¹ÂimÃÂrga patron.
DayÃÂrÃÂm notably lacked financial responsibility. Annually, he earned two hundred rupees through gifts. Once DayÃÂrÃÂm decided to hold a caste dinner, so his contacts sent him in total two thousand rupees to pay for the event, but he ended up spending four thousand rupees. Every day he would eat thirty to forty betel leaves, and would only wear the finest and most expensive clothes. Once when his tailor sewed his aá¹ garkhuá¹ too tight in the shoulders, DayÃÂrÃÂm threw his pen and ink stand at him.
Dayaram was the last poet of the old Gujarati school. Most of his works are written in a literary form called garbi, a lyric song.
Dayaram was a devotional poet and was a follower of "Nirgun bhakti sampraday" (Pushti sampraday) in Gujarat. So he gave many garbi describing Krishna. He used many literary, poetic forms to express his devotion. He also wrote long narrative poems based on the incidents on the Mahabharata, such as Rukmani Vivah (Marriage of Rukmini), Satyabhama Vivah (Marriage of Satyabhama), Ajamilakhyana (Story of Ajamila), Okhaharan (abduction of Aniruddha by Chitralekha).
Dave divides DayÃÂrÃÂm's works into seven categories: philosophical works, name of Kråṣá¹Âa/didactic works, narrative works, translations, lyrics, prose works, and miscellaneous works, although he is most renowned for his lyrical poems.
DayÃÂrÃÂm's non-lyrical works strongly promot the Puá¹£á¹ÂimÃÂrga, but are of little literary value and are not well-known. A large portion or perhaps the majority of these works remain unpublished. His philosophical texts followed the sectarian à ÂuddhÃÂdvaita doctrine of the Puá¹£á¹ÂimÃÂrga, with his most famous being the Rasikavallabha (1838). He authored a few works concerned with the devotional recitation of the names of Kråṣá¹Âa, Vallabha, Viá¹Âá¹ÂhalanÃÂtha, hagiographies of Vaiá¹£á¹Âava devotees, and didactic dramatic dialogue between devotees. DayÃÂrÃÂm's narrative poems based on Puranic and Vaiá¹£á¹Âava hagiographic lore are considered of inferior literary quality. DayÃÂrÃÂm is also generally considered to have composed Gujarati translations of the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gëta and Braj Bhasha works of Sà «rdÃÂs.
DayÃÂrÃÂm wrote in a language similar to modern standard Gujarati with some grammatical variations. These variations have been described as archaisms, dialectal features, or borrowings from Braj Bhasha. His vocabulary is a mix of words, with tatsama forms dominating, however DayÃÂrÃÂm still uses Perso-Arabic loanwords which were later eliminated from literary language in the nineteenth century.