Bhagat Dhanna
Jat farmer from Rajasthan whose simple devotion is told in a much-loved story of feeding God at a stone.
Dhanna was a Jat farmer of Dhuan Kalan near Tonk in Rajasthan, born around 1415. The story told of him is one of the best-loved in Sikh tradition. Seeing a Brahmin worship a stone idol and feed it, he asked for a stone of his own, set food before it and refused to eat until it ate. His simple faith, the story says, made God appear and eat with him, and even herd his cattle.
Later, the tradition says, he became a disciple of Ramanand and moved beyond the image to the formless God. His three hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib include a famous prayer for the simple necessities: flour, lentils, ghee, shoes, clothes, a good cow and a good horse, and a good wife. It is the prayer of a farmer who sees no shame in asking God for food.
Another hymn tells how Namdev, Kabir, Ravidas and Sain, all of humble castes, found God, and says that hearing of them, Dhanna the Jat too turned to devotion.
