Bhagat Jaidev
Sanskrit poet of the Gita Govinda. The oldest voice in the Guru Granth Sahib.
Jaidev was a Sanskrit poet of the twelfth century, born in Bengal or Orissa and associated with the court of King Lakshmana Sena. He is famous as the author of the Gita Govinda, a lyrical poem on the love of Krishna and Radha that became one of the most loved works of Indian literature and is still sung in the temple of Jagannath at Puri.
He is the oldest poet in the Guru Granth Sahib. His two hymns there are not about Krishna's love but about the one God and the discipline of the mind; one is written in a mixture of Sanskrit and the old vernacular.
That the Gurus chose a Sanskrit love-poet, and then took his least Sanskrit words, shows how they gathered the whole devotional heritage of India into one book while keeping to their own message.