બ્રહ્માનંદ સ્વામી

Brahmanand Swami was born Ladudan Gadhvi, a Charan bard from the village of Khan near Mount Abu, trained in the martial Dingal poetry of his caste and celebrated in the princely courts of Rajasthan and Kathiawar. At the height of that worldly career he met Sahajanand Swami — Bhagwan Swaminarayan — and walked away from royal patronage to take the ochre robe, becoming one of the new sampradaya’s ashta kavis, its eight poet-saints, and by common consent the most brilliant of them. Thousands of kirtans are attributed to him, collected as Brahmanand Kavya, in which the court poet’s polish and the war-bard’s cadence are turned wholly toward God. He was a builder as well as a singer, supervising the construction of the great temples at Vadtal, Junagadh, and Muli, where he presided until his death in 1832 — and where his kirtans are still sung every day.