Chandra Bhan Brahman

Chandar Bhan Brahman, name also spelt as Chandra Bhan and Chandrabhan, was a Punjabi poet of the Persian language born in Lahore of the Mughal Empire.

Biography His date of birth is unknown; he probably died in the year 1662–63. He belonged to a Brahman family, and chose "Brahman" as his pen name. His father Dharam Das was a government official in the Mughal service. Brahman served as a secretary (Munshi) to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628–1658).

As a poet, Chandar Bhan managed to write very complex metaphors in an otherwise very straightforward language. Chandar Bhan's pen-name "Brahman" allowed for ingenius wordplay because of the use of "idol" (Persian but, sanam) as a metaphor of the - human or Divine - beloved, and as the lover as "idol worshipper". By his time, the Persian Muslim lover calling himself an idol-worshipper with tongue in cheek (even when he/she meant the love of God) had become a cliché already, but Chandar Bhan added a new twist to it because it was also fact with him. Other topics are the daily routine of the emperor, the provinces of India, and philosophical ideas. He also edited a selection of his letters, the Munshi'at-i Barahman (Letters of Brahman), which contain letters to the royal family, to nobles (and some Sufis), to poets, letters of recommendation, and letters to his father.