Akha Bhagat Great Gujarati Critic & Poets

Akho Bhagat was one of the greatest bhakti poets of Gujarat during the 17th century. His main work of action was in the Khadia locality of Ahmedabad. Akho was a goldsmith by caste and one of the three sons Kahandas. Akho’s ancestors had come from a village called Srimala, located near the border of Rajasthan. Therefore his clan is also known as Srimali Soni. However, Akho’s birth place was Jetalpur, a small village near Ahmedabad. Akho with his father and sister had come to Ahmedabad to earn livelihood as goldsmiths. In Ahmedabad they settled in Desai ni Pol in Khadia. Akho had lost his mother in his childhood and his father died when he was twenty years old. Luck did not favour him as his lost both his first and second wife during his youth.
Akho was a great soul, compassionate and trustworthy. He had a great reputation as a goldsmith in the tanksal (the Mughal mint) during the time of the Emperor Jahangir.
Two incidents had considerable impact in his life. On his neighbourhood lived a young lady called Jamunaben to whom Akho treated as his own sister. Once Jamunaben asked Akho to make a necklace for her and gave him three hundred rupees. Akho was very happy to make it and out of love added another hundred rupees to make it more beautiful. Yet when he finished it making and offered to Jamunaben he was greatly disappointed due to her doubt about the mixing of poor quality gold.
Akho was very hurt about his sister’s doubt towards him.
In another incident...Akho was one of the heads of the mint and was in charge of making gold coins. His associates were jealous of him and complained to the mint head against Akho as mixing poor quality material while making coins. He was however proved innocent.
These two events were turning points in his life. He threw all his instruments and tools in the well. Akho then left home in search of a real guru for seeking guidance. He could not find a proper guru in Ahmedabad and therefore wandered in Gokul, Mathura and Kashi. But everywhere he was disappointed as the gurus he met had so much of vested interest. He donated all his saving for genuine causes. His soul became more enlightened. He wrote: “for long time I was crying, so all of a sudden god erupted”.
Akho was known for his poetries to enlighten the society which had become worst during his time. Akho attacked social mores with a vengeance fearlessly lashed out at mindless rituals, ridiculed the system in his unique style immortalised as the ‘chhappa’. Nothing escaped his attack – from the religious gurus to the caste system of prevailing condition. He ridiculed them all with his satire. One such example is:
A girl born in the house of an untouchable, marries a Brahmin andVaishnav;They enjoy sex with her round the yearYet they follow the rules of untouchability very strictlyThe style of his writing was simple and easy to follow for a common man. He had voiced against the hypocrisy in the society.
There is no other one like Akho in the five hundred years history of Gujarati literature. Like jewellery, his poems were full of aesthetics.
Today, thanks to the effort by the heritage cell of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, a beautiful sculpture of Akho is erected at Desai ni Pol, and its surrounding is named after him – Akha Bhagat ni Chowk. His 12th generation descendents live opposite to the statue in Desai ni pol.