GURBAKHSH, BHĀĪ, contemporary of Gurū Tegh Bahādur, was the Sikh representative at Jaunpur, in Uttar Pradesh. He was an accomplished musician and sang the sacred hymns with great love and devotion. In the course of his travel across the eastern parts in 1666, Gurū Tegh Bahādur halted briefly at Vārāṇasī. Bhāī Gurbakhsh led the Jaunpur saṅgat to the Gurū's presence to pay homage to him. The Gurū, pleased with his recital of kīrtan, blessed him and bestowed on him a mridaṅg, a double-sided Indian drum. From that day, the saṅgat at Jaunpur came to be known as Mridaṅgvālī Saṅgat. In 1670, travelling from Paṭnā to Delhi Gurū Tegh Bahādur passed through Jaunpur where he stopped for a few days with Bhāī Gurbakhsh. Till the beginning of the present century, the mridaṅg gifted by the Gurū was said to have been preserved as a sacred relic, but it is no longer traceable.