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Bhat Vahis (or Bhat Banis) were scrolls or records maintained by Bhatts also known as Bhatra. The majority of Bhat Sikhs originate from Punjab and were amongst the first followers of Guru Nanak. Bhat tradition and Sikh text states their ancestors came from Punjab region, where the Raja Shivnabh and his kingdom became the original 16th century followers of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. The Raja's grandson Prince Baba Changa earned the title ‘Bhat Rai’ – the ‘Raja of Poets, and then settled himself and his followers all over India as missionaries to spread the word of Guru Nanak, where many northern Indians became Bhat Sikhs. The majority were from the northern Brahmin caste (Bhat clan),(Bhat (surname)) as the Prince Baba Changa shared the Brahmin heritage. The sangat also had many members from different areas of the Sikh caste spectrum, such as the Hindu Rajputs and Hindu Jats who joined due to Bhat Sikh missionary efforts. The Bhats also contributed 123 compositions in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib (pp.1389–1409), known as the "Bhata de Savaiyye". There hereditary occupations consisted of bards, poets, missionaries, astrologists, genealogists, salesmen.
The Bhat Vahis were written in a script called Bhattakhri, this script was employed by historical Bhatra Sikhs writers. The Shahid Bilas was also originally written in this script rather than Gurmukhi. Modern scholars are not familiar with it and Gurmukhi transliterations of the works that were originally written in Bhattakhri were provided by Giani Garja Singh, who could read the script. Garja Singh's transliterations are now held at Punjabi University in Patiala. Another figure who provided Gurmukhi transliterations of the script was Bhatt Chhaju Singh Kaushik. The script was a Landa script, similar in resemblance to Mahajani.
Historian Harbans Singh mentions:
On the whole, these Bhat Vahis are a mine of information of historical and sociological value.Historian Jeevan Deol while talking about Bhat Vahis says:
The authenticity of some of the bhatt vahi extracts published by Garja Singh is, however, rendered doubtful by the fact that neither the originals nor the extracts made by him seem to be present in any institutional collection in the Punjab.Dr. Balwant Singh Dhillon mention:
Guru Kian Sakhian is said to be largely based on the Bhatt Vahis which its author has got from his ancestors. Originally, he wrote it in Bhattakhri, a peculiar form of Devanagari without vowel symbols. In 1868 Chhajju Singh, a descendant of the author converted it into Gurmukhi. However, its original in Bhattakhri and its second version in Gurmukhi are no longer extant, which puts a big question mark on the very origin of this document.
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