Ten Sikh Gurus
Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: [gʊɾuː naːnəkᵊ], pronunciationi), also referred to as Bābā Nānak (‘father Nānak’),[12] was the founder of Sikhi and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Katak Pooranmashi (‘full-moon of Kattak’), i.e. October–November.
Nanak is said to have travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of ik onkar (ੴ, ‘one God’), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth.[13] With this concept, he would set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue.[14][15][16]
Nanak’s words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns, or shabda, in the holy text of Sikhi, the Guru Granth Sahib, with some of the major prayers.
Birth
Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī village (present-day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate,[17][18] although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kārtik or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi.[1] He was born into the Khatri clan like all of the Sikh gurus. Specifically, Guru Nanak was a Bedi Khatri.
Most janamsakhis (ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ, ‘birth stories’), or traditional biographies of Nanak, mention that he was born on the third day of the bright lunar fortnight, in the Baisakh month (April) of Samvat 1526.[1] These include the Puratan (‘traditional’ or ‘ancient’) janamsakhi, Miharban janamsakhi, Gyan-ratanavali by Bhai Mani Singh, and the Vilayat Vali janamsakhi.[19] Gurbilas Patashahi 6, written 1718, also attributed to Bhai Mani Singh contradicts Mani Singh’s Janamsakhi as it instead says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak.
Early Life
Nanak’s parents, including father Kalyan Chand Das Bedi (commonly shortened to Mehta Kalu[note 1][31]) and mother Mata Tripta,[32] were both Hindu Khatris and employed as merchants.[33][34] His father, in particular, was the local patwari (accountant) for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi.[35] Nanak’s paternal grandfather was named Shiv Ram Bedi and his great-grandfather was Ram Narayan Bedi.[36][31]
Nanaki, Nanak’s only sister, was five years older than him. In 1475, she married and moved to Sultanpur.[citation needed] Jai Ram, Nanaki’s husband, was employed at a modikhana (a storehouse for revenues collected in non-cash form), in the service of the Delhi Sultanate’s Lahore governor Daulat Khan, at which Ram would help Nanak get a job.[42] Nanak moved to Sultanpur, and started working at the modikhana around the age of 16.[citation needed] As a young man,[i] Nanak married Sulakhani, daughter of Mūl Chand (aka Mula)[ii][iii] and Chando Raṇi.[citation needed] They were married on 24 September 1487, in the town of Batala,[43] and would go on to have two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Chand[42] (or Lakhmi Das).[iv][44] Nanak lived in Sultanpur until c. 1500,[42] which would be a formative time for him, as the puratan janamsakhi suggests, and in his numerous allusions to governmental structure in his hymns, most likely gained at this time.[45]
Final years
Around the age of 55, Nanak settled in Kartarpur, living there until his death in September 1539. During this period, he went on short journeys to the Nath yogi centre of Achal, and the Sufi centres of Pakpattan and Multan. By the time of his death, Nanak had acquired several followers in the Punjab region, although it is hard to estimate their number based on the extant historical evidence.[46] The followers of Nanak were called Kartārīs (meaning ‘the people who belonged to the village of Kartarpur’) by others.[47]
Nanak appointed Bhai Lehna as the successor Guru, renaming him as Guru Angad, meaning “one’s very own” or “part of you”. Shortly after proclaiming his successor, Nanak died on 22 September 1539 in Kartarpur, at the age of 70. According to Sikh hagiography, his body was never found. When the quarreling Hindus and Muslims tugged at the sheet covering his body, they found instead a heap of flowers—and so Nanak’s simple faith would, in course of time, flower into a religion, beset by its own contradictions and customary practices.[48]