Guru Nanak
Gurū Nānak, also known as , was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.
Nanak is said to have travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of Ik Onkar, who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he would set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue.
Nanak's words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns, or shabda, in the holy religious scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, with some of the major prayers being the Japji Sahib ; the Asa di Var ; and the Sidh Gosht. It is part of Sikh religious belief that the spirit of Nanak's, divinity, and religious authority had descended upon each of the nine subsequent Gurus when the Guruship was devolved on to them. His birthday is celebrated as Guru Nanak Gurpurab, annually across India.
Biography
Birth
Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at village in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate, although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kartik | or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi. He was born into the Khatri Punjabi clan like all of the Sikh gurus. Specifically, Guru Nanak was a Bedi Khatri.Most janamsakhis, or traditional biographies of Nanak, mention that he was born on the third day of the bright lunar fortnight, in the Baisakh month of Samvat 1526. These include the Puratan ''janamsakhi, Miharban janamsakhi, Gyan-ratanavali by Bhai Mani Singh, and the Vilayat Vali janamsakhi''. 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. The Sikh records state that Nanak died on the 10th day of the Asauj month of Samvat 1596, at the age of 70 years, 5 months, and 7 days. This further suggests that he was born in the month of Vaisakh, not Kattak.
Kattak birthdate
In as late as 1815, during the reign of Ranjit Singh, the festival commemorating Nanak's birthday was held in April at the place of his birth, known by then as Nankana Sahib. However, the anniversary of Nanak's birth—the Gurpurab —subsequently came to be celebrated on the full moon day of the Kattak month in November. The earliest record of such a celebration in Nankana Sahib is from 1868 CE.There may be several reasons for the adoption of the Kattak birthdate by the Sikh community. For one, it may have been the date of Nanak's enlightenment or "spiritual birth" in 1496, as suggested by the Dabestan-e Mazaheb.
Some of the sources that support the Katak birthday incident:
The Bala Janamasakhi supports the Kattak birth tradition. It is the only Janamsakhi that does. Bhai Bala is said to have obtained Nanak's horoscope from Nanak's uncle Lalu, according to which, Nanak was born on a date corresponding to 20 October 1469 CE. However, this janamsakhi was written by Handalis—a sect of Sikhs who followed a Sikh-convert known as Handal—attempting to depict the founder as superior to Nanak. According to a superstition prevailing in contemporary northern India, a child born in the Kattak month was believed to be weak and unlucky, hence why the work states that Nanak was born in that month.
Bhai Gurdas, having written on a full-moon-day of the Kattak month several decades after Nanak's death, mentions that Nanak had "obtained omniscience" on the same day, and it was now the author's turn to "get divine light."
According to eyewitness Sikh chronicles, known as Bhatt Vahis, Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak.
Gurbilas Patashahi 6 written 1718 attributed to Bhai Mani Singh says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak.
Meham Parkash written in 1776 also says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak.
Kesar Singh Chibber’s Bansavalinama Dasan Patashahia Ka meaning genealogy of the ten emperors, written in 1769, says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak as well.
Gurpurnali written in 1727 and Guru Tegh Bahadur Malwe da Safar written in 1716 both mention Guru Nanank being born on the full moon of Katak.
Nanak Chandrodaya Sanskrit Janamsakhi from 1797 and Janam Sakhi Baba Nanak by Sant Das Chibber from the 18th century both mention Guru Nanak being born on the full moon of katak.
Gurpur Parkash Granth written by Sant Ren Singh based on a granth written by Binod Singh states Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak.
According to Max Arthur Macauliffe, a Hindu festival held in the 19th century on Kartik Purnima in Amritsar attracted a large number of Sikhs. The Sikh community leader Giani Sant Singh did not like this, thus starting a festival at the Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple on the same day, presenting it as the birth anniversary celebration of Guru Nanak.
Macauliffe also notes that Vaisakh already saw a number of important festivals—such as Holi, Rama Navami, and Vaisakhi—therefore people would be busy in agricultural activities after the harvest festival of Baisakhi. Therefore, holding Nanak's birth anniversary celebrations immediately after Vaisakhi would have resulted in thin attendance, and therefore, smaller donations for the Sikh shrines. On the other hand, by the Kattak full moon day, the major Hindu festival of Diwali was already over, and the peasants—who had surplus cash from crop sales—were able to donate generously.
Family and early life
Nanak's parents, father Kalyan Chand Das Bedi and mother Mata Tripta, were both Hindus of the Khatri caste who worked as merchants. His father, in particular, was the local patwari for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi. Nanak's paternal grandfather was named Shiv Ram Bedi and his great-grandfather was Ram Narayan Bedi.According to Sikh traditions, the birth and early years of Nanak's life were marked with many events that demonstrated that Nanak had been blessed with divine grace. Commentaries on his life give details of his blossoming awareness from a young age. For instance, at the age of five, Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects. At age seven, his father enrolled him at the village school, as per custom. Notable lore recounts that, as a child, Nanak astonished his teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first letter of the alphabet, resembling the mathematical version of one, as denoting the unity or oneness of God. Other stories of his childhood refer to strange and miraculous events about Nanak, such as the one witnessed by Rai Bular, in which the sleeping child's head was shaded from the harsh sunlight by, in one account, by the stationary shadow of a tree or, in another, by a venomous cobra. File:Kartarpur Guru Nanak.jpg|thumb|Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartar Pur in Narowal, Pakistan, marks the site where Guru Nanak is said to have died.
Nanaki, Nanak's only sister, was five years older than him. In 1475, she married and moved to Sultanpur. Jai Ram, Nanaki's husband, was employed at a modikhana, in the service of the Delhi Sultanate's Lahore governor Daulat Khan, at which Ram would help Nanak get a job. Nanak moved to Sultanpur, and started working at the modikhana around the age of 16.
As a young man, Nanak married Sulakhani, daughter of Mūl Chand and Chando Raṇi. They were married on 24 September 1487, in the town of Batala, and would go on to have two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Chand. Nanak lived in Sultanpur until c. 1500, 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.
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. The followers of Nanak were called Kartārīs by others.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.
File:A Sikh Monument in Rohtas by Usman Ghani.jpg|thumb|The abandoned Gurudwara Chowa Sahib, located near the Rohtas Fort in Pakistan, commemorates the site where Guru Nanak is popularly believed to have created a water-spring during one of his udasis.
File:PunjaSahib.jpg|thumb|Guru Nanak's handprint is believed to be preserved on a boulder at the Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan.
Odysseys (''Udasis'')
During first quarter of the 16th century, Nanak went on long for spiritual pursuits. A verse authored by him states that he visited several places in "nau-khand", presumably the major Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage centres.Some modern accounts state that he visited Tibet, most of South Asia, and Arabia, starting in 1496 at age 27, when he left his family for a thirty-year period. These claims include Nanak's visit to Mount Sumeru of Indian mythology, as well as Mecca, Baghdad, Achal Batala, and Multan, where he would debate religious ideas with opposing groups. These stories became widely popular in the 19th and 20th century, and exist in many versions.
In 1508, Nanak visited the Sylhet region in Bengal. The janamsakhis suggest that Nanak visited the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya in 1510–11 CE.
The Baghdad inscription remains the basis of writing by Indian scholars that Guru Nanak journeyed in the Middle East, with some claiming he visited Jerusalem, Mecca, Vatican, Azerbaijan and Sudan.