Tempo:
CHAP, n
TEACHING OF NANAK
35
Nanak was born in the year 1469, in the neighbour- i469- i539. hood of Lahore.^ His father, Kalu, was a Hindu of Nanak-s the Bedi subdivision of the once warlike Kshattriyas, birth and and he was, perhaps, like most of his race, a petty ^/^y,J'/„®' A.D. 1469. trader in his native village.^ Nanak appears to have reflecting and of a disposition been naturally of a pious mind, and there is reason to believe that in his youth he made himself familiar with the popular creeds both of the Muhammadans and Hindus, and that he gained a general- knowledge of the Koran and of the Brahmanical Shastras.^ His good sense and fervid temper 1 Nanak is generally said to have been born in Talwandi, a village on the Ravi above Lahore, vi^hich was held by one Rai Bhua of the Bhutti tribe. (Cf. Malcolm, Sketch of the Sikhs, p. 78, and Forster, Travels, i. 292-3.) But one manuscript account states that, although the father of Nanak was of Talwandi, the teacher himself was born in Kanakatch, about fifteen miles southerly from Lahore, in the house of his mother's parents. It is indeed not uncommon in the Punjab for women to choose their own parents' home as the place of their confinement, especially of their first child, and the children thus born are frequently called Nanak (or Nanki, in the feminine), from Nanke, one's mother's parents. Nanak is thus a name of usual occurrence, both among Hindus and Muhammadans, of the poor or industrious classes. The accounts agree as to the year of Nanak's birth, but differ, while they affect precision, with regard to the day of the month on which he was born. Thus one narrative gives the 13th, and another the 18th, of the month Kartik, of the year 1526 of Vikramajit, which corresponds with the latter end of 1469 of Christ.
2 In the Siar ul Mutakharin (Brigg's translation, i. 110) it stated that Nanak's father was a grain merchant, and in the Dabistan (ii. 247) that Nanak himself was a grain factor. The Sikh accounts are mostly silent about the occupation of the lather, but they represent the sister of Nanak to have been married to a corn factor, and state that he was himself placed with iiis brother-in-law to learn, or to give aid, in carrying on the business. manuscript compilation in Persian mentions that Nanak's first teacher was a Muhammadan. The Siar ul Mutak]\arin (i. 110) states that Nanak was carefully educated by one Saiyid Hasan, a neighbour of his father's, who conceived a regai'd for him, and who« was wealthy but childless. Nanak is iurther said, in the same book, to have studied the most approved writings of the Muhammadans. .According to Malcolm (Sketch, p. 14), Nanak is reported, by the Muhammadans, to have learnt all earthly sciences from Khizar, i.e. the prophet Muhammadan accounts also represent Elias. The ordinary Nanak, when a child, to have astonished his teacher by asking him the hidden import of the first letter of the alphabet, which is almost a straight stroke in Persian and Arabic, and which is held even vulgarly to denote the unity of God. The reader will remember that the apocryphal gospels state how Christ, before is
•*
A
he was twelve years old, perplexed his instructors, and explained to them the mystical significance of the alphabetical characters.
(Strauss, Life of Jesus, i. 272.)
TEACHING OF NANAK
35
Nanak was born in the year 1469, in the neighbour- i469- i539. hood of Lahore.^ His father, Kalu, was a Hindu of Nanak-s the Bedi subdivision of the once warlike Kshattriyas, birth and and he was, perhaps, like most of his race, a petty ^/^y,J'/„®' A.D. 1469. trader in his native village.^ Nanak appears to have reflecting and of a disposition been naturally of a pious mind, and there is reason to believe that in his youth he made himself familiar with the popular creeds both of the Muhammadans and Hindus, and that he gained a general- knowledge of the Koran and of the Brahmanical Shastras.^ His good sense and fervid temper 1 Nanak is generally said to have been born in Talwandi, a village on the Ravi above Lahore, vi^hich was held by one Rai Bhua of the Bhutti tribe. (Cf. Malcolm, Sketch of the Sikhs, p. 78, and Forster, Travels, i. 292-3.) But one manuscript account states that, although the father of Nanak was of Talwandi, the teacher himself was born in Kanakatch, about fifteen miles southerly from Lahore, in the house of his mother's parents. It is indeed not uncommon in the Punjab for women to choose their own parents' home as the place of their confinement, especially of their first child, and the children thus born are frequently called Nanak (or Nanki, in the feminine), from Nanke, one's mother's parents. Nanak is thus a name of usual occurrence, both among Hindus and Muhammadans, of the poor or industrious classes. The accounts agree as to the year of Nanak's birth, but differ, while they affect precision, with regard to the day of the month on which he was born. Thus one narrative gives the 13th, and another the 18th, of the month Kartik, of the year 1526 of Vikramajit, which corresponds with the latter end of 1469 of Christ.
2 In the Siar ul Mutakharin (Brigg's translation, i. 110) it stated that Nanak's father was a grain merchant, and in the Dabistan (ii. 247) that Nanak himself was a grain factor. The Sikh accounts are mostly silent about the occupation of the lather, but they represent the sister of Nanak to have been married to a corn factor, and state that he was himself placed with iiis brother-in-law to learn, or to give aid, in carrying on the business. manuscript compilation in Persian mentions that Nanak's first teacher was a Muhammadan. The Siar ul Mutak]\arin (i. 110) states that Nanak was carefully educated by one Saiyid Hasan, a neighbour of his father's, who conceived a regai'd for him, and who« was wealthy but childless. Nanak is iurther said, in the same book, to have studied the most approved writings of the Muhammadans. .According to Malcolm (Sketch, p. 14), Nanak is reported, by the Muhammadans, to have learnt all earthly sciences from Khizar, i.e. the prophet Muhammadan accounts also represent Elias. The ordinary Nanak, when a child, to have astonished his teacher by asking him the hidden import of the first letter of the alphabet, which is almost a straight stroke in Persian and Arabic, and which is held even vulgarly to denote the unity of God. The reader will remember that the apocryphal gospels state how Christ, before is
•*
A
he was twelve years old, perplexed his instructors, and explained to them the mystical significance of the alphabetical characters.
(Strauss, Life of Jesus, i. 272.)
©
2026
Lehal.net