Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
36
CHAP. II
left him displeased with the faith, and dissatisfied with
corruptions of the vulgar the indifference of the learned, or with the retuge which they sought in the specious abstractions of philosophy; nor is it improbable that the homilies of Kabir and Gorakh had fallen upon his susceptible mind with a powerful and In a moment of enthusiasm the The mental enduring effect.^ struggles of ardent inquirer abandoned his home, and strove to Nanak. attain wisdom by penitent mediation, by study, and by an enlarged intercourse with mankind.- He travelled, perhaps, beyond the limits of India, he prayed in solitude, he reflected on the Vedas and on the mission of Muhammad, and he questioned with equal anxietv the learned priest and the simple devotee about the Plato and will of God and the path to happiness." 1469-1539.
Extracts or selections from the writings of Kab?r appear Adi-Granth, and Kabir is often, and Gorakh sometimes, quoted or referred to. 2 chance meeting with some Fakirs (Malcolm, Sketch. pp. 8, 13) and the more methodical instructions of a Dervish (Dabistan, ii. 247) are each referred to as having subdued the mind of Nanak, or as having given him the impulse which determined the future course of his life. In Malcolm may be seen those stories Which please the multitude, to the effect that although Nanak, when the spirit of God was upon him, bestowed all the grain in his brother-in-law's stores by charity, they were nevertheless always found replenished; or that Daulat Khan Lodi, the employer of Nanak's brother-in-law. although aware that much had really been given away, nevertheless found everything correct on balancing the accounts of receipts and expenditure. The Sikh accounts represent Nanak to have met the Emperor Babar, and to have greatly edified the adventurous sovereign by his demeanour and conversation, while he perplexed him by saying that both were kings and were about to found dynasties of ten. I have traced but two allusions to Babar by name, and one by obvious inference, in the Adi-Granth, viz. in the Asa Rag and Tailang portions, and these bear reference simply to the destruction of a village, and to his incursions as a conqueror. Muhsin Fani (Dabistan, ii. 249) preserves an idle report that Nanak, being dissatisfied with the Afghans, called the Mughals 1
in the
A
into India. 3
Nanak is generally said to have travelled over the whole
have gone through. Persia, and to have visited Malcolm, Sketch, p. 16, and Forster, Travels, i. 295-6), but the number of years he employed in wandering, and the date of his final return to his native province, are alike uncertain. He had several companions, among whom Mardana, the rababi or harper (or rather a chanter, and player upon a Stringed instrument like a guitar), Lahna, who was his succesof.
India, to
Mecca
(cf.
sor, Bala, a Sindhu.Jat, and Ram Das, styled Buddha or the Ancient, are the most frequently referred to. In pictorial representations Mardana always accompanies Nanak. When at, Mecca., a story is related that Nanak was found sleeping with his feet towards the temple, that he was angrily asked how hej dared to dishonour the house of the Lord, and that he replied
36
CHAP. II
left him displeased with the faith, and dissatisfied with
corruptions of the vulgar the indifference of the learned, or with the retuge which they sought in the specious abstractions of philosophy; nor is it improbable that the homilies of Kabir and Gorakh had fallen upon his susceptible mind with a powerful and In a moment of enthusiasm the The mental enduring effect.^ struggles of ardent inquirer abandoned his home, and strove to Nanak. attain wisdom by penitent mediation, by study, and by an enlarged intercourse with mankind.- He travelled, perhaps, beyond the limits of India, he prayed in solitude, he reflected on the Vedas and on the mission of Muhammad, and he questioned with equal anxietv the learned priest and the simple devotee about the Plato and will of God and the path to happiness." 1469-1539.
Extracts or selections from the writings of Kab?r appear Adi-Granth, and Kabir is often, and Gorakh sometimes, quoted or referred to. 2 chance meeting with some Fakirs (Malcolm, Sketch. pp. 8, 13) and the more methodical instructions of a Dervish (Dabistan, ii. 247) are each referred to as having subdued the mind of Nanak, or as having given him the impulse which determined the future course of his life. In Malcolm may be seen those stories Which please the multitude, to the effect that although Nanak, when the spirit of God was upon him, bestowed all the grain in his brother-in-law's stores by charity, they were nevertheless always found replenished; or that Daulat Khan Lodi, the employer of Nanak's brother-in-law. although aware that much had really been given away, nevertheless found everything correct on balancing the accounts of receipts and expenditure. The Sikh accounts represent Nanak to have met the Emperor Babar, and to have greatly edified the adventurous sovereign by his demeanour and conversation, while he perplexed him by saying that both were kings and were about to found dynasties of ten. I have traced but two allusions to Babar by name, and one by obvious inference, in the Adi-Granth, viz. in the Asa Rag and Tailang portions, and these bear reference simply to the destruction of a village, and to his incursions as a conqueror. Muhsin Fani (Dabistan, ii. 249) preserves an idle report that Nanak, being dissatisfied with the Afghans, called the Mughals 1
in the
A
into India. 3
Nanak is generally said to have travelled over the whole
have gone through. Persia, and to have visited Malcolm, Sketch, p. 16, and Forster, Travels, i. 295-6), but the number of years he employed in wandering, and the date of his final return to his native province, are alike uncertain. He had several companions, among whom Mardana, the rababi or harper (or rather a chanter, and player upon a Stringed instrument like a guitar), Lahna, who was his succesof.
India, to
Mecca
(cf.
sor, Bala, a Sindhu.Jat, and Ram Das, styled Buddha or the Ancient, are the most frequently referred to. In pictorial representations Mardana always accompanies Nanak. When at, Mecca., a story is related that Nanak was found sleeping with his feet towards the temple, that he was angrily asked how hej dared to dishonour the house of the Lord, and that he replied
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