Guru Nanak Dev - Early Life

Early Life

Nanak was born on 15 April 1469, now celebrated as Prakash Divas of Guru Nanak Dev, at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī, now called Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, Pakistan. Today, his birthplace is marked by Gurdwara Janam Asthan. His father, Kalyan Chand Das Bedi, popularly shortened to Kalu Mehta, was a patwari (accountant) for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi, employed by of a Muslim landlord of that area, Rai Bular Bhatti. Nanak’s mother was Tripta. He had one elder sister, Bibi Nanaki who became a spiritual figure in her own right.

Nanaki married Jai Ram and went to his town of Sultanpur, where he was the steward (modi) to Daulat Khan Lodi, the eventual governor of Lahore. Nanak was attached to his older sister, and, in traditional Indian fashion, he followed her to Sultanpur to live with her and her husband. Nanak also found work with Daulat Khan, when he was around 16 years old. This was a formative time for Nanak, as the Puratan Janam Sakhi suggests, and in his numerous allusions to governmental structure in his hymns, most likely gained at this time.

Commentaries on his life give details of his blossoming awareness from a young age. At the age of five, Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects. At age seven, his father, Kalu Mehta, enrolled him at the village school as was the custom. Notable lore recounts that as a child Nanak astonished his teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first letter of the alphabet, which is an almost straight stroke in Persian or Arabic, resembling the mathematical version of one, as denoting the unity or oneness of God. Other childhood accounts refer to strange and miraculous events about Nanak witnessed by Rai Bular such as a poisonous cobra being seen to shield the sleeping child’s head from the harsh sunlight.