1 Birth of Nanak,
2 1469 a.p.
3 meng
4 PART II.—THE RISE OF THE SIKHS.
5 CHAPTER I.
6 THE HISTORY OF THE SIKH GURUS.
7 1—GURU NANAK.
8 ANAK * was born at Talwandi, a village on the Rdvi, above Ldhore, in
9 the Sharkpur Tahsil, in the Samvat year 1526 (1469 s.p.), at the time
10 when the Emperor Bahlol Lodi ruled India. He was the son of Kdlu, a
11 shopkeeper of Talwandi, and belonged to the Bedi sub-division of the
12 Chhatris. The tract between the Ravi and Chindb is called the Richnd
13 Dodb. This vast delta, during the period immediately precéding the
14 establishment of the Sikh religion, was inhabited by the Jats and Bhuttis,
15 The latter were a nomadic tribe, but had settled down here, after having
16 embraced the Mahomedan religion, at the time of the Mahomedan incur-
17 sions from the districts north of the Oxus. With the exceptions of a few
18 small fields cultivated by the Juts, the entire country was dreary and void,
19 Great jealousy and hatred existed in those times between the Hindus and the
20 Mahomedans, and the whole non-Musalman population was subjected to perse-
21 cution by the Mahomedan rulers. The tract between the two rivers was called
22 the Bar, and is still known by that name. The village Talwandi was in those
23 * The incidents of the life of Nanak, the founder of the religious syetom of the Sikhs, have
24 been fully described in his Janam-sakh{s or narratives of his life, but these are so full of fictions
25 and fabrications, as to render it almost impossible to distinguish between the imaginary and the
26 real; hence the history of the Sikhs during this period is involyed ina haze of mystery. The
27 most authentic of these narratives was found in an ancient manuscript believed to belong to the
28 latter part of the time of Guru Arjan, from the fact that its characters and the idioms in which
29 it was composed were obviously ancient, and that the phraseology agreed with the known
30 diction of the Guru. A copy of this manuscript was presented to the library of the East
31 India House by the celebrated H. P. Colebrook, and it has been translated verbatim into
32 English by Dr. Trampp, and incorporated in his valuable translation of the “ Adi Granth” of
33 Baba Nanak. This Janam-sakhi is written in the most bombastic and hyperbolical language,
34 picturing the preposterous performances attributed to Nanakin the highest colours; but it
35 may nevertheless be considered a sober composition when compared with the works of the
36 same kind of later origin. I have catefully compared the Janam-sakht of the India Office
37 library, translated by Dr. Tumpp, with the current Janam-sakhta, and find much in the
38 latter which is omitted in the former. This fact clearly proves, 1 think, that the additions are
39 of a later date and deserving of little credit. On the other hand, as observed by Dr. Trumpp,
40 every point in the old Janam-sakht which throws an unfavourable or doubtful light on Nanak
41 has been carefully passed over in the latter Janam-sakhis. In my sketch of the life of Baba
42 Nanak [have adopted what seemed to me the safest course, namely, that of mentioning all facts
43 which are found both in the old Janam-sakht alluded to above, and in the latter Janam-sakhis,
44 including those of which an epitome appears under mark B. in Dr. ‘Trumpp’s compilation, since
45 these facts receive corroboration from all available sources. Fabulous stories have been
46 avoided as far as possible, and an attempt has been made to describe facts in their nakedness.
47 Yet it should be remembered that the original writers were men who occupied a very low
48 position in the scale of civilization, and whose education and mode of life were far inferior
49 to those of the growing generation. If some accounts appear to be coloured, it is because
50 they are so in the text; and, however, phantastic they may appear, there can be little
51 room for doubt that some of them are, at least, in their substance, true, while they present
52 to the mind of the reader an exact idea of the veneration and awe in which the name of the
53 great Sikh reformer is still held by thousands upon thousands of his zealous followers and
54 admirers, and express the true notions which they to this day entertain of his genius and
55 maori Sanam Patri of Babs Ninak ten, at the instance of G
56 she Janam rt of Ba anak was written, at the instance of Guru Angad, by Patra
57 Makha Khatri, of Sulanpu as orally dictated to him by Bala, a Sindhu Jat, ale. porpanion
58 of Nanak in his travels. It was written in 1582 Samvat.
59 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com