Guru Nanak Dev (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ, Gurū Nānak Dēv) (Born in hindu Bedi Mehta family in Nankana Sahib, Punjab, India (now Pakistan) on 15 April 1469 – 7 September 1539, Kartarpur, Punjab, India (now Pakistan)), was the founder of Sikhism, and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.
Beside followers of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev is revered by Punjabi Hindus, Sahajdhari Sikhs and Sindhi Hindus across the Indian subcontinent. His primary message to society was recorded to be "devotion of thought and excellence of conduct as the first of duties".
Stories of Guru Nanak's lifeThe stories of Guru Nanak's life are collected in writings known as the 'Janamsākhīs'. The most popular Janamsākhī purports to have been written by Bhai Bala close companion, before Guru Nanak left this world. However, the writing style and language employed have left scholars such as Max Arthur Macauliffe certain that they were composed after Guru Nanak left this world.
Bhai Gurdas, the scribe of the Gurū Granth Sāhib, also wrote about Nanak's life in his vārs. However, these too were compiled after Guru Nanak's demise, and are less detailed than the Janamsākhīs. Sikhs tend to hold Gurdas's accounts in higher esteem because of the author's generally perceived trustworthiness.
Early lifeGuru Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 in a Hindu family of the Bedi Khatri clan, in the village of Rāi Bhōi dī Talvaṇḍī, now called Nankana Sahib (after the Guru), near Lahore, Pakistan. Today, his birth place is marked by Gurdwara Janam Asthan. His father, Mehta Kalyan Das Bedi, also known as Mehta Kalu, was a Patwari—an accountant of land revenue in the government. He worked for the Muslim landlord of the village, Rai Bullar. Guru Nanak's mother was Tripta Devi and he had one older sister, Nanaki.
Gurdwara Nankana SahibThe Janamsākhīs recount in minute detail all the circumstances of the birth of the guru. They claim that at his birth, an astrologer who came to write his horoscope insisted on seeing the child. On seeing the infant, he is said to have worshipped him with clasped hands. The astrologer then remarked that he regretted that he should never live to see young Guru Nanak's eminence, worshipped as he should be alike by Hindus and Muslims, and not merely by Hindus.
At the age of five years Nanak is said to have begun to discuss spiritual and divine subjects. At age seven, his father Mehta Kalu enrolled him at the village school. Nanak left school early after he had shown his scholastic proficiency. He then took to private study and meditation.
All the Janamsākhīs are unanimous in stating that Nanak courted the retirement of the local forest and the society of the religious men who frequented it. Several of them were profoundly versed in the Indian religious literature of the age. They had also travelled far and wide within the limits of ancient India, and met its renowned religious teachers. Nanak thus became acquainted with the latest teachings of Indian philosophers and reformers.