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Biography of NanakName: NanakBirth Date: April 15, 1469 Death Date: October 10, 1538 Place of Birth: Rai Bhoi di Talvandi, India Nationality: Indian Gender: Male Occupations: reformer Nanak Nanak (1469-1538) was an Indian religious reformer and founder of the Sikh religion. He combined elements of both the Moslem and the Hindu traditions in his teachings.Nanak was born into an upper-caste Hindu family near Lahore. His environment was richly immersed in Hindu and Moslem religious culture, especially their mystical and devotional forms. The religious life of the times was marked by a syncretic vitality which saw the emergence of a number of ecstatic devotional movements combining aspects of both religious traditions. He married and fathered several children and worked as a storekeeper and clerk for the Moslem governor of the province.But Nanak's sensibilities moved him more and more to feel a deep, if at first ill-defined, religious calling. He finally underwent a decisive religious experience in which--according to Sikh tradition--he had a vision of God's presence summoning him to a prophetic mission for the "one God …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…by his designated successors--the gurus (teachers).The little sect was at first rigorously pacifist. Nanak's sayings were collected in the principal Sikh holy book--the Adi Granth (Original Book), and the life of the community was centered on the famous place of worship at Amritsar. However, as the community grew in strength and economic power, it encountered increasing hostility from both Moslem and Hindu orthodoxy. Eventually, it assumed the role of an aggressive, often warlike, socio-political sect which, ironically, provided the British colonial armies with some of their best fighting men. Further Reading For material on Nanak see Ernst Trumpp, The Adi Granth (1877); Max A. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors (6 vols., 1909); Hari Ram Gupta, A History of the Sikhs from Nadir Shah's Invasion to the Rise of Ranjit Singh, 1739-1799 (3 vols., 1944-1952); and John C. Archer, The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus, Moslems, Christians, and Ahmadiyyas (1946). |