Guru Nanak Dev Ji
1469–1539 · First Sikh Guru, founder of the Sikh faith
The founder of Sikhi, whose teachings on the oneness of God, equality, honest living and service form the foundation of the faith. He travelled widely across Asia before settling at Kartarpur.
Life
Born at Rai Bhoi Ki Talwandi — now Nankana Sahib — in 1469, Nanak worked as a steward in Sultanpur Lodhi until, at about thirty, the experience remembered as his revelation at the river Bein set him on the road. With the Muslim musician Mardana at his side, he travelled for some two decades on the great journeys (udasis) the tradition carries east to Assam, south toward Sri Lanka, north into the mountains and west to Mecca and Baghdad — teaching in song, in the language of the people.1,2,3
The community at Kartarpur
Around 1522 he settled at Kartarpur on the Ravi and led the first Sikh community as a farming householder: meditation on the divine Name, honest work, food shared in the common langar — the pattern of the faith’s foundations lived daily. Nearly a thousand of his hymns, including the Japji recited each morning, anchor the Guru Granth Sahib, opening with the declaration of one God.1,2,3
Succession
Before his death at Kartarpur in 1539 he passed over his sons and installed the disciple Lehna as Guru Angad — establishing that the Guruship follows devotion, not descent, and securing the young community’s future through nine further Gurus.1,2,3
In the chronicle
Before you go
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