Guru Nanak Dev Jee was born on 15th april 1469
now celebrated as Prakash Dihara of Guru Nanak, into a
Hindu Khatri family of the highest caste, in the village
of Rāi Bhōi dī Talwandī, now called Nankana Sahib, near
Lahore, Pakistan. Today, his birthplace is marked by
Gurdwara Janam Asthan. His father, Mehta Kalyan Das,
popularly short upp as Mehta Kalu, was the patwari
(accountant) of crop revenue for the village of Talwandi
in the employment of a Muslim landlord of that area, Rai
Bular Bhatti . Guru Nanak's mother was Tripta Devi
and he had one elder sister, Bebe Nanaki.
Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, PakistanThe earliest biographical sources on the life
of Guru Nanak recognized today are the Janamsākhīs (life accounts) and the vārs
(expounding verses) of the scribe Bhai Gurdas. The most popular Janamsākhī are
written by a close companion of the Guru, Bhai Bala.
Bhai Gurdas, a purported scribe of the Gurū Granth, also wrote about Nanak's
life in his vārs. Although these too were compiled some time after Guru Nanak's
time, they are less detailed than the Janamsākhīs. The Janamsākhīs recount in
minute detail the circumstances of the birth of the guru. The Janamsakhis 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 and remarked that "I regret that I shall never live to see young
Guru Nanak as an adult.
At the age of five years Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects.
At age seven, his father, Mehta Kalu, 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.
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