Born 1469 at Talwandi, died 1539 at Kartarpur: the founder of Sikhi, 974 hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib, and a working village built to prove the teaching.
Guru Nanak (1469 to 1539) was the founder of Sikhi and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. He composed 974 hymns that stand in the Guru Granth Sahib, including Japji Sahib which opens the volume, travelled across South Asia and beyond on journeys known as the udasis, and settled at Kartarpur on the Ravi where he established the first Sikh community around collective work, shared food and congregational worship.
| Born | 1469 at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Punjab, Pakistan |
|---|---|
| Died | 1539 at Kartarpur on the Ravi, now in Punjab, Pakistan |
| Guruship | 1469 to 1539 |
| Succeeded by | Guru Angad, his disciple Bhai Lehna, chosen over both his sons |
| In the Guru Granth Sahib | 974 hymns, including Japji Sahib which opens the volume. Counts vary slightly between sources, with 976 also cited |
| Gurpurab | Guru Nanak Gurpurab is observed at Kartik Purnima, falling in November, though most historians date the birth to April. See the note on dates below |
| Known for | Founding Sikhi, the udasi journeys, and establishing the first Sikh community at Kartarpur |
Guru Nanak was born in 1469 at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, west of Lahore, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. He worked as a storekeeper at Sultanpur Lodhi before the turn that Sikh accounts place at the Bein rivulet, after which he began the teaching that would occupy the rest of his life. The formulation attributed to him at that moment refuses the categories on offer: neither Hindu nor Muslim, but a human being before God.
The travels followed. The udasis took him, by the accounts, across the subcontinent to Assam and Sri Lanka, north into the Himalaya, and west toward Baghdad and Mecca. He went as an argument rather than a pilgrim, visiting the centres of established religion and disputing with those who ran them. Through most of it he was accompanied by Bhai Mardana, a Muslim rabab player from his own village, who set the hymns to music as they were composed. That partnership is the point rather than a detail: the founding relationship of Sikhi crossed the line the teaching refused to recognise.
What he built at the end is more instructive than the travels. From about 1522 he settled at Kartarpur and farmed, and the community that gathered there ran on three practices still recited as the summary of Sikh life: kirat karo, earn by honest work; naam japo, hold the divine name; vand chhako, share what you have. Langar, the free kitchen open to anyone regardless of caste, belongs to this period. The teaching was demonstrated as a working village rather than as a renunciation, and Guru Nanak remained a householder throughout.
His 974 hymns entered the Adi Granth when Guru Arjan compiled it in 1604, and Japji Sahib was placed at the head of the volume. Before his death in 1539 he passed the succession not to either of his sons but to his disciple Bhai Lehna, renaming him Angad, meaning a limb of his own body. That choice set the pattern the Guruship followed for the next 169 years: merit over inheritance, and the light held to be one across the ten who carried it.
Still recited together as the summary of Sikh life.
| Practice | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kirat karo | Earn your living by honest work, as a householder rather than by renunciation or begging |
| Naam japo | Hold the divine name in constant remembrance |
| Vand chhako | Share what you earn, of which langar is the standing institutional form |
The succession he began, passed by merit rather than birth.
| Guru | Guruship | Chosen as |
|---|---|---|
| Guru Nanak | 1469 to 1539 | The founder |
| Guru Angad | 1539 to 1552 | A disciple, chosen over Guru Nanak's two sons |
| Guru Amar Das | 1552 to 1574 | A disciple, aged 73 at succession |
The date of Guru Nanak's birth is genuinely unsettled, and it is the clearest case of the wider calendar problem. Guru Nanak Gurpurab is observed at Kartik Purnima, a full moon falling in November, and that is when the anniversary is kept worldwide. Most historians, working from the older sources, place the birth in the month of Vaisakh, corresponding to April. Both positions are held by serious people and the observance has not moved. Underneath sits the calendar dispute itself: the Nanakshahi calendar designed by Pal Singh Purewal was adopted by the SGPC in 2003 to fix Sikh dates against the solar year, amended under pressure in 2010, and the SGPC's current version has drifted back toward the lunisolar Bikrami reckoning it was built to replace, while the original is still kept by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and by gurdwara bodies abroad. Any single date printed for a gurpurab is therefore one body's reckoning rather than the reckoning.
Sevahey sells nothing connected to Guru Nanak and publishes no image of him. The two places most associated with his life, Nankana Sahib where he was born and Kartarpur where he died, are both in Pakistan, and Sevahey has no Sevaks there, arranges no travel and has no involvement in the Kartarpur Corridor pilgrimage or its permits. Those are matters for the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Indian government's corridor registration.
An ardas can be offered in your name at a gurudwara in India on the occasions tied to Guru Nanak, most often at his gurpurab in November. The granthi stands before the Guru Granth Sahib and speaks your name, your gotra and your request aloud, and a verified Sevak sends you the hukamnama and same-day proof. Families abroad most often ask at the gurpurab itself, when they would have gone in person.
Guru Nanak (1469 to 1539) was the founder of Sikhi and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. He composed 974 hymns that stand in the Guru Granth Sahib, travelled widely on the journeys known as the udasis, and established the first Sikh community at Kartarpur on the Ravi, built around honest work, shared food and congregational worship.
At Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, west of Lahore, in 1469. The town is now called Nankana Sahib and lies in Punjab, Pakistan, where Gurdwara Janam Asthan marks the site. Guru Nanak died in 1539 at Kartarpur on the Ravi, also in present-day Pakistan.
Guru Nanak taught one formless Divine accessible without priest or intermediary, and rejected caste, ritual performed without love, and renunciation of the world. The practical summary is three phrases still recited together: kirat karo, earn by honest work; naam japo, hold the divine name; vand chhako, share what you earn. He remained a householder and a farmer rather than an ascetic.
974 hymns stand in the Guru Granth Sahib under his name, the second largest contribution after Guru Arjan's. Counts differ slightly between sources and counting conventions, with 976 also cited. His Japji Sahib was placed at the head of the volume by Guru Arjan and remains the first bani of the Sikh morning.
The udasis were Guru Nanak's journeys, undertaken roughly between 1500 and 1521. The accounts take him across the subcontinent to Assam and Sri Lanka, north into the Himalaya, and west toward Baghdad and Mecca, visiting the centres of established religion to dispute with those who ran them. Bhai Mardana, a Muslim rabab player from his own village, accompanied him through much of this and set the hymns to music.
Guru Nanak passed the Guruship to his disciple Bhai Lehna rather than to either of his sons, renaming him Angad, meaning a limb of his own body. The choice established succession by merit rather than inheritance, which held for the next 169 years, and it underlies the Sikh doctrine that the ten Gurus carried one light rather than being ten separate teachers.
Guru Nanak Gurpurab is observed at Kartik Purnima, a full moon falling in November. The date is disputed in scholarship rather than in practice: most historians place the birth in Vaisakh, corresponding to April, while the observance has stayed at Kartik Purnima. The wider Nanakshahi calendar dispute means gurpurab dates published by different Sikh bodies do not always agree.
Bhai Mardana was a Muslim rabab player from Guru Nanak's own village who accompanied him through most of the udasi journeys, setting the hymns to music as they were composed. The partnership is treated as foundational rather than incidental, since the central relationship of early Sikhi crossed exactly the religious boundary Guru Nanak's teaching refused to recognise.
No. Both sites are in Pakistan, where Sevahey has no Sevaks, and it arranges no travel and has no involvement in the Kartarpur Corridor or its permits. What a verified Sevak can do is request an ardas in your name at a gurudwara in India, including on Guru Nanak Gurpurab, and send you the hukamnama and same-day proof.
Choose the gurudwara, name your sankalp, receive the proof.
* Sevahey publishes no image of a Guru. A full seva is ₹899; sevas start from ₹251. Sevahey is a service platform and does not promise a spiritual, medical, financial, legal, or personal outcome from any prayer or ritual.