Art, literature & culture

Origins of Sikhism

1469

The date given is the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, in the village of Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. Nanak taught devotion to one God, rejected caste distinctions and ritual formalism, and stressed honest work, sharing with others and remembering God. After travelling widely, he settled in Kartarpur and gathered a community around him. He was followed by nine more Gurus, who built the foundations of the faith: Guru Arjan compiled the sacred scripture and began the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and in 1699 Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa, a community of initiated Sikhs. Before his death in 1708, Gobind Singh declared that the scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, would be the eternal Guru. Sikhism is one of the world's major religions, with most followers in the Punjab region.

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