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75-402: Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi : ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: [gʊɾuː naːnəkᵊ] , pronunciation ), also known as Bābā Nānak ('Father Nānak'), was an Indian spritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus . Nanak is said to have travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people

150-539: A Sandhu Jat family, Bala was also a close associate of Bhai Mardana . According to the Bhai Bala janamsakhis , he traveled with Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana on all of their great journeys around the world including China , Mecca , and around India . He supposedly died in Khadur Sahib, in his late 70s, in 1544. There has been considerable discussion as regards to Bhai Bala's existence, particularly within

225-523: A competition. Another source of dispute has been the Baghdad stone, bearing an inscription in a Turkish script. Some interpret the inscription as saying Baba Nanak Fakir was there in 1511–1512; others read it as saying 1521–1522 (and that he lived in the Middle East for 11 years away from his family). Others, particularly Western scholars, argue that the stone inscription is from the 19th century and

300-623: A formative time for him, as the puratan janamsakhi suggests, and in his numerous allusions to governmental structure in his hymns, most likely gained at this time. Around the age of 55, Nanak settled in Kartarpur , living there until his death in September 1539. During this period, he went on short journeys to the Nath yogi centre of Achal, and the Sufi centres of Pakpattan and Multan . By

375-434: A long vowel (/a:/, /e:/, /i:/, /o:/, /u:/, /ɛ:/, /ɔː/, which triggers shortening in these vowels) in the penult of a word, e.g. ਔਖਾ aukkhā "difficult", ਕੀਤੀ kī̆ttī "did", ਪੋਤਾ pō̆ttā "grandson", ਪੰਜਾਬੀ panjā̆bbī "Punjabi", ਹਾਕ hākă "call, shout", but plural ਹਾਕਾਂ hā̆kkā̃ . Except in this case, where this unmarked gemination is often etymologically rooted in archaic forms, and has become phonotactically regular,

450-486: A number of other anomalies, which Dr. Kirpal Singh has explicated in his Punjabi work janamsakhi tradition. Trilochan Singh counters some of the points raised by stating that Mehma Parkash and Mani Singh janamsakhi both mention Bhai Bala. Bala is further mentioned in Suchak Prasang Guru Ka by Bhai Behlo written during Guru Arjan Dev’s time. Bhai Behlo says, “Bala discarded his body there, At

525-462: A subject of dispute, with modern scholarship questioning the details and authenticity of many claims. For example, Callewaert and Snell (1994) state that early Sikh texts do not contain such stories. From when the travel stories first appear in hagiographic accounts of Guru Nanak, centuries after his death, they continue to become more sophisticated as time goes on, with the late phase Puratan version describing four missionary journeys, which differ from

600-547: A subscript ਵ would produce ਸ੍ਵ ( sʋə- ) as in the Sanskrit word ਸ੍ਵਰਗ (/ sʋə ɾᵊgə/, "heaven"), but followed by a regular ਵ would yield ਸਵ - ( səʋ- ) as in the common word ਸਵਰਗ (/ səʋ əɾᵊgə̆/, "heaven"), borrowed earlier from Sanskrit but subsequently changed. The natural Punjabi reflex, ਸੁਰਗ /sʊɾᵊgə̆/, is also used in everyday speech. For example, the regular ਹ is used after vowels as in ਮੀਂਹ (transcribed as mĩh ( IPA: [míː] ), "rain"). The subjoined ਹ ( ha ) acts

675-549: A superstition prevailing in contemporary northern India , a child born in the Kattak month was believed to be weak and unlucky, hence why the work states that Nanak was born in that month. Bhai Gurdas , having written on a full-moon-day of the Kattak month several decades after Nanak's death, mentions that Nanak had "obtained omniscience" on the same day, and it was now the author's turn to "get divine light." According to eyewitness Sikh chronicles, known as Bhatt Vahis , Guru Nanak

750-501: A young age. For instance, at the age of five, Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects. At age seven, his father enrolled him at the village school, as per custom. Notable lore recounts that, as a child, Nanak astonished his teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first letter of the alphabet , resembling the mathematical version of one, as denoting the unity or oneness of God. Other stories of his childhood refer to strange and miraculous events about Nanak, such as

825-496: Is also a conjunct form of the letter yayyā , ਯ→੍ਯ , a later form, which functions similarly to the yakaśă , and is used exclusively for Sanskrit borrowings, and even then rarely. In addition, miniaturized versions of the letters ਚ, ਟ, ਤ, and ਨ are also found in limited use as subscript letters in Sikh scripture. Only the subjoined /ɾə/ and /hə/ are commonly used; usage of the subjoined /ʋə/ and conjoined forms of /jə/, already rare,

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900-476: Is derived from Sharada in the Northwestern group, of which it is the only major surviving member, with full modern currency. Notable features include: Gurmukhi evolved in cultural and historical circumstances notably different from other regional scripts, for the purpose of recording scriptures of Sikhism , a far less Sanskritized cultural tradition than others of the subcontinent. This independence from

975-984: Is generally believed to have roots in the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet by way of the Brahmi script , which developed further into the Northwestern group ( Sharada , or Śāradā, and its descendants, including Landa and Takri ), the Central group ( Nagari and its descendants, including Devanagari , Gujarati and Modi ) and the Eastern group (evolved from Siddhaṃ , including Bangla , Tibetan , and some Nepali scripts), as well as several prominent writing systems of Southeast Asia and Sinhala in Sri Lanka, in addition to scripts used historically in Central Asia for extinct languages like Saka and Tocharian . Gurmukhi

1050-446: Is increasingly scarce in modern contexts. To express vowels (singular, sură ), Gurmukhī, as an abugida , makes use of obligatory diacritics called lagā̃ . Gurmukhī is similar to Brahmi scripts in that all consonants are followed by an inherent schwa sound. This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at

1125-501: Is not always obligatory: The letter ਸ਼, already in use by the time of the earliest Punjabi grammars produced, along with ਜ਼ and ਲ਼, enabled the previously unmarked distinction of /s/ and the well-established phoneme /ʃ/, which is used even in native echo doublets e.g. rō̆ṭṭī-śō̆ṭṭī "stuff to eat"; the loansounds f , z , x , and ġ as distinct phonemes are less well-established, decreasing in that order and often dependent on exposure to Hindi-Urdu norms. The character ਲ਼ ( ḷa ),

1200-604: Is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhī. However, it may occasionally be used in Sanskritised text or in dictionaries for extra phonetic information. When it is used, it represents the suppression of the inherent vowel. The effect of this is shown below: The ḍaṇḍī (।) is used in Gurmukhi to mark the end of a sentence. A doubled ḍaṇḍī , or doḍaṇḍī (॥) marks the end of a verse. The visarga symbol (ਃ U+0A03)

1275-654: Is supported by the Guru Granth Sahib. Bhai Gurdas says: ਗੁਰ ਪਰਮੇਸਰੁ ਇਕੁ ਹੈ ਸਚਾ ਸਾਹੁ ਜਗਤੁ ਵਣਜਾਰਾ। The Guru and God are one; He is the true master and the whole world craves for Him. Additionally, in the Guru Granth Sahib, it is stated: ਨਾਨਕ ਸੇਵਾ ਕਰਹੁ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਰ ਸਫਲ ਦਰਸਨ ਕੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਲੇਖਾ ਮੰਗੈ ਨ ਕੋਈ ॥੨॥ O Nanak, serve the Guru, the Lord Incarnate; the Blessed Vision of His Darshan is profitable, and in

1350-422: Is the janamsakhi attributed to Bhai Mani Singh , a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh who was approached by some Sikhs with a request that he should prepare an authentic account of Nanak's life. As such, it is said that Bhai Mani Singh wrote his story with the express intention of correcting heretical accounts of Nanak. One popular janamsakhi was allegedly written by Bhai Bala , a close companion of Nanak. However,

1425-506: Is used in all spheres of culture, arts, education, and administration, with a firmly established common and secular character. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic , and is currently the 14th most used script in the world. The prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhī letters were primarily used by the Guru's followers, gurmukhs (literally, those who face, or follow,

1500-634: Is used very occasionally in Gurmukhī. It can represent an abbreviation, as the period is used in English, though the period for abbreviation, like commas, exclamation points, and other Western punctuation, is freely used in modern Gurmukhī. Gurmukhī has its own set of digits, which function exactly as in other versions of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system . These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are sometimes replaced by standard Western Arabic numerals . *In some Punjabi dialects,

1575-684: The Guru Granth Sahib , with some of the major prayers being the Japji Sahib ( jap , 'to recite'; ji and sahib are suffixes signifying respect); the Asa di Var ('Ballad of Hope'); and the Sidh Gosht ('Discussion with the Siddhas '). It is part of Sikh religious belief that the spirit of Nanak's sanctity , divinity, and religious authority had descended upon each of

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1650-539: The Kashmiri language . With the last known inscription dating to 1204 C.E., the early 13th century marks a milestone in the development of Sharada. The regional variety in Punjab continued to evolve from this stage through the 14th century; during this period it starts to appear in forms closely resembling Gurmukhī and other Landa scripts . By the 15th century, Sharada had evolved so considerably that epigraphists denote

1725-524: The Miharban version. Some of the stories about Guru Nanak's extensive travels first appear in the 19th-century Puratan janamsakhi, though even this version does not mention Nanak's travel to Baghdad. Such embellishments and insertion of new stories, according to Callewaert and Snell (1993), closely parallel claims of miracles by Islamic pirs found in Sufi tadhkirahs of the same era, giving reason to believe that these legends may have been written in

1800-450: The Sikh academic field . Bhai Gurdas , who has listed all Guru Nanak's prominent disciples (in his 11th Var), does not mention the name of Bhai Bala (this may be an oversight, for he does not mention Rai Bular either). However Bhai Mani Singh 's Bhagat Ratanwali, which contains essentially the same list as that by Bhai Gurdas, but with more detail, also does not mention Bhai Bala. There are

1875-510: The Vilayat Vali janamsakhi . Gurbilas Patashahi 6, written 1718, also attributed to Bhai Mani Singh contradicts Mani Singh’s Janamsakhi as it instead says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. The Sikh records state that Nanak died on the 10th day of the Asauj month of Samvat 1596 (22 September 1539 CE), at the age of 70 years, 5 months, and 7 days. This further suggests that he

1950-595: The harvest festival of Baisakhi. Therefore, holding Nanak's birth anniversary celebrations immediately after Vaisakhi would have resulted in thin attendance, and therefore, smaller donations for the Sikh shrines. On the other hand, by the Kattak full moon day, the major Hindu festival of Diwali was already over, and the peasants—who had surplus cash from crop sales—were able to donate generously. Nanak's parents, father Kalyan Chand Das Bedi (commonly shortened to Mehta Kalu ) and mother Mata Tripta , were both Hindu Khatris and employed as merchants. His father, in particular,

2025-673: The mukhă (face, or mouth) of the Gurus. Consequently, the script that was used to write the resulting scripture may have also been designated with the same name. The name for the Perso–Arabic alphabet for the Punjabi language, Shahmukhi , was modeled on the term Gurmukhi . The Gurmukhī alphabet contains thirty-five base letters ( akkhară ), traditionally arranged in seven rows of five letters each. The first three letters, or mātarā vāhakă ("vowel bearer"), are distinct because they form

2100-488: The 15th century. The second theory states that Nanak was a Guru , not a prophet. According to Singha (2009): Sikhism does not subscribe to the theory of incarnation or the concept of prophet hood. But it has a pivotal concept of Guru. He is not an incarnation of God, not even a prophet. He is an illumined soul. The third theory is that Guru Nanak is the incarnation of God. This has been supported by many Sikhs including Bhai Gurdas , Bhai Vir Singh , Santhok Singh and

2175-678: The 19th and 20th century, and exist in many versions. In 1508, Nanak visited the Sylhet region in Bengal . The janamsakhis suggest that Nanak visited the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya in 1510–11 CE. The Baghdad inscription remains the basis of writing by Indian scholars that Guru Nanak journeyed in the Middle East, with some claiming he visited Jerusalem , Mecca , Vatican , Azerbaijan and Sudan . The hagiographic details are

2250-621: The 19th century on Kartik Purnima in Amritsar attracted a large number of Sikhs. The Sikh community leader Giani Sant Singh did not like this, thus starting a festival at the Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple on the same day, presenting it as the birth anniversary celebration of Guru Nanak. Macauliffe also notes that Vaisakh (March–April) already saw a number of important festivals—such as Holi , Rama Navami , and Vaisakhi —therefore people would be busy in agricultural activities after

2325-419: The 35 original letters, there are six supplementary consonants in official usage, referred to as the navīnă ṭollī or navīnă vargă , meaning "new group", created by placing a dot ( bindī ) at the foot ( pairă ) of the consonant to create pairĭ bindī consonants. These are not present in the Guru Granth Sahib or old texts. These are used most often for loanwords, though not exclusively, and their usage

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2400-464: The Guru, as opposed to a manmukh ); the script thus came to be known as gurmukhī , "the script of those guided by the Guru." Guru Angad is credited in the Sikh tradition with the creation and standardization of Gurmukhi script from earlier Śāradā -descended scripts native to the region. It is now the standard writing script for the Punjabi language in India. The original Sikh scriptures and most of

2475-408: The Kattak birth tradition. It is the only Janamsakhi that does. Bhai Bala is said to have obtained Nanak's horoscope from Nanak's uncle Lalu, according to which, Nanak was born on a date corresponding to 20 October 1469 CE. However, this janamsakhi was written by Handalis—a sect of Sikhs who followed a Sikh-convert known as Handal—attempting to depict the founder as superior to Nanak. According to

2550-673: The Kattak month in November. The earliest record of such a celebration in Nankana Sahib is from 1868 CE. There may be several reasons for the adoption of the Kattak birthdate by the Sikh community. For one, it may have been the date of Nanak's enlightenment or "spiritual birth" in 1496, as suggested by the Dabestan-e Mazaheb . Some of the sources that support the Katak birthday incident: The Bala Janamasakhi supports

2625-683: The Punjabi language is its tone system. The script has no separate symbol for tones, but they correspond to the tonal consonants that once represented voiced aspirates as well as older * h . To differentiate between consonants, the Punjabi tonal consonants of the fourth column, ਘ kà , ਝ cà , ਢ ṭà , ਧ tà , and ਭ pà , are often transliterated in the way of the voiced aspirate consonants gha , jha , ḍha , dha , and bha respectively, although Punjabi lacks these sounds. Tones in Punjabi can be either rising, neutral, or falling: The letters now always represent unaspirated consonants, and are unvoiced in onset positions and voiced elsewhere. In addition to

2700-410: The Punjabi language, it served as the main medium of literacy in Punjab and adjoining areas for centuries when the earliest schools were attached to gurdwaras . The first natively produced grammars of the Punjabi language were written in the 1860s in Gurmukhi. The Singh Sabha Movement of the late 19th century, a movement to revitalize Sikh institutions which had declined during colonial rule after

2775-658: The Sanskritic model allowed it the freedom to evolve unique orthographical features. These include: and other features. From the 10th century onwards, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh ) and Kashmir . Sharada proper was eventually restricted to very limited ceremonial use in Kashmir, as it grew increasingly unsuitable for writing

2850-769: The Sikhs. The Takri alphabet developed through the Dēvāśēṣa stage of the Sharada script from the 14th-18th centuries and is found mainly in the Hill States such as Chamba, Himachal Pradesh and surrounding areas, where it is called Chambeali . In Jammu Division , it developed into Dogri, which was a "highly imperfect" script later consciously influenced in part by Gurmukhi during the late 19th century, possibly to provide it an air of authority by having it resemble scripts already established in official and literary capacities, though not displacing Takri. The local Takri variants got

2925-533: The age of 70. According to Sikh hagiography , his body was never found. When the quarreling Hindus and Muslims tugged at the sheet covering his body, they found instead a heap of flowers—and so Nanak’s simple faith would, in course of time, flower into a religion, beset by its own contradictions and customary practices. During first quarter of the 16th century, Nanak went on long udasiya ('journeys') for spiritual pursuits. A verse authored by him states that he visited several places in " nau-khand " ('the nine regions of

3000-403: The basis for independent vowels and are not consonants, or vianjană , like the remaining letters are, and except for the second letter aiṛā are never used on their own; see § Vowel diacritics for further details. The pair of fricatives, or mūlă vargă ("base class"), share the row, which is followed by the next five sets of consonants, with the consonants in each row being homorganic ,

3075-422: The beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead. Independent vowels are constructed using the three vowel-bearing characters: ੳ ūṛā , ਅ aiṛā , and ੲ īṛī . With the exception of aiṛā (which in isolation represents the vowel [ ə ] ), the bearer vowels are never used without additional vowel diacritics. Vowels are always pronounced after

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3150-619: The consonant they are attached to. Thus, siā̀rī is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right. When constructing the independent vowel for [ oː ] , ūṛā takes an irregular form instead of using the usual hōṛā . Gurmukhi orthography prefers vowel sequences over the use of semivowels ("y" or "w") intervocally and in syllable nuclei , as in the words ਦਿਸਾਇਆ disāiā "caused to be visible" rather than disāyā , ਦਿਆਰ diāră "cedar" rather than dyāră , and ਸੁਆਦ suādă "taste" rather than swādă , permitting vowels in hiatus . In terms of tone orthography,

3225-474: The earth'), presumably the major Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage centres. Some modern accounts state that he visited Tibet , most of South Asia , and Arabia , starting in 1496 at age 27, when he left his family for a thirty-year period. These claims include Nanak's visit to Mount Sumeru of Indian mythology , as well as Mecca , Baghdad , Achal Batala , and Multan , where he would debate religious ideas with opposing groups. These stories became widely popular in

3300-744: The end, you shall not be called to account. ||2|| Guru Ram Das says: ਗੁਰ ਗੋਵਿੰਦੁ ਗੋੁਵਿੰਦੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਹੈ ਨਾਨਕ ਭੇਦੁ ਨ ਭਾਈ ॥੪॥੧॥੮॥ Gurmukhi The primary scripture of Sikhism , the Guru Granth Sahib , is written in Gurmukhī, in various dialects and languages often subsumed under the generic title Sant Bhasha or "saint language", in addition to other languages like Persian and various phases of Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Gurmukhī has thirty-five original letters, hence its common alternative term paintī or "the thirty-five", plus six additional consonants , nine vowel diacritics , two diacritics for nasal sounds, one diacritic that geminates consonants and three subscript characters. The Gurmukhī script

3375-599: The fall of the Sikh Empire, also advocated for the usage of the Gurmukhi script for mass media , with print media publications and Punjabi-language newspapers established in the 1880s. Later in the 20th century, after the struggle of the Punjabi Suba movement , from the founding of modern India in the 1940s to the 1960s, the script was given the authority as the official state script of the Punjab, India , where it

3450-409: The following consonant is geminated , and is placed above the consonant preceding the geminated one. Consonant length is distinctive in the Punjabi language and the use of this diacritic can change the meaning of a word, as below: It has not been standardized to be written in all instances of gemination; there is a strong tendency, especially in rural dialects, to also geminate consonants following

3525-485: The following epochs, Gurmukhī became the primary script for the literary writings of the Sikhs. Playing a significant role in Sikh faith and tradition, it expanded from its original use for Sikh scriptures and developed its own orthographical rules, spreading widely under the Sikh Empire and used by Sikh kings and chiefs of Punjab for administrative purposes. Also playing a major role in consolidating and standardizing

3600-423: The full moon of Katak. Nanak Chandrodaya Sanskrit Janamsakhi from 1797 and Janam Sakhi Baba Nanak by Sant Das Chibber from the 18th century both mention Guru Nanak being born on the full moon of katak. Gurpur Parkash Granth written by Sant Ren Singh based on a granth written by Binod Singh states Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. According to Max Arthur Macauliffe (1909), a Hindu festival held in

3675-529: The historic Sikh literature have been written in the Gurmukhi script. Although the word Gurmukhī has been commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru", the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. This usage of the term may have gained currency from the use of the script to record the utterances of the Sikh Gurus as scripture, which were often referred to as Gurmukhī, or from

3750-531: The holy city of Khadaur , Angad, the master, performed the rites, Graciously with his own two hands.” He also raises the point that Bhai Bala’s family is still living in Nankana Sahib and that Bala’s samadhi exists in Khadaur . According to H.S. Singha, some scholars argue that Bhai Bala was a genuine person, however his janamsakhi hagiographies had been corrupted by heretical sects such as

3825-517: The janamsakhis. Nanak's teachings can be found in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib , as a collection of verses recorded in Gurmukhi . There are three competing theories on Nanak's teachings. The first, according to Cole and Sambhi (1995, 1997), based on the hagiographical Janamsakhis , states that Nanak's teachings and Sikhism were revelations from God, and not a social protest movement, nor an attempt to reconcile Hinduism and Islam in

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3900-400: The message of Ik Onkar ( ੴ , 'One God'), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he would set up a unique spiritual , social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. Nanak's words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns , or shabda , in the holy religious scripture of Sikhism,

3975-430: The miracle stories in Sufi literature about their pirs . Other direct and indirect borrowings in the Sikh janamsakhis relating to legends around his journeys are from Hindu epics and puranas , and Buddhist Jataka stories . The earliest biographical sources on Nanak's life recognised today are the janamsakhis ('birth stories'), which recount the circumstances of his birth in extended detail. Gyan-ratanavali

4050-585: The more recent [ਕ਼] / qə /, are also on rare occasion used unofficially, chiefly for transliterating old writings in Persian and Urdu , the knowledge of which is less relevant in modern times. Three "subscript" letters, called duttă akkhară ("joint letters") or pairī̃ akkhară ("letters at the feet") are utilised in modern Gurmukhī: forms of ਹ ha , ਰ ra , and ਵ va . The subscript ਰ ra and ਵ va are used to make consonant clusters and behave similarly; subjoined ਹ ha introduces tone. For example, ਸ with

4125-720: The nine subsequent Gurus when the Guruship was devolved on to them. His birthday is celebrated as Guru Nanak Gurpurab , annually across India. Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Dī Talvaṇḍī village (present-day Nankana Sahib , Punjab , Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate , although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kārtik or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi . He

4200-422: The one witnessed by Rai Bular , in which the sleeping child's head was shaded from the harsh sunlight by, in one account, by the stationary shadow of a tree or, in another, by a venomous cobra. Nanaki , Nanak's only sister, was five years older than him. In 1475, she married and moved to Sultanpur . Jai Ram, Nanaki's husband, was employed at a modikhana (a storehouse for revenues collected in non-cash form), in

4275-589: The only character not representing a fricative consonant, was only recently officially added to the Gurmukhī alphabet. It was not a part of the traditional orthography, as the distinctive phonological difference between /lə/ and /ɭə/, while both native sounds, was not reflected in the script, and its inclusion is still not currently universal. Previous usage of another glyph to represent this sound, [ਲ੍ਰ], has also been attested. The letters ਲ਼ ḷa , like ਙ ṅ , ਙ ṅ , ਣ ṇ , and ੜ ṛ , do not occur word-initially, except in some cases their names. Other characters, like

4350-806: The rows arranged from the back (velars) to the front (labials) of the mouth, and the letters in the grid arranged by place and manner of articulation . The arrangement, or varṇămāllā , is completed with the antimă ṭollī , literally "ending group." The names of most of the consonants are based on their reduplicative phonetic values, and the varṇămāllā is as follows: The nasal letters ਙ ṅaṅṅā and ਞ ñaññā have become marginal as independent consonants in modern Gurmukhi. The sounds they represent occur most often as allophones of [ n ] in clusters with velars and palatals respectively. The pronunciation of ਵ can vary allophonically between [ [ ʋ ] ~ [ β ] ] preceding front vowels , and [ [ w ] ] elsewhere. The most characteristic feature of

4425-462: The same way but instead is used under consonants: ਚ ( ca ) followed by ੜ ( ṛa ) yields ਚੜ ( caṛă ), but not until the rising tone is introduced via a subscript ਹ ( ha ) does it properly spell the word ਚੜ੍ਹ ( cáṛĭ , "climb"). This character's function is similar to that of the udātă character (ੑ U+0A51), which occurs in older texts and indicates a rising tone. In addition to the three standard subscript letters, another subscript character representing

4500-485: The script at this point by a special name, Dēvāśēṣa . Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) prefers the name prithamă gurmukhī , or Proto-Gurmukhī. It was through its recording in Gurmukhi that knowledge of the pronunciation and grammar of the Old Punjabi language (c. 10th–16th century) was preserved for modern philologists. The Sikh gurus adopted Proto-Gurmukhī to write the Guru Granth Sahib , the religious scriptures of

4575-412: The script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Laṇḍā, Mahajani being the most popular. The Laṇḍā scripts were used for household and trade purposes. In contrast to Laṇḍā, the use of vowel diacritics was made obligatory in Gurmukhī for increased accuracy and precision, due to the difficulties involved in deciphering words without vowel signs. In

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4650-551: The service of the Delhi Sultanate 's Lahore governor Daulat Khan , at which Ram would help Nanak get a job. Nanak moved to Sultanpur, and started working at the modikhana around the age of 16. As a young man, Nanak married Sulakhani , daughter of Mūl Chand (aka Mula) and Chando Raṇi. They were married on 24 September 1487, in the town of Batala , and would go on to have two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Chand (or Lakhmi Das). Nanak lived in Sultanpur until c. 1500, which would be

4725-635: The short vowels [ɪ] and [ʊ], when paired with [h] to yield /ɪh/ and /ʊh/, represent [é] and [ó] with high tones respectively, e.g. ਕਿਹੜਾ kihṛā ( IPA: [kéːɽaː] ) 'which?' ਦੁਹਰਾ duhrā ( IPA: [d̪óːɾaː] ) "repeat, reiterate, double." The compounding of [əɦ] with [ɪ] or [ʊ] yield [ɛ́ː] and [ɔ́ː] respectively, e.g. ਮਹਿੰਗਾ mahingā ( IPA: [mɛ́ːŋgaː] ) "expensive", ਵਹੁਟੀ vahuṭṭī ( IPA: [wɔ́ʈːiː] ) "bride." The diacritics for gemination and nasalization are together referred to as ਲਗਾਖਰ lagākkhară ("applied letters"). The diacritic ਅੱਧਕ áddakă ( ੱ ) indicates that

4800-575: The status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century. After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari . Meanwhile, the mercantile scripts of Punjab known as the Laṇḍā scripts were normally not used for literary purposes. Laṇḍā means alphabet "without tail", implying that

4875-510: The stone is not a reliable evidence that Nanak visited Baghdad in early 16th century. Moreover, beyond the stone, no evidence or mention of his journey in the Middle East has been found in any other Middle Eastern textual or epigraphical records. Claims have been asserted of additional inscriptions, but no one has been able to locate and verify them. Novel claims about his travels, as well as claims such as his body vanishing after his death, are also found in later versions and these are similar to

4950-419: The subjoined /j/, the yakaśă or pairī̃ yayyā ( ੵ U+0A75), is utilized specifically in archaized sahaskritī -style writings in Sikh scripture, where it is found 268 times for word forms and inflections from older phases of Indo-Aryan, as in the examples ਰਖੵਾ /ɾəkʰːjaː/ "(to be) protected", ਮਿਥੵੰਤ /mɪt̪ʰjən̪t̪ə/ "deceiving", ਸੰਸਾਰਸੵ /sənsaːɾəsjə/ "of the world", ਭਿਖੵਾ /pɪ̀kʰːjaː/ "(act of) begging", etc. There

5025-504: The texts ( interpuncts in the form of a dot were used by some to differentiate between words, such as by Guru Arjan ). This is opposed to the comparatively more recent method of writing in Gurmukhi known as padă chēdă , which breaks the words by inserting spacing between them. Bhai Bala Bhai Bala ( Punjabi : ਭਾਈ ਬਾਲਾ , romanized:  Bhāī Bālā ; 1466–1544) was a companion of Guru Nanak . Born in Talwandi into

5100-512: The time of his death, Nanak had acquired several followers in the Punjab region , although it is hard to estimate their number based on the extant historical evidence. The followers of Nanak were called Kartārīs (meaning 'the people who belonged to the village of Kartarpur') by others. Nanak appointed Bhai Lehna as the successor Guru , renaming him as Guru Angad , meaning "one's very own" or "part of you". Shortly after proclaiming his successor, Nanak died on 22 September 1539 in Kartarpur , at

5175-573: The usage of the áddakă is obligatory. It is also sometimes used to indicate second-syllable stress, e.g. ਬਚਾੱ ba'cā , "save". The diacritics ਟਿੱਪੀ ṭippī ( ੰ ) and ਬਿੰਦੀ bindī ( ਂ ) are used for producing a nasal phoneme depending on the following obstruent or a nasal vowel at the end of a word. All short vowels are nasalized using ṭippī and all long vowels are nasalized using bindī except for dulaiṅkaṛă ( ੂ ), which uses ṭippī instead. Older texts may follow other conventions. The ਹਲੰਤ halantă , or ਹਲੰਦ halandă , ( ੍ U+0A4D) character

5250-426: The word for three is ਤ੍ਰੈ trai ( IPA: [t̪ɾɛː] ). The scriptural symbol for the Sikh term ਇੱਕੁ ਓਅੰਕਾਰੁ ikku о̄aṅkāru ( ੴ U+0A74) is formed from ੧ ("1") and ਓ ("о̄"). Before the 1970s, Gurbani and other Sikh scriptures were written in the traditional scriptio continua method of writing the Gurmukhi script known as ਲੜੀਵਾਰ laṛīvāră , where there were no spacing between words in

5325-495: The writing style and language employed have left scholars, such as Max Arthur Macauliffe , certain that they were composed after his death. According to such scholars, there are good reasons to doubt the claim that the author was a close companion of Guru Nanak and accompanied him on many of his travels. Bhai Gurdas , a scribe of the Guru Granth Sahib , also wrote about Nanak's life in his vars ('odes'), which were compiled some time after Nanak's life, though are less detailed than

5400-518: Was born in the month of Vaisakh (April), not Kattak (November). In as late as 1815, during the reign of Ranjit Singh , the festival commemorating Nanak's birthday was held in April at the place of his birth, known by then as Nankana Sahib . However, the anniversary of Nanak's birth—the Gurpurab ( gur + purab , 'celebration')—subsequently came to be celebrated on the full moon day of

5475-656: Was born into the Khatri Punjabi clan like all of the Sikh gurus . Specifically, Guru Nanak was a Bedi Khatri . Most janamsakhis ( ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ , 'birth stories'), or traditional biographies of Nanak, mention that he was born on the third day of the bright lunar fortnight , in the Baisakh month (April) of Samvat 1526. These include the Puratan ('traditional' or 'ancient') janamsakhi , Miharban janamsakhi , Gyan-ratanavali by Bhai Mani Singh , and

5550-537: Was born on the full moon of Katak. Gurbilas Patashahi 6 written 1718 attributed to Bhai Mani Singh says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. Meham Parkash written in 1776 also says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. Kesar Singh Chibber’s Bansavalinama Dasan Patashahia Ka meaning genealogy of the ten emperors, written in 1769, says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak as well. Gurpurnali written in 1727 and Guru Tegh Bahadur Malwe da Safar written in 1716 both mention Guru Nanank being born on

5625-428: Was the local patwari (accountant) for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi . Nanak's paternal grandfather was named Shiv Ram Bedi and his great-grandfather was Ram Narayan Bedi. According to Sikh traditions, the birth and early years of Nanak's life were marked with many events that demonstrated that Nanak had been blessed with divine grace. Commentaries on his life give details of his blossoming awareness from

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