Guru Angad Sahib was born as Lahina to (Baba) Pheru Trehan (son of Narain Das Trehan) and (Mata) Raamo (also known as Mansa Devi and Daya Kaur), in the village of Matte-Di-Saran, on the 31st of March 1504. Up to the 14th century Matte-Di-Saran was a prosperous village as it was on the South Asian trade route, the grand trunk road of those days; hence the traders (and later the invaders too) who used to travel between Lebanon and Sri Lanka would pass through this village. Here, Matte Khan had established a big inn for the travellers (and the village was known after the name of the inn); the travellers would buy their daily needs from the market of this village and the traders would set up an improvised market here in order to sell their goods; thus, the village shopkeepers had a good business and were very well to do. Among these shopkeepers one was the family of Narain Das Trehan (the grandfather of Guru Angad).
Up to 1398, this village enjoyed complete peace and prosperity; but, then, the Mangols (Mughals) invaded this zone and Matte-Di-Saran too was plundered by them; the rich people were turned into paupers. It was followed by more and more attacks on this trade route; and most of the towns and villages were plundered, turning some of these inhabitations into ruins and deserted places. This continued up to 1526 till Babar established his power and laid the foundations of the Mughal rule in South Asia; Babar occupied Punjab, Delhi and other territories of the Sultans, and, within a few years, he occupied the Rajput countries and other nations as well.
In the meanwhile, most of the residents of Matte-Di-Saran had moved to safer places away from the trade route; pauper-turned-shopkeeper Narain Das too chose to give up the town and move to Harike village (where rivers Beas merges river Satluj) in the present district of Tarn Taran.1 Narain Das had a son named Pheru, who had two children, a son (Lahina) and a daughter. When Lahina was 19 years old he was married to Khivi (daughter of Devi Chand of village Sanghar); she bore him four children (son Dasu in 1524, daughter Amro in 1526, daughter Anokhi in 1535 and son Datu in 1537).
Narain Das and Pheru, like many other residents of the Punjab were the followers of the Brahmanic rituals (which by then had come to be known as Hinduism); they had no knowledge of concept of religion and spiritualism; and, they used to perform rituals as per the instructions of the Brahmins.
During his stay at village Khadur, Lahina came into contact with Bhai Jodh, who told him about Sikh religion. Lahina had a desire to meet Guru Nanak but somehow he could not get a chance; but when, in 1532, he joined a party to visit Vaishano Devi, and they made a stopover at village Kartarpur, where he visited the Guru; this was a revolutionary moment in the life of Lahina; he realized that he had been wasting his life all the years; religion is not ritualism; it is: ‘understanding the purpose of life, living truthful life and remembering God’; now he understood what spiritualism is; he realized that pilgrimage does not mean visiting the places popularized by cunning priestly class as shrines (in fact, attributed to fictitious gods and goddesses); he realized that real pilgrimage was to understand God and His Word; he understood that worshipping statues and rivers etc was meaningless and it is only God who should be worshipped.
Now, Lahina was a new man, a disillusioned and enlightened person; soon, news spread in the villages of Khadur, Harike and Sangar that a worshipper of idols was now a learned and spiritualised person; this changed the lives of the other residents of these villages too;
1 Matte-Di-Saran was later inhabited by an ascetic Nanga; hence the new name, Nange-Di-Saran.
they too gave up ritualism and turned to real religion; just one man’s life revolutionized the whole area and people embraced the Sikh way life.
Bhai Lahina spent seven years in the company of Guru Nanak; during this period, he learnt and practiced religion: sewa (serving humanity), humbleness, good ethics, humanism and other qualities. Guru Nanak was greatly pleased at him and had realized that he (Lahina) had fully understood his (Guru Nanak’s) jot (light, knowledge).
Within a few years, Lahina became an inseparable part of the life of Guru darbar, family and the village of Kartarpur; he would monitor almost all the activities there: sewa, arrangements of langar, congregation, saravan (hostels), and exegesis of Gurbani. Guru Nanak tested Lahina on several occasions and always found him perfect in precept and practice. Some hagiographic stories, have mentioned petty tests given by Guru Nanak to Lahina, e.g. throwing a pot into muddy water and asking him to jump into that filth to bring out the pot; ordering him to eat a dead body etc. These gossip stories were concocted much later. In fact, Guru Nanank had tested his understanding of Gurbani, knowledge of the Sikh fundamentals, ethical qualities, intelligence, organisational capabilities etc.
By this time Guru Nanak had entered the 70th year of his life and he had realized that his end was near. So, on the 14th of June 1539, he finally decided to appoint Lahina as his successor-in-mission; he held a congregation on the 2nd of September 1539, which was attended by several Sikhs from far and wide, and formally announced Lahina as his successor and also gave him a new name ‘Angad’. Baba Buddha made a prayer seeking Waheguru’s blessing for Guru Angad. After Guru Nanak’s death Guru Angad left Kartarpur and moved to Khadur, where he established new headquarters of Sikh faith.
Guru Angad’s moving to Khadur was a very timely step. Had he continued living at Kartarpur, some Sikhs visitor could have been allured by sons of Guru Nanak and, thus, two Sikh centres would have been functioning in the same village leading to confusion and even competition and clashes.
At Khadur, Guru Angad built a dharamsala (a Sikh centre came to be known as Gurdwara much later), an inn for visitors, and langar (sacred community kitchen) etc.
Guru Angad also established a school for the education of children; he wanted to impart children the knowledge of history, medicine and other worldly education along with spiritual and religious knowledge. He wanted to teach not only the children but also the elderly people too who were bereft of it because in those days the medium of education was Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, all the three classical but ‘foreign’ languages not in use by the folk in the Punjab at least. The Brahmins and Maulavis (the clergies) had monopolised education and they were rather interested in keeping people illiterate so that they should not read through their activities and see through their (priests’) designs. This privilege of the clergy made people bereft of high offices in the administration and other fields besides making them victims of cheatings.
Guru Angad made, for the first time, Punjabi language as medium of instruction because it was the language of the folk. Though no literature of Punjabi was available in written form yet it had survived in oral tradtion; so, he decided to standardize the script of Punjabi (the earlier script was known as Sidhongaya; after standardization by the Guru it came to be known as Gurmukhi). Guru Nanak had used this script for his hymns, and, had copied verses of various poets of Bengali, Marathi, Bihari and other poets in this script, during his udasis. Guru Angad formally taught this script to the children.
Teaching of Punjabi language and Gurmukhi script helped in the spreading of education; a common language and a script play a major role in keeping people culturally united, so did Punjabi and Gurmukhi. Those nations or societies which lose their language, script and dress gradually lose their whole culture and finally their roots. History has recorded that the African people who migrated to the west or adopted western culture, first adopted alien dress,
then food, then language and they gradually lost their whole culture, tradition and identity. Now they may call them Afro-Americans or Afro-Europeans but they are having almost nothing of African culture in them, except their skin and genes. They are a ‘lost nation’ (though not politically but culturally and religiously). Similarly, if the Sikhs make mistake of switching to a non-Punjabi dress, language, food, and lose their hair, beard, turban etc, they are likely to lose their identity after a couple of generations. Guru Angad realized this, which is why he stressed that language and script, as well as the study of history and philosophy, must be an integral part of a childrens’ syllabi and that too in their mother tongue Punjabi.
Besides standardizing Gurmukhi script and Punjabi language, Guru Angad paid attention to preserve the Sikh history too; he commissioned writing of biography of Guru Nanak; the Janamsakhi (biography) of Guru Nanak written under his supervision is not available now; it was definitely in existence at least up to the time of Bhai Gurdas. Otherwise he could not have written his First Vaar which is a detailed account of the life of Guru Nanak.
During the eighteenth century, when the Sikhs were struggling for the freedom of their homeland, most of the Sikh literature too was destroyed; on the other hand, the anti-Sikh forces created distorted literature too; one of these was Janamsakhi Bhai Bala which was developed from the original biography of Guru Nanak, though the basic structure remained the same but distortion, concoction and lies were incorporated in it. This is believed to be a work by the Handalis (Bidhichandias) who have tried to project their elder man Handal as even superior to Guru Nanak.2 From such like references, though one can sift chaff, stones and weeds from grain but it needs much labour and intelligence which common man lacks.
The Gurmukhi script played another major role. Guru Nanak had handed over his hymns and the bhagat poets’ verses (which he had collected during his udasis) to Guru Angad at the time of appointing him as his successor; Guru Angad also composed his own verses and prepared more copies of this scripture which helped in preserving authentic hymns; copies of these hymn-volumes reached the Sikhs in various areas too. It was a great service which helped in preserving original/authentic hymns, the Sikh scripture, which successively reached Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das and then Guru Arjan, who finally compiled them in one volume as a Granth, which was, later, granted the status of living ‘Guru’ in 1708; thus, preserving the Shabad-Guru too was a gift from Guru Angad.
Guru Angad was perhaps the founder of the first formal school established by any organization in the Punjab; hence pioneer of educational movement in the Punjab. The school at Khadur Sahib was not confined to the teaching of language, script and bookish knowledge; its syllabi had the motto of ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. He was for the balanced development of the personality of children; in furtherance of this aim, he introduced sports as an integral part of education; he set up play grounds too, and the first of these was a wrestling pitch (Mal Akhara) followed by grounds for other games too. Sports played a very important part in Sikhs’ social life; it produced agile, active, strong healthy youth and it granted them ‘positive entertainment’ and recreation too. This became a social event, which led to gatherings and meetings ushering social co-operation and cohesion; besides, it tamed the youth who, instead of wasting their energy for negative activities, aggression and quarrels became disciplined sportsmen, tempered with spiritualism; this played a remarkable role; the Punjabis who, earlier, had been submitting to every invader now became ready to defend their rights.
Later, in 1608, when Guru Hargobind Sahib established first Sikh army, the youth flocked to join it; the ground for this had been prepared by the Mal Akaharas and other sports activities of Guru Angad; further, when Guru Gobind Singh Sahib founded the institute of
2 Karam Singh Historian, Katak Ke Visakh.
Hola Mahalla, he might have the idea of Mall Akharas in his mind. It is remarkable to note that Khadur Sahib was the first sports centre of the world, even before Olympia in Greece.
An interesting historical event is also associated with the school established by the Guru. In June 1540, Hamayun (the Mughal emperor) lost battle against Sher Shah Sur at Kananuj and fled towards Khurasan (present Iran) to save his life; he crossed river Beas at Goindwal on the 1st of July 1540. On the advice of some Sufi or Hindu friends he thought of visiting Guru Angad at Khadur just a few kilometres from Goindwal; when he reached there, the Guru was busy in teaching the students; hence he told Hamayun to wait till he was free from his class; at this, Hamayun felt insulted and he drew his sword to awe the Guru; seeing this, the Guru smiled and told him: ‘These swords are to be used in the battle-field only’; this put Hamyun to shame and he realized his mistake. This event also gives the lesson that a Sikh does not bother for nor has special regards for a person due to his wealth, political position or power, and a Sikh is bold, brave and a clear-headed person.3
Guru Angad died in 1552, thus serving the Sikh Panth for about twenty years out of which thirteen years were a period of Guru-ship; during this period, he completed several projects and accomplished them. He taught that a man is incomplete without education and social service; he also taught people to love God and humanity. All this is finely presented in his hymns (a few of which are):
We should die right before the One, whom we love.
Curse is the world, in which to live after (without) Him.4
Ego is severe disease, but medicine is also in it.5
What type of love it is? If it is with the other one.
Nanak says, “Only he is known as lover, who is ever merged in love.”6
If a person salutes and defies, at the same time, he astrays in the very beginning.
Nanak says, “Both the actions are false (unproductive), they will lead nowhere.”7
Only by denouncing the ego and serving, he can receive the honour.8
The order will not work on Master, we should only pray.9
If one pays (in charity) under compulsion, it is neither a virtue nor a benevolence.10
Whom to call a bad, when the same one Master is of all.11
Nanak says, “Whatever pleases You, that is the best deed”.12
Some events from the life of Guru Angad
Story of a Tapa: According to this story: there lived a tapa (literally: one who has practised tap, i.e. penance) in the village Khadur; before Guru Angad moved to Khadur, he
3 Unfortunately, it is not so now! See, author’s forthcoming book: Sikh Dharam Khatam Ho Javegaa?
4 jis pi-aaray si-o nayhu tis aagai mar chalee-ai.
dharig jeevan saⁿsaar taa kai paachhai jeevnaa.
( Guru Granth Sahib, p 83)
5 ha-umai deeragh rog hai daaroo bhee is maahi.
( Guru Granth Sahib, p 466)
6 ayh kinayhee aaskee doojai lagai jaa-ay.
naanak aasak kaaⁿḍee-ai saḏ hee rahai samaa-ay.
7 salaam jabaab dovai karay muⁿḍhhu ghuthaa jaa-ay.
naanak dovai kooṛee-aa thaa-ay na kaa-ee paa-ay.
8 aap gavaa-ay sayvaa karay taa kichh paa-ay maan.
9 saahib sayṯee hukam na chalai kahee banai ardaas.
( 188 to 191, Guru Granth Sahib, p 474)
10 badhaa chatee jo bharay naa gun naa upkaar.
( Guru Granth Sahib, p 787)
11 mandaa kis no aakhee-ai jaaⁿ sabhnaa saahib ayk.
( Guru Granth Sahib, p 1238)
12 jo ṯis bhaavai naankaa saa-ee bhalee kaar.
( Guru Granth Sahib, p 1239)