Bebe Nanaki
Guru Nanak's elder sister, remembered as the first to recognise him as a spiritual teacher.
Nanaki was born in 1464 at Chahal near Lahore, five years before her brother Nanak. She married Jai Ram, a revenue official at Sultanpur Lodhi, and brought her young brother there and found him work as a storekeeper.
She is remembered as the first to see that her brother was not an ordinary man; the janamsakhis say she saw the divine light in him from childhood. When he came out of the river Vein after three days, she was the first to welcome him. Tradition says she bought the rabab for Bhai Mardana.
She died in 1518 at Sultanpur, with her brother at her side. Bebe Nanaki is honoured as the Guru's first disciple, and the town of Nanaki Chak, later Anandpur, was named after Guru Tegh Bahadur's mother, also Nanaki.
Connected
Founder of Sikhi. A poet and teacher who rejected caste and empty ritual and taught devotion to one formless God through the Name, honest work and sharing.
Guru Nanak's mother, who in the janamsakhis defends her son's unworldly ways against his father's frustration.
In the world's museums
2 objects
Guru Nanak with Bebe Nanaki 19th century painting about Guru Nanak from the Janam Sakhi…National Museum, New Delhi · photo Satdeep Gill (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY ↗_from_a_Janamsakhi_series,_circa_19th_century.jpg)
Guru Nanak with Bebe Nanaki 19th century painting about Guru Nanak from the Janam Sakhi…National Museum, New Delhi · photo Satdeep Gill (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY ↗