page_title: Janamsakhis
section_title: Bhai Bala Janamsakhi
hierarchical_section_title: Janamsakhis / Main Janamsakhis / Bhai Bala Janamsakhi
caption_attribution_description: English: Asian Art Museum, San Francisco has a collection of manuscript folios of the popular Sikh literature called Janam Sakhi (lit. Life Stories). These date between 1800–1900, acquired in Punjab (India or Pakistan). A part of these manuscripts are in the Kapany collection. A Janam-sakhi is a miracle-filled, mythical hagiography. The earliest versions were written about 50 to 80 years after Guru Nanak's death. With time, these legends expanded and became more elaborate and depict the founder of Sikhism to possess miraculous powers. He travels extensively in these legends and the miracles are set in different locations in South Asia and the Middle East. He also meets ancient mythical figures of other Indian religions as well as Islam. The images illustrate the storyline. They also contain cultural, dress, ritual body art and social information about Sikh society, artists, writers and trends in 18th and 19th century Punjab region (India and Pakistan). Guru Nanak is always shown with a halo and is typically a larger presence than other characters. If another character in the painting is also considered sacred, they also have a halo. The character with a lute is Bhai Mardana, reflecting the hymn singing tradition. This painting shows Guru Nanak going to school. For a discussion of these Janamsakhi illustrations: Seeing-in Guru Nanak at the Asian Arts Museum This is a photograph of a two-dimensional watercolors painting on paper. It was published before 1900 CE. Therefore it qualifies for 2D-Art licensing guidelines of wikimedia commons. Any rights I have as a photographer, I donate it to wikimedia commons under CC4.0.
context_page_description: The Janamsakhis, are legendary biographies of Guru Nanak – the founder of Sikhism. Popular in the Sikh history, these texts are considered by scholars as imaginary hagiographies of his life story, full of miracles and travels, built on a Sikh oral tradition and some historical facts. The first Janamsakhis were composed between 50 and 80 years after his death. Many more were written in the 17th and 18th century. The largest Guru Nanak Prakash, with about 9,700 verses, was written in the early 19th century.
  The four Janamsakhis that have survived into the modern era include the Bala, Miharban, Adi and Puratan versions, and each hagiography contradicts the other. Each of these are in three parts, each with an idealized and adulatory description of Guru Nanak. The first part covers his childhood and early adulthood. The second part describes him as a traveling missionary over thousands of miles and mythical places such as Mount Meru. The last part presents him as settled in Kartarpur with his followers. These mythological texts are ahistorical and do not offer chronological, geographical or objective accuracy about Guru Nanak's life.
context_section_description: This is probably the most popular and well known Janamsakhi, in that most Sikhs and their Janamsakhi knowledge comes from this document. This work claims to be a contemporary account written by one Bala Sandhu in the Vikram Samvat year 1592 at the instance of the second Guru, Guru Angad. According to the author, he was a close companion of Guru Nanak and accompanied him on many of his travels. There are good reasons to doubt this contention:
  Guru Angad, who is said to have commissioned the work and was also a close companion of the Guru in his later years, was, according to Bala's own admission, ignorant of the existence of Bala.
  Bhai Gurdas, who has listed all Guru Nanak's prominent disciples whose names were handed down, does not mention the name of Bhai Bala Sandhu. (This may be an oversight, for he does not mention Rai Bular either.)
  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 Bala Sandhu.
  It is only in the heretic janamsakhis of the Minas that we find first mention of Bhai Bala.
  The language used in this janamsakhi was not spoken at the time of Guru Nanak or Guru Angad, but was developed at least a hundred years later.
  Some of the hymns ascribed to Nanak are not his but those of the second and fifth Gurus.
  At several places expressions which gained currency only during the lifetime of the last Guru, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708), are used e.g. Waheguru ji ki Fateh. Bala's janamsakhi is certainly not a contemporary account; at best it was written in the early part of the 18th Century.
  This janamsakhi has had an immense influence over determining what is generally accepted as the authoritative account of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's life. Throughout the nineteenth century the authority of the Bala version was unchallenged. An important work based on the Bhai Bala janam-sakhi is Santokh Singh's Gur Nanak Purkash commonly known as Nanak Parkash. Its lengthy sequel, Suraj Parkash carries the account up to the tenth Guru and contains a higher proportion of historical fact, this was completed in 1844.
  In the first journey or udasi Guru Nanak Dev Ji left Sultanpur towards eastern India and included, in the following sequence :
  Panipat (Sheikh Sharaf),
  Delhi (Sultan Ibrahim Lodi),
  Hardwar,
  Allahbad,
  Banaras,
  Nanakmata,
  Kauru, Kamrup in Assam (Nur Shah),
  Talvandi (twelve years after leaving Sultanpur),
  Pak Pattan (Sheikh Ibrahim),
  Goindval,
  Lahore and
  Kartarpur.
  The Second udasi was to the south of India with companion Bhai Mardana.
  Delhi,
  Ayodhya,
  Jagannath Puri,
  Rameswaram,
  Sri Lanka,
  Vindhya mountains,
  Narabad River,
  Ujjain,
  Saurashtra and
  Mathura
  The third udasi was to the north :
  Kashmir,
  Mount Sumeru and
  Achal
  The fourth udasi was to the west.
  Afghanistan,
  Persia,
  and
  Baghdad
caption: A page from a Janamsakhi manuscript with the story about Guru Nanak at a school.
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