Guru Nanak Begins Preaching and Founds Sikhism
- Date
- c. 1499
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Punjab, South Asia (modern India and Pakistan)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
Around 1499, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), a spiritual teacher from the Punjab region of South Asia, experienced a profound mystical revelation while bathing in the Bein (Vein) river near Sultanpur Lodhi, after which he declared 'There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim' and devoted his life to preaching a monotheistic faith centred on the one formless God (Ik Onkar).
Rejecting caste distinctions, ritualism, and a priestly hierarchy, he taught that all people have direct access to the divine and emphasised honest labour (kirat karo), remembrance of God's name (naam japo), and sharing with others (vand chhako). Over roughly the next two decades he undertook extensive journeys, known as the udasis, across South Asia and beyond, spreading his message through devotional hymns accompanied by his companion Mardana. He later settled at Kartarpur, where he established a community of followers, introduced the institution of the communal kitchen (langar), and laid the institutional foundations of the new faith. As the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, Guru Nanak founded Sikhism, which today is the world's fifth-largest organised religion with tens of millions of adherents worldwide.
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Empires active in c. 1499
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Inca Empire1438 CE – 1533 CE
- Aztec Empire1428 CE – 1521 CE
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Malacca Sultanate1400 CE – 1511 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- Kingdom of Kongo converts to Christianity under Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I)3 May 1491
- The Western Schism divides the Latin Church1378–1417 CE
- Samudra Pasai and the spread of Islam into Indonesiac. 1267 CE
- King Lalibela carves the rock-hewn churches of a 'New Jerusalem'c. 1181–1221 CE
- The Investiture Controversy and the Walk to Canossa1075–1122 (Investiture Controversy)
- Anawrahta establishes Theravada Buddhism across the Pagan realm1057 CE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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