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The First Udasi: Guru Nanak's Journeys East — Sultanpur to Assam

Professor: Kavi Santokh Singh Source: SikhLibrary

This course traces Guru Nanak's first great journey (udasi) eastward from Sultanpur Lodhi, following the accounts preserved in the Janamsakhis and Kavi Santokh Singh's Sri Nanak Prakash. Students examine key encounters at Hardwar, Benaras, Gaya, Puri, and the distant eastern reaches including Dhubri and Assam. The course grounds devotional narrative in historical geography and critically evaluates the sources that preserve these accounts.

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Prerequisite recommended. This is a 200-level course. To get the most out of it, we recommend completing the 100-level courses first.

What you'll learn

  • Identify the major stopping points of the First Udasi using primary janamsakhi accounts
  • Analyze the theological significance of Guru Nanak's challenge to ritual water-throwing at Hardwar
  • Compare the devotional and historical methods used by scholars to evaluate udasi narratives
  • Explain how the First Udasi established foundational Sikh teachings on naam, seva, and equality
  • Evaluate the role of Bhai Mardana as companion and musical collaborator throughout the journey
  • Assess the literary structure of Sri Nanak Prakash as a source for udasi geography and chronology

Key terms — ਸ਼ਬਦਾਵਲੀ

ਉਦਾਸੀ

A spiritual journey undertaken by Guru Nanak; literally 'going forth' or 'detachment'

ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ

Devotional biography of Guru Nanak; hagiographic narrative collections

ਸੁਲਤਾਨਪੁਰ ਲੋਧੀ

Town in Punjab where Guru Nanak worked as a store-keeper and received his divine call

ਬੇਈ ਨਦੀ

The Bein river at Sultanpur where Guru Nanak's awakening experience occurred

ਸੰਗਤ

Holy congregation; community of spiritual seekers gathering together

ਕੀਰਤਨ

Devotional singing of Gurbani; a central practice Guru Nanak spread on his journeys

ਮਰਦਾਨਾ

Bhai Mardana, Guru Nanak's lifelong Muslim companion and rababi (musician)

ਹਰਿਦੁਆਰ

Hardwar; major Hindu pilgrimage site on the Ganges where Guru Nanak challenged empty ritual

ਨਾਮ

The Divine Name; the foundational spiritual practice taught by Guru Nanak

ਸਿੱਧ

Siddh; accomplished yogis of the Nath tradition whom Guru Nanak encountered and debated

Lessons

1. The Awakening at Sultanpur: Context and Call

Full course contents
  1. The Awakening at Sultanpur: Context and Call
  2. Sources for the First Udasi: Janamsakhis and Sri Nanak Prakash
  3. Departing East: Eminabad and the Shadow of Babar
  4. Hardwar: Challenging Ritual at the Ganges
  5. Benaras: Dialogue with Brahmanical Learning
  6. Gaya and the Pilgrimage Circuit
  7. Jagannath Puri: The Arti Sakhi
  8. Eastward to Dhubri and Assam
  9. Bhai Mardana: Companion, Musician, and Theological Foil
  10. Sabads Composed During the First Udasi
  11. Geography and Chronology: Scholarly Debates
  12. Legacy of the First Udasi in Sikh Tradition

Guru Nanak at Sultanpur Lodhi

Before the great journeys began, Guru Nanak spent formative years at Sultanpur Lodhi (in present-day Punjab, Pakistan). According to the Puratan Janamsakhi and Kavi Santokh Singh's Sri Nanak Prakash, Guru Nanak worked as a modikhana (store-keeper) in the service of Nawab Daulat Khan Lodi. His sister Nanaki and her husband Jai Ram had brought him here, recognizing from his youth that he was no ordinary person. The Sri Nanak Prakash records that Guru Nanak distributed stores generously — an act that led to accusations of misappropriation that miraculous divine intervention resolved (Santokh Singh 1843). These years of service, far from delaying his mission, prepared him to understand the world of commerce, governance, and social inequality that he would later address in his teachings.

The Bein River Experience

The central event that precipitated the First Udasi was Guru Nanak's experience at the ਬੇਈ ਨਦੀ (Bein river). The Janamsakhis narrate that one morning, while bathing in the river, Guru Nanak was taken into the divine presence for three days. He emerged with the declaration: Na koi Hindu, na koi Musalman — there is neither Hindu nor Muslim — pointing toward a universal spiritual vision that would define his journeys. According to W. H. McLeod, this experience marks the transition from Guru Nanak's private spiritual life to his public prophetic mission (McLeod 1968, 87). The ਸੰਗਤ at Sultanpur gathered to witness his return, and he soon departed on the first of his four great udasis, accompanied by his faithful companion Bhai Mardana.

Why the Udasis?

The word ਉਦਾਸੀ carries the dual meaning of a spiritual journey and a state of detachment from worldly concerns. Guru Nanak's udasis were not mere travel but purposeful outreach — to communities of Hindus, Muslims, yogis, and ordinary people across the subcontinent. The Sri Nanak Prakash, composed in the nineteenth century by Kavi Santokh Singh (described in the text as kavi churamani, the crest-jewel of poets), elaborates these journeys in considerable poetic detail, drawing on earlier janamsakhi traditions. Scholars note that Santokh Singh wrote in Braj Bhasha verse, and his work must be read as both historical narrative and devotional literature — a category that does not neatly separate fact from theology but deliberately weaves them together.

2. Sources for the First Udasi: Janamsakhis and Sri Nanak Prakash

The Janamsakhi Tradition

The ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ (life-story) literature is the primary devotional biographical source for Guru Nanak's travels. Several distinct traditions survive: the Puratan (ancient) Janamsakhi, considered the oldest; the Miharban Janamsakhi, composed by Miharban in the early seventeenth century; and the Bala Janamsakhi, which presents itself as narrated by Bhai Bala, a companion figure. W. H. McLeod's comparative study demonstrated significant differences among these traditions, concluding that they cannot be taken as straightforward historical records — they are devotional texts with theological agendas (McLeod 1968, 46-54). This does not diminish their value, but it shapes how historians use them: each janamsakhi reflects the theological priorities of the community that produced and transmitted it.

Sri Nanak Prakash as Source

Kavi Santokh Singh's Sri Nanak Prakash is a monumental nineteenth-century work composed in Braj Bhasha verse. The text explicitly acknowledges its sources: the Bala Janamsakhi narration is cited within its framework. As the Sri Nanak Prakash records: Bala karti uchar mukh, paire likhi sudhar. Likhvai Angad Guru, jag ke kaj udhar — Bala recited from his mouth, and Guru Angad had it written to redeem the world (Santokh Singh 1843). This situates the text within a lineage of oral and written transmission. Santokh Singh was both a court poet (of Maharaja Karam Singh of Patiala) and a deeply committed Sikh scholar, and his work bears both the ornate literary conventions of his patronage context and genuine theological depth.

Historical Method and Devotional Biography

Modern Sikh historians, including J. S. Grewal, have worked to extract historical content from janamsakhi narrative. Grewal notes that while specific miracles cannot be independently verified, the broad geographic outlines of Guru Nanak's journeys reflect real travel patterns of the period (Grewal 1969, 112). The udasi narratives align with known pilgrimage routes and trading networks of fifteenth and sixteenth-century South Asia. For students of Sikh history, reading these sources requires holding together devotional reverence and scholarly rigor — a tension the tradition itself models in figures like Santokh Singh, who was simultaneously a court poet and a Sikh devotee committed to preserving the Guru's legacy with care and love.

3. Departing East: Eminabad and the Shadow of Babar

Saidpur/Eminabad: A City Sacked

One of the most historically grounded episodes of the First Udasi is set at Saidpur, identified with present-day Eminabad in Punjab (Pakistan). The Janamsakhis record that Guru Nanak and Bhai ਮਰਦਾਨਾ were at Saidpur when Babar's invading army attacked and sacked the town. The population was killed or enslaved. According to the Puratan Janamsakhi, Guru Nanak himself was briefly captured along with others and put to work carrying loads — a detail that reflects the historical reality of Babur's Punjab campaigns (Kohli 1969, 78). This episode produced the Babarvani compositions — a series of four sabads in which Guru Nanak directly addresses the violence of the invasion and laments the suffering of the people.

The Babarvani: Historical Witness in Gurbani

The Babarvani are significant because they represent Guru Nanak as a direct witness to political violence and injustice. Scholars consider the Babarvani among the most historically dateable compositions in Gurbani, providing a rare convergence of scriptural text and documented historical event. J. S. Grewal notes that the Babarvani demonstrates Guru Nanak's engagement with the socio-political realities of his time — not withdrawal from them (Grewal 1969, 145). The invasion context also highlights the disrupted social landscape of post-invasion Punjab through which the First Udasi moved. These compositions ask hard theological questions: where is the Divine when the powerful oppress the weak? Guru Nanak's answer is not resignation but a call to divine justice.

Bhai Lalo and the Ethics of Honest Labor

At Saidpur, the Janamsakhis record Guru Nanak's famous encounter with Bhai Lalo, a carpenter of lower-caste status, and the counterpoint figure of Malik Bhago, a wealthy official hosting a feast. Guru Nanak stayed in Bhai Lalo's humble home rather than the elite feast — and when asked why, he squeezed bread from each: Bhai Lalo's bread produced milk (honest labor), Malik Bhago's produced blood (exploitation). This sakhi, preserved across multiple janamsakhi traditions, encapsulates the First Udasi's social message: dignity of honest work, critique of caste hierarchy, and the Guru's solidarity with the marginalized. It anticipates the full social theology of the Sikh tradition in miniature.

4. Hardwar: Challenging Ritual at the Ganges

Hardwar and the Ritual of Pittar Pani

Hardwar (also Haridwar) on the Ganges was among the most important Hindu pilgrimage centers of Guru Nanak's time. When Guru Nanak arrived, he observed pilgrims throwing water eastward toward the rising sun as an offering to their ancestors. According to the Puratan Janamsakhi, Guru Nanak stood in the river and began throwing water westward, toward his fields in Punjab. When astonished pilgrims asked what he was doing, he replied: if your water can reach your dead ancestors in the heavens, why cannot mine reach my fields a few hundred miles away? The crowd's laughter and then reflection captures the pedagogical method of the First Udasi: not confrontation but revelation through irony (McLeod 1968, 95). The simplicity of the challenge is itself the teaching.

The Theological Point at Hardwar

The Hardwar encounter is theologically rich. Guru Nanak's challenge is not simply a critique of one ritual practice but of the broader pattern of mechanical, unthinking religious performance. The ਨਾਮ (divine name) internalized is contrasted with external ritual performed without understanding. This aligns with Guru Nanak's broader teaching, articulated throughout his bani, that inner transformation — not pilgrimage, ablution, or caste status — constitutes genuine spirituality. The Janamsakhis record that many at Hardwar became followers after this encounter, reflecting the First Udasi's missionary dimension. Each encounter became a potential founding moment for a new ਸੰਗਤ.

Brahmins and the Authority of Tradition

At Hardwar and subsequently at Benaras, Guru Nanak engaged Brahmin scholars in dialogue. These encounters, recorded in janamsakhi literature, present a recurring pattern: Guru Nanak entering the domain of established religious authority, questioning its foundations, and pointing toward a more direct, accessible relationship with the divine. Harbans Singh notes that these dialogues reflect the historical climate of the Bhakti movement, in which numerous sant-poets challenged Brahmanical mediation of the sacred (Singh 1994, 22). Guru Nanak's engagement at pilgrimage sites during the First Udasi placed him squarely within — and critically beyond — the devotional landscape of his time, insisting that the path to the Divine needed no institutional gatekeeper.

5. Benaras: Dialogue with Brahmanical Learning

Benaras: The City of Learning

Benaras (Varanasi, Kashi) was the preeminent center of Sanskrit learning and Hindu religious orthodoxy in Guru Nanak's time. The city was home to generations of pandits and scholars, and it was a natural destination for anyone challenging or engaging the religious establishment. According to janamsakhi accounts, Guru Nanak spent time at Benaras in dialogue with local scholars. The Miharban Janamsakhi preserves detailed accounts of these exchanges, though scholars note that these texts reflect later theological elaboration as much as historical memory (Kohli 1969, 95). The city's prominence in the janamsakhi narrative reflects the First Udasi's consistent pattern of engaging established centers of religious authority rather than bypassing them.

The Encounter with Pandits

Several janamsakhi versions record Guru Nanak's debates with learned pandits at Benaras, in which he challenged the reliance on Sanskrit scholarship divorced from lived practice. The exchange follows a familiar First Udasi pattern: the established authority figure possesses technical knowledge without inner realization, while Guru Nanak demonstrates that the ਨਾਮ transcends textual erudition. Kavi Santokh Singh elaborates these encounters in poetic form in the Sri Nanak Prakash, embedding them within a theology of Guru Nanak as the awakener of the age — bedi kul ke ketu, the flag of the Bedi lineage — whose light disperses the darkness of ignorant ritual (Santokh Singh 1843). This framing elevates the debates from local controversies to cosmic significance.

Composition and the First Udasi Bani

Scholars have identified a number of Guru Nanak's compositions as associated with the First Udasi period, including several sabads in Asa raag that address the religious landscape he traversed — pilgrimage centers, Brahmanical authority, and popular devotion. While it is not possible to assign precise geographic origins to individual compositions, the thematic content of these sabads mirrors the encounters documented in the Janamsakhis. The First Udasi thus produced not only a physical journey but a body of scripture that continues to be sung and studied. Understanding the journey's geographic and social context enriches the reader's engagement with these compositions, revealing them as responses to specific lived situations rather than abstract theological statements.

6. Gaya and the Pilgrimage Circuit

Gaya: Place of Ancestral Rites

Gaya in Bihar is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites, particularly associated with the performance of pind daan — ancestral rites performed on behalf of deceased relatives to ensure their spiritual liberation. Thousands of pilgrims visited Gaya annually to perform these rites at the Vishnupad temple and the Falgu river. According to janamsakhi accounts, Guru Nanak arrived at Gaya as part of the eastward sweep of the First Udasi, encountering the same patterns of mechanical ritual he had challenged at Hardwar (McLeod 1968, 100). The concentration of pilgrims at Gaya made it a strategic location for Guru Nanak's teaching — a large audience guaranteed by the pilgrimage institution itself.

Pind Daan and the Question of Ritual Efficacy

Guru Nanak's recorded response to the ancestral rites at Gaya continues the First Udasi's theological thread: the question of whether external ritual acts have intrinsic salvific power, or whether inner transformation is the only genuine spiritual currency. The ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ accounts show Guru Nanak asking: if the dead are sustained by water poured at Gaya, does it not follow that the divine is as near as a cup of water? The argument is not that ancestral remembrance is wrong but that it should proceed from genuine love and inner turning rather than mechanical performance divorced from God-consciousness. This nuanced critique — honoring the impulse while questioning the form — is characteristic of Guru Nanak's engagement throughout the First Udasi.

The Pilgrimage Network of the First Udasi

Gaya, Benaras, Hardwar, and Puri form part of a well-established Hindu pilgrimage circuit. Guru Nanak's eastward journey followed routes that pilgrims, traders, and wandering ascetics regularly traveled. J. S. Grewal notes that these routes connected major urban centers, and the First Udasi's geography reflects the real travel infrastructure of the period (Grewal 1969, 118). This context is important: Guru Nanak did not travel in isolation but moved through a landscape densely populated with religious practitioners, pilgrims, and diverse communities — each representing an opportunity for dialogue and teaching. The pilgrimage infrastructure paradoxically enabled the critique of pilgrimage itself, by concentrating seekers at the very sites where Guru Nanak challenged the meaning of their journey.

7. Jagannath Puri: The Arti Sakhi

Puri and the Jagannath Tradition

Jagannath Puri on the Odisha coast was (and remains) one of the four major Hindu pilgrimage centers. The temple of Lord Jagannath drew pilgrims from across the subcontinent, and its elaborate ritual traditions represented the full development of Vaishnava devotional practice in eastern India. According to the Puratan Janamsakhi, Guru Nanak arrived at Puri during the evening arti — the ceremonial waving of lamps, incense, and flowers before the deity. The priests invited Guru Nanak to join the ritual; he reportedly stood still and declined (Kohli 1969, 102). When asked why, his answer gave rise to one of his most celebrated compositions, preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib and sung daily by Sikhs worldwide.

The Aarti of the Universe

Guru Nanak's response to the Jagannath priests was to point toward the sky at dusk: the stars are the lamps, the sky is the platter, the sun and moon are the lights, the mountain flowers are the garlands — the entire cosmos performs the real arti of the Divine. This vision, preserved in the composition that begins Gagan mein thaal rav chand dipak bane, is one of the most theologically significant compositions of the First Udasi. It relocates divine worship from the temple interior to the cosmos itself, arguing that the Divine is not confined to a statue or a ritual but permeates all creation. Harbans Singh notes that this composition represents Guru Nanak's theology of divine immanence in its most poetic form (Singh 1994, 30). The living world becomes a continuous act of worship.

Interfaith Engagement at Puri

The Puri episode demonstrates a recurring pattern of the First Udasi: Guru Nanak's engagement is not dismissal of other traditions but a call to their deepest resources. He does not reject the arti; he reveals its cosmic dimension. This pedagogical approach — finding the universal within the particular, calling practitioners to live up to the full meaning of their own traditions — characterizes the First Udasi's interfaith method. The ਸੰਗਤ that gathered around Guru Nanak at various points during the journey reflected this openness: people of multiple religious backgrounds found in his teachings a vision that transcended sectarian categories. The Puri encounter crystallizes this method in its most memorable form.

8. Eastward to Dhubri and Assam

The Eastern Limits of the First Udasi

The Janamsakhis extend the First Udasi into the far east of the subcontinent, reaching what tradition identifies as Assam (then part of the Ahom kingdom). The geographic specifics of this eastern reach are debated by scholars: W. H. McLeod notes that the farther a janamsakhi account is from central Punjab, the more difficult it is to corroborate independently (McLeod 1968, 110). Nevertheless, the tradition is consistent in placing Guru Nanak at Dhubri on the Brahmaputra and in the region of Assam. Some local traditions in that region preserve memory of his visit, and a historic gurdwara at Dhubri marks the traditional site. The Ahom kingdom of Assam was a sophisticated polity with its own religious traditions, and Guru Nanak's presence there would have introduced his teachings to a context quite unlike Punjab or the Gangetic plain.

The Kauda Sakhi

The most dramatic account from the eastern section of the First Udasi involves a figure called Kauda, described in several janamsakhi traditions as a man-eater who captured Guru Nanak intending to kill him. The Puratan Janamsakhi records that as Kauda prepared his fire, Guru Nanak remained in meditative calm, and Kauda was so affected by the Guru's spiritual presence that he was transformed — abandoning his practice and becoming a follower. This account follows the structural pattern of the ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ genre: encounter with a figure of danger or evil, transformation through the Guru's presence, and the spread of Guru Nanak's mission to unexpected and marginal communities (Kohli 1969, 108). The story encodes the First Udasi's universal reach: even the most extreme of human beings is not beyond transformation.

Reading Devotional Accounts Critically

The Kauda sakhi and similar accounts from the distant reaches of the First Udasi require careful interpretive judgment. These narratives serve theological purposes within the janamsakhi tradition — demonstrating Guru Nanak's power to transform even the most degraded human beings — but cannot be taken as straightforward history. Grewal cautions that the miraculous episodes clustered around Guru Nanak's encounters with dangerous figures are literary tropes serving the janamsakhi's devotional agenda (Grewal 1969, 125). This does not mean the journeys did not occur; it means that the specific details of these sakhis reflect the storytelling traditions of the communities that preserved them over generations. The historian's task is to read through the miracle to the human encounter it encodes.

9. Bhai Mardana: Companion, Musician, and Theological Foil

Bhai Mardana: Who Was He?

Bhai ਮਰਦਾਨਾ was Guru Nanak's lifelong companion from their shared hometown of Talwandi. A Muslim mirasi (hereditary musician) by caste, Mardana was the rababi — the player of the rabab (a stringed instrument) — who accompanied Guru Nanak throughout all four udasis. The Janamsakhis consistently portray Mardana as a deeply human figure: hungry, tired, curious, and occasionally skeptical, yet always devoted. He is the narrative foil who voices the reader's own questions, allowing Guru Nanak to explain his teachings through conversation (McLeod 1968, 55). Without Mardana, many of the janamsakhi teachings would lack their dramatic occasion — he is the questioner who calls forth the answer.

Music as Spiritual Practice

Mardana's musical contribution was integral, not incidental. Guru Nanak's teachings were conveyed primarily through ਕੀਰਤਨ — the sung recitation of his compositions. The combination of Guru Nanak's word and Mardana's rabab constituted the devotional practice that gathered communities at each stop on the First Udasi. This pairing of a teacher from a Hindu-background Khatri family with a Muslim musician was itself a statement: the divine message transcends the communal boundary that organized society around it. Several scholars have noted that Mardana's Muslim identity was not incidental but theologically pointed — Guru Nanak's closest companion was from the tradition his own family did not follow (Singh 1994, 18). Their partnership embodied the teaching that there is neither Hindu nor Muslim in the sight of the One Creator.

Mardana in the Sakhis: Hunger and Trust

A recurring motif in the janamsakhi accounts of the First Udasi involves Mardana's hunger. At remote stops, the sakhis record Mardana asking for food, and Guru Nanak sending him to a particular person — whose encounter transforms that person while feeding Mardana. These episodes function simultaneously as biographical narrative, theological instruction about trust in providence, and social teaching about hospitality. The Kauda episode in Assam, for instance, begins with Mardana's hunger sending him into the forest where he encounters Kauda. Mardana's human needs thus drive the narrative forward and generate the encounters that the First Udasi is remembered for. His ordinariness is itself a teaching: the path of the Guru is not reserved for the spiritually exceptional.

10. Sabads Composed During the First Udasi

Asa Raag and the Eastern Journey

Several of Guru Nanak's compositions in Asa raag are associated by tradition with the First Udasi period. Asa (meaning hope or aspiration) is a raag suited to the morning hours, and its use by Guru Nanak spans themes of divine grace, the futility of ritual, and the path of the ਨਾਮ. The broader context of the Asa Di Var — the ballad in Asa raag — reflects the same theological concerns that animate the First Udasi encounters: critique of empty religion, affirmation of honest living, and the sovereignty of the One Creator. Prof. Sahib Singh's commentaries illuminate the connections between Guru Nanak's geographic encounters and his scriptural output, demonstrating that the bani is not abstract philosophy but engaged response to lived situations.

The Babarvani: Scripture as Historical Witness

As discussed in Lesson 3, the Babarvani compositions represent Guru Nanak as a direct witness to historical violence. Four sabads — preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib — address the Babar invasion directly. These are among the very few places in Gurbani where a contemporary political event is directly named. Their inclusion in the scriptural canon gives them canonical authority; their historical specificity gives them documentary value. Scholars including Grewal have used the Babarvani to anchor the First Udasi chronologically to the period of Babur's Punjab campaigns (Grewal 1969, 145). They demonstrate that Guru Nanak's spirituality was not otherworldly escapism but deeply engaged with the suffering of real people in real historical circumstances.

Gagan Mein Thaal: The Cosmic Arti

The composition associated with the Jagannath Puri encounter — beginning with the image of the sky as a ceremonial platter, the sun and moon as lamps — is one of the most celebrated of Guru Nanak's sabads. Its inclusion in the Nitnem (daily prayers recited at Rehras) ensures that it is sung by Sikhs globally every day. Studying the First Udasi context enriches the reader's understanding of this composition: it emerges not as abstract philosophy but as a direct response to a specific ritual encounter, transforming the local into the universal. The composition models the First Udasi's broader approach: taking the forms of existing religious practice and revealing their deepest cosmic meaning — the universe itself as an act of continuous divine worship.

11. Geography and Chronology: Scholarly Debates

Dating the First Udasi

The traditional dates of the First Udasi are approximately 1499 to 1506, placing its beginning shortly after Guru Nanak's awakening at the Bein river. However, scholars have noted that the Janamsakhis give varying and sometimes contradictory timelines. W. H. McLeod's analysis of the janamsakhi chronology concluded that firm dates cannot be assigned to most udasi episodes on the basis of internal evidence alone (McLeod 1968, 115). The Babarvani compositions provide one firm anchor: the Babar invasions of Punjab occurred between 1519 and 1521, which complicates simple acceptance of the traditional First Udasi dates if Saidpur/Eminabad was part of that journey. Some scholars propose the Saidpur episode belongs to a later period or a separate journey between the formal udasis.

Resolving Chronological Tensions

Some scholars resolve the Babarvani chronological tension by placing the Saidpur episode in a later udasi or in an independent journey between udasis. Others argue that the traditional schema of four udasis is itself a later organizing framework imposed on what were likely multiple shorter journeys over several decades of Guru Nanak's active ministry. J. S. Grewal suggests that the four-udasi framework provides a useful geographical organizing principle even if its precise chronology cannot be confirmed (Grewal 1969, 130). For students, this debate illustrates the broader challenge of Sikh historiography: the tradition's devotional organization of Guru Nanak's life does not always map cleanly onto the chronological methods of modern historical scholarship, and both perspectives have legitimate claims on the material.

Geographic Evidence: Gurdwaras and Local Traditions

One form of evidence for the First Udasi's route is the network of historic gurdwaras established at sites associated with Guru Nanak's visits. These memorial sites at Hardwar, Benaras, Puri, Dhubri, and elsewhere preserve local traditions of the visit and in some cases physical artifacts associated with the Guru's stay. While these traditions cannot substitute for documentary historical evidence, they demonstrate the geographic scope of the tradition's claims and provide a map of communities that identified themselves as touched by the First Udasi. The existence of these communities — and their sustained practice of ਕੀਰਤਨ and ਸੰਗਤ across centuries — is itself a historical fact, whatever the precise details of Guru Nanak's original visits.

12. Legacy of the First Udasi in Sikh Tradition

Sangats Established Along the Route

One of the most important practical legacies of the First Udasi was the establishment of ਸੰਗਤ — communities of followers — at points along the route. Guru Nanak's practice was not simply to teach and move on but to leave behind organized communities of practitioners who would continue the practice of ਕੀਰਤਨ and ਨਾਮ in his absence. These proto-congregations became the nucleus of later Sikh institutions. Harbans Singh argues that the First Udasi's sangats represented the first geographic spread of the Sikh movement beyond the Punjab heartland (Singh 1994, 35). The long-term significance of this institutional dimension rivals the theological content of the individual sakhis — the journey built a living network, not just a memory.

Theological Themes Encoded in the Journey

The First Udasi's major encounters each encode a key theological teaching. Hardwar encodes the critique of mechanical ritual versus internalized devotion. Benaras encodes the critique of textual erudition without spiritual realization. Puri encodes the cosmic dimension of true worship. Assam encodes the transformative power of the Guru's spiritual presence beyond all social boundaries. Taken together, these sakhis constitute a theology of what Guru Nanak called sach (truth) and sahaj (natural ease) — the qualities of a spirituality rooted not in performance but in genuine divine encounter. Kavi Santokh Singh's Sri Nanak Prakash weaves these themes together in poetic narrative, presenting the First Udasi as the beginning of Guru Nanak's mission to liberate the age (Santokh Singh 1843).

The First Udasi and Sikh Identity

For contemporary Sikhs, the First Udasi represents something beyond historical biography: it is a model of spiritual engagement with the world. Guru Nanak did not retreat to an ashram after his awakening; he went out into the world — to pilgrimage centers, cities, forests, and distant kingdoms — engaging everyone he met. This outward-facing spirituality — ਸੰਗਤ over solitude, dialogue over withdrawal — is foundational to Sikh identity. The First Udasi established that the Guru's mission was universal and that the divine message was for everyone regardless of caste, creed, or geography. The subsequent three udasis would extend this mission across the full compass of the known world, building on the pattern of engagement, dialogue, and community-formation that the First Udasi pioneered.

References & further reading

  1. Santokh Singh, Kavi. Sri Nanak Prakash. Amritsar: Khalsa Samachar, 1843.
  2. McLeod, W. H. Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
  3. McLeod, W. H., trans. and ed. The B40 Janam-Sakhi. Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 1980.
  4. Singh, Harbans. The Heritage of the Sikhs. New Delhi: Manohar, 1994.
  5. Grewal, J. S. Guru Nanak in History. Chandigarh: Panjab University, 1969.
  6. Singh, Trilochan, et al., trans. Selections from the Sacred Writings of the Sikhs. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1960.
  7. Kohli, Surindar Singh. Janam Sakhi Traditions. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1969.

From the source text

(੧੭੬) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ਹੈ, ਤਿਸ ਬੀਰਜ ਤੇ ਹੀ ਸਰਬ ਕੀ ਉਤਪਤੀ ਹੈ। ਅਰ ਜਲ ਕੇ ਬਰਸਬੇ ਤੇ ਸਰਬ ਉਤਭੁਜ੧ ਕੀ ਉਤਪਤੀ ਹੈ। ਇਸੀ ਹੇਤ ਕਰਿ ਸਰਬ ਜਗਤ ਕੋ ਪਿਤਾ ਜਲ ਹੈ। ‘ਮਾਤਾ ਧਰਤਿ ਮਹਤੁ’=ਸਰਬ ਜਗਤ ਕੀ ਮਾਤਾ ਧਰਤੀ ਹੈ। ਕੈਸੀ ਧਰਤੀ ਹੈ? ‘ਮਹਤੁ’ ਕਹੀਏ ਬਡੀ ਹੈ।
(176) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Yes, from that seed, everything originates. And from the raining of water, all vegetation originates. For this reason, water is the father of the entire world. ‘Mata dharat mahat’ = the earth is the mother of the entire world. What kind of earth is it? It is called ‘mahat’, meaning great. A mother is one who supports and raises a child, nourishes them by producing milk from her own body, and bears the impurities of the child; in the same way, the earth relates to the entire world. First, it supports and holds everything upon itself; second, the earth produces grain and other sustenance within itself to feed everyone—the nourishment of all comes from the earth, and everything that originates from it consumes it.
— from Garab Ganjinee Teeka. Gurmukhi is the author's original text (OCR); the English is a machine translation. Both are short study excerpts — refer to the original for an authoritative reading.Read the full work on SikhLibrary ↗

Flashcards — ਕਾਰਡ ਅਭਿਆਸ

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Course test

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1. Where did Guru Nanak have his transformative awakening experience that preceded the First Udasi?
2. What was Bhai Mardana's role during the First Udasi?
3. The Babarvani compositions are historically significant primarily because:
4. At Jagannath Puri, Guru Nanak pointed to the cosmos as performing the real arti. This composition is known by its opening words:
5. According to W. H. McLeod, the Janamsakhis are best understood as:
6. The Bhai Lalo and Malik Bhago sakhi at Saidpur teaches primarily about:
7. Which scholar is considered the author of Sri Nanak Prakash, a major nineteenth-century source for the udasis?
8. The traditional dating of the First Udasi places it approximately in which period?
9. Guru Nanak's challenge to water-throwing at Hardwar was aimed at which broader pattern?
10. The Kauda the cannibal sakhi from the Assam section of the First Udasi serves what primary function in the Janamsakhi tradition?

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