In 1469, in the village of Rai Bhoi di Talwandi — today Nankana Sahib, in Pakistani Punjab — Guru Nanak was born. His teaching was disarmingly simple to state and radical to live: there is one Divine, the same for every person; caste and ritual purity mean nothing before it; a life of honest work, remembrance, and sharing is worth more than any pilgrimage. Around this teaching a community — sangat — began to gather, eating together in a common kitchen, the langar, where a Brahmin and a sweeper sat in the same row.

Ten Gurus, one light

Before his death in 1539, Nanak did something unusual: he passed his seat not to a son but to a disciple. Nine successors followed, and the community understood them as carrying one and the same light. Under them, Sikhi acquired its institutions: Guru Angad standardised the Gurmukhi script; Guru Amar Das organised the congregations; Guru Ram Das founded the town that became Amritsar; and Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 and completed the Harmandir Sahib — the Golden Temple — to house it.

Guru Arjan's execution by the Mughal state in 1606, and the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, marked a turning point: a faith of interior devotion was forced to reckon with political power. The community armed itself in self-defence under Guru Hargobind, who paired the spiritual and the temporal — miri-piri.

The Khalsa, 1699

At Anandpur in the spring of 1699, Guru Gobind Singh gathered the community and founded the Khalsa — an initiated order bound to visible discipline and to the defence of the defenceless, taking the names Singh and Kaur. Before his death in 1708, he ended the line of living Gurus and vested the Guruship jointly in the scripture — henceforth the Guru Granth Sahib — and the community itself.

Timeline

1469

Guru Nanak is born

At Rai Bhoi di Talwandi (Nankana Sahib). His hymns become the seed of the faith.

1604

The Adi Granth is compiled

Guru Arjan gathers the Gurus' hymns — alongside Hindu and Muslim saints — into one scripture, installed at the Harmandir Sahib.

1606 · 1675

Two martyrdoms

Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur are executed by the Mughal state; the community turns to armed self-defence.

1699

The Khalsa is founded

Guru Gobind Singh initiates the order at Anandpur on Vaisakhi.

1708

Guruship passes to the Granth

The Guru Granth Sahib becomes the eternal Guru; the age of living Gurus ends, and a century later the Khalsa will build an empire.