Nanak

Indian guru and founder of Sikhism, a religion based on the unity of God and the equality of all human beings. He was strongly opposed to caste divisions.

Greatly influenced by Islamic mysticism (Sufism), Nanak preached a new path of release from the Hindu cycle of rebirth and caste divisions through sincere meditation on the name of God. He is revered by Sikhs (‘disciples’) as the first of their ten gurus (religious teachers). At 50, after many years travelling and teaching, he established a new town in the Punjab called Kartarpur, where many people came to live as his disciples. On his deathbed, Guru Nanak announced his friend Lehna as his successor, and gave him the name Angad (‘part of me’).