[443] Nânac (G. M. p. 204) travelled throughout India, and went also to Mecca and Medina, teaching his doctrine every where with a due regard to that of others. He showed great moderation, and even courtesy, in his intercourse with the public teachers of other religions. When he visited in Multan the Muhammedan Pîrans, or “old wise men,” he said: “I come, like the sacred Ganga to visit the ocean.”
[444] बाणि báni, speech.
[445] “A hundred thousand Muhammeds,” said Nánac (G. M. p. 275) “a million of Brahmas, Vichnus, and a hundred thousand Ramas, stand at the gate of the most High. These all perish. God alone is immortal. Yet men who unite in the praise of God are not ashamed of living in contention with each other, which proves that the evil spirit has subdued all. He alone is a true Hindu whose heart is just, and he only a good Muhammedan whose life is pure.”
[446] Nánac (G. M.) had two sons. There is in our days still a tribe among the Sikhs, called the Nánac-páutras, or “descendants of Nánac,” a mild inoffensive race; if not, as is generally the case, mendicants, they are travelling merchants.
[447] خوديمانى khudimaní is the ahankára of the Indians, rendered in English by “consciousness, egotism, individuality.”
[448] Nánac died in Kirti púr Dehra, on the banks of the Rávi, the ancient Hydraotes of the Greek geographers. Kirti púr continues to be a place of religious pilgrimage and worship.
[449] Nánac (G. M. p. 208-9) bequeathed his succession to a Kshatriya of the Tréhun tribe, called Lehana, who had been attached to him, and whom he had initiated in the sacred mysteries of his sect, and honored with the name of Angad, perhaps anga, which word in Sanskrit signifies “body.” This Angad wrote some chapters of the Adi-grant´ha. He died in 1552, at Khandur, a village about 40 miles east of Lahore.
[450] Amaradas (G. M.), a Kshatriya of the tribe of Bhalé, died A. D. 1574, at the village of Gondaval, in the province of Lahore.
[451] Rámadas (G. M.) was the son-in-law of Amaradas; to Rámadas some Sikh authors ascribe the foundation of the town Rámpur, or Rámdáspur, but falsely, as it was a very ancient town, known formerly under the name of Chak. He however contributed much to its increase, and dug a tank or reservoir of water, which is celebrated to our days under the name of Amrita Sara, “the lake of the water of immortality.” Rámadás died, in 1581, at Amrita Sara, leaving two sons, Arjunmal and Bharatamal, the former of whom succeeded him.
[452] Arjunmal (G. M. p. 212) is celebrated for having compiled the Adi-granth from the writings of his predecessors, not without his own additions and commentaries. Thirteen authors after him contributed to the work as it now is. The Adi-granth is, like the rest of the books of the Sikhs, written in the Gurumukh characters, which are a modified species of the Nagari character. Arjunmal was put to death in 1606, by the intolerance of the Muhammedans.