Guru Angad
Guru Angad (गुरु अंगद, 1504–1552), born Lehna (Bhai Lehna), was the second of the ten Sikh Gurus and the immediate successor of Guru Nanak. He consolidated the young Sikh community after Nanak’s death and gave it enduring institutions of script, scripture, and communal life.
Life
Guru Angad was born in 1504 at Harike (or, by other accounts, Matte di Sarai) in present-day Punjab to a Hindu Khatri family. A shopkeeper by occupation and initially a devotee of the goddess Durga, he encountered Guru Nanak around 1532 and became a devoted disciple. Impressed by his humility and obedience — qualities Nanak contrasted with the conduct of his own sons — Nanak renamed him Angad (“part of my own body”) and installed him as the second Guru in 1539. He made Khadur Sahib his headquarters and led the community until his death in 1552, when he passed the guruship to Guru Amar Das rather than to his own children.
Contributions
Guru Angad standardized and promoted the Gurmukhi script, giving the Sikhs a distinct written medium for their scripture and separating Punjabi literary culture from the prestige scripts of the region. He compiled and preserved Guru Nanak’s hymns in pothis (volumes), laying the groundwork for the later Adi Granth. He expanded the langar (free community kitchen), reinforcing the practice of caste-mixed, egalitarian dining. Sixty-two of his shaloks, together with other short compositions, are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.
Legacy
Guru Angad is remembered as the organizer of the Sikh community and the father of its script. The Gurmukhi tradition he fostered remains the standard medium of Punjabi Sikh scripture and literature.
Verification notes
- Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).
- Dates (1504–1552), succession in 1539, and the 62 shaloks are per Wikipedia.
- Details of his birthplace and pre-Sikh religious practice vary across sources and are hagiographically mediated.