Sikh Art by Bhagat Singh Bedi – www.sikhiart.com

Estimated Lesson Length: 25 Minutes

This lesson will share information about Guru Angad, the second Sikh Guru.

Guru Angad was born in Sarai Matta, India. His father’s name was Pheru Mall Ji and his mother was Daya Kaur Ji. He married Mata Khivi.  They had two sons Dassu Ji and Dattu Ji and two daughters Bibi Amro Ji and Bibi Anokhi Ji.

Guru Angad continued sharing the teachings of Guru Nanak. He also entered states of mystical vision and wrote songs from his own experience. To help the community learn to sing these songs, Guru Angad standardized the Gurmukhi script.  Gurmukhi means “from the mouth of the Guru.” With very easy and clear rules of pronunciation, the Gurmukhi script allowed people to pronounce the songs of Guru Nanak, Guru Angad and the songs of the mystics from other lands and languages that Guru Nanak had collected. In some ways, it could be said that Gurmukhi was the world’s first tape-recorder – for it was an alphabet devised to re-create sound – regardless of the particular language a song was written in.

Under Guru Angad’s instruction, his wife Mata Khivi further developed langar– or the community meal. In India, people of different castes or social classes did not eat meals together. Guru Nanak began a tradition of having people of all castes sit together and eat together – as a way to create community among people and break the false divisions of social class. Mata Khivi was instrumental in seeing that this tradition of eating together flourished into an institution during the second Guru’s reign.

~ Sikh Dharma International (https://www.sikhdharma.org/sikh-history/ten-sikh-gurus/)