RAS question
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, was born in which year?
Correct answer: (B) 1469.
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, was born in 1469 AD at Nankana Sahib, earlier Talwandi.
Explanation
Guru Nanak Dev's birth year is 1469. The cited SGPC gazette article states that Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji was born in 1469 AD at Nankana Sahib in present-day Pakistan, which aligns with the standard account in the question explanation that identifies Talwandi, later Nankana Sahib, as his birthplace. He is central to the Bhakti-Sufi-era religious landscape because he founded Sikhism as the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His teaching stressed one God, equality of human beings, honest work, remembrance of God and sharing with others. That is why the chronology matters: placing him in 1469 situates his life and teachings in late medieval north India, not in the earlier saint-poet phase or a later sixteenth-century birth frame.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1440 is too early; both the question explanation and the SGPC source place Guru Nanak Dev's birth in 1469.
- (C) 1398 belongs to the approximate birth-year frame associated with Kabir, not to Guru Nanak Dev, whose birth is given as 1469.
- (D) 1532 falls within the later part of Guru Nanak Dev's lifetime rather than his birth year, which the source and explanation identify as 1469.
Concept
This tests the chronology of major medieval Indian religious movements and their founders. RAS repeatedly uses such dates to link personalities, movements and doctrinal themes without confusing the Bhakti and Sikh traditions.