Mother of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Mata Tripta
Mata Tripta was the mother of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Bebe Nanaki. Very little is recorded about her beyond her family and her place in the Janamsakhis, which remember her for her devotion to her son. No source read gives her dates of birth or passing.
Family
Mata Tripta was the wife of Kalian Chand, known as Mehta Kalu, the village accountant at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names her parents as Bhai Rama and Mai Bharai of Chahal, a village near Lahore. Macauliffe also calls her the daughter of Rama, and adds a brother called Krishan, about whom almost nothing is known.
She had two children. Bebe Nanaki was born in 1464, at Chahal according to the Encyclopaedia, which would mean that Mata Tripta had gone to her parents' home for the birth. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji followed in 1469.[EoS][EoS][Macauliffe][Singh]
In the Janamsakhis
Her picture comes almost entirely from later narrative tradition, so it shows how Sikhs remembered her and is not a record of her life. Macauliffe describes her as remembered in Sikh writings for her devotion to her son. Harbans Singh, drawing on the Janamsakhis, shows her waiting at the door for him with his sister, and unwilling to see him leave for Sultanpur.
McLeod counts the meeting of mother and son after the long travels among the finest passages in the Janamsakhis. He also notes that each text places it at a different point in the story, so it has no fixed date.[Macauliffe][Singh][McLeod]
Her passing
The account attributed to Bhai Mani Singh, followed by the Encyclopaedia, says that she passed away at Kartarpur on the Ravi soon after her husband, who passed away in 1522. McLeod notes a tradition in the Gyan Ratnavali that places the parents' passing shortly before Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji's own in 1539, and he considers so late a date unlikely. Her date of passing has not been confirmed, so none is given here.[EoS][McLeod]
What the sources disagree on
- Her name
The Miharban Janamsakhi calls her Tipara, while the Gyan Ratnavali and the Bala Janamsakhis use forms of Tripta. McLeod treats Tripta as the more likely name.[McLeod]
- When she passed away
The Encyclopaedia's account places it soon after 1522. The Gyan Ratnavali tradition described by McLeod puts both parents' passing much closer to 1539. McLeod regards that later date as possible but unlikely.[EoS][McLeod]