Twelve years of service at Khadur
The home of the homeless
A weaver woman mocks him after a fall in a storm, and Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji turns the insult into praise.
The Encyclopaedia gives this as the anecdote that decided the succession. On a night of wind, rain and lightning, Guru Ji was carrying water from the Beas when he stumbled over a peg in the weavers' quarter outside Khadur. He was hurt, but he kept the pitcher on his head.
A weaver woman, woken by the noise, called out a taunt: Amru the homeless. When Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji heard of it he reversed the insult, calling his disciple the home of the homeless and the shelter of those who had none, in a long list of such titles. Macauliffe has the same words spoken at the installation that followed.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
Sources in the same stream, so these two do not independently confirm it.
- ScholarshipNarrates the fall, the taunt and the reply, and links them to the choice of successor.[EoS]
- Later traditionRetells the blessing and goes straight on to the coconut and coins of installation.[Macauliffe]
