Marriage and Sultanpur
Accused of mismanaging the stores
Tale-bearers accused the young storekeeper of giving goods away, but an audit, the stories say, found everything correct.
According to the accounts summarised in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji's open hand at the stores made enemies, who told the Nawab that his goods were being wasted. Daulat Khan had the stocks checked, twice, and each time found them complete.
A later popular story says that when he measured grain he would count up to thirteen, tera, and stop there, because the word also means thine, and that he was lost in that thought as he went on giving.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
The Punjabi word for thirteen sounds like the word for thine, which gave rise to a story that he lost himself at that count. McLeod treats this version as late.
- Later traditionReports that complaints of squandering led to two checks that found the stores full and the books correct.[EoS]
- ScholarshipRecords the cell of Kothari Sahib as the place where he was held during the audit.[EoS]
- ScholarshipRejects this as a miracle story without any historical kernel, and calls the popular tale of the counting word tera a late tradition. (pp. 77, 107)[McLeod]
