The Kartarpur settlement
Multan and the cup of milk
The pirs of Multan sent a full cup of milk; Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji floated a jasmine flower on it.
In Bhai Gurdas's first Var, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji leaves the fair at Achal and travels to Multan. The city's pirs come out with a bowl of milk filled to the very brim. Their meaning is plain: this place already holds as many holy men as it can.
Guru Ji takes a jasmine flower from his bag and lays it on the milk. There is room for one more, and he will displace nobody. Bhai Gurdas compares the meeting to the Ganga flowing into the ocean.
How do we know?
The sources conflict on this story, or scholars doubt it.
Early transmission is not in doubt, because the story is in Bhai Gurdas. What is contested is whether it happened, given the older parallel.
- Early sourceTells of the pir's full bowl and the jasmine flower floated on it, and compares the meeting to the Ganga entering the sea. (pauri 44)[Src]
- Later traditionRetells the story and reports Miharban's mention of a descendant of Bahauddin Zakariya in the crowd.[EoS]
- ScholarshipAccepts that Guru Ji likely went to Multan, but sets the story aside since a similar tale, with water and a rose, is told of Abd al-Qadir Jilani at Baghdad, and also in Parsi tradition. (pp. 141-142)[McLeod]
