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<p class="C1">&#65279GOP&#256L was the name of the village <i>p&#257ndh&#257</i> or Br&#257hma&#7751 tutor in Talva&#7751&#7693&#299 R&#257i Bhoe, now Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib in Pakistan, during the childhood of Gur&#363 N&#257nak (1469-1539) . B&#257b&#257 K&#257l&#363, the father of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, had worldly ambitions for his only son and wished that he should learn how to read and write and one day take his own place as the revenue superintendent of the village. So when N&#257nak was seven he was led to Gop&#257l, the <i>p&#257ndh&#257</i>, who felt happy to have with him a pupil so well spoken of in the village. He gave N&#257nak a place among his other pupils seated in a row reverentially on the ground in front of him. On a wooden slate he wrote down the first few letters of the alphabet of <i>Sidho&#7749g&#257i&#257</i> or Sindha&#7749g&#257i&#257 script then in vogue among the commercial class, and gave it to N&#257nak to learn from. One day, as goes the legend, N&#257nak filled both sides of the slate with a composition written in his own hand. The teacher was surprised to see the tablet and curious to know what the child had written, he asked him to read aloud. To his amazement, it turned out to be a poem in Punjabi, a kind of acrostic which N&#257nak had extemporized with verses written to match the letters of the alphabet. In it he had reflected upon questions far beyond his years. The main one he had in mind was, "Who is truly learned?" Certainly not he who knew the letters of the alphabet, "but he who arriveth at true understanding through these." Though it will remain debatable at what point of his career Gur&#363 N&#257nak composed this <i>&#347abda</i>, it is included in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib with the explanatory note <i>Pa&#7789&#7789&#299 Likh&#299</i>, i.e. "thus was the tablet written." P&#257ndh&#257 Gop&#257l acknowledged Gur&#363 N&#257nak's precocious genius for poetry and revelation, and considered himself fortunate in having been instructed by his pupil so marvelously gifted.</p>
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BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Kohl&#299, Surindar Si&#7749gh, ed. <i>Janams&#257kh&#299 Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257</i>..Chandigarh, 1975<BR>
<li class="C1"> McLeod, W.H., <i>The B40 Janam-Sakhi</i>, Amritsar, 1980<BR>
<li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>Guru Nanak and Origins of the Sikh Faith</i>. Bombay, 1969<BR>
</ol><p class="CONT">Gurnek Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR>
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