Nankana Sahib is a small Town, a sub divisional head quarter of the district Shekhupura of west Punjab in Pakistan, Before partition of the Indian sub continent in 1947 it formed a part of India. Situated about eighty kilometres to the west of Lahore and thirty kilometres from the river Ravi, to its north, it lies in most fertile verdant plains of the Punjab.

The existence of a huge mound popularly known as Dhaular (royal palace) spread over approximately half a million square. yards at less than half a kilometre from the town of Nankana Sahib with traces of ancient habitation over there and at its foot to its north a very old drinking water well called Sitawala with deep drawn out stairs built in heavy lime masonary leading to its spring level to provide cold spring water bath to the inmates of the palace, bear testimony to the antiquity of the place and its having been a territory of some Hindu king one of whose princesses was Sita, whose name the well bears to this day. General rise of the spring level in these areas has hidden the stairs now. Another equally old well to the east of the mound entered as Bala wala well in the revenue records of the place appears to have derived its name from one Bala, a contemporary of Guru Nanak.

Any further excavation of the mound to trace its past history has not been possible so far, as almost the entire mound is covered with Muslim tombs and they would consider it a sacrilege, to dig up the graves.

It is believed that during pre- histories times, when Kurus and Pandvas fought the battle of Kurukshetra. one Raja Varat of Multan had set up an habitation of the name of Kotli at this place. The said mound with the two wells at its foot seem to be the remnants of Kotli.

The earliest available historical reference to the place falls about the 15th century when the Lodhi Pathans held sway over northern India. This place was then called Rai Bhoe Ki Talwandi and was held by one Rai Bular of Bhati clan a descendant of Ria Bhoe from whom it had derived its name. One of the tombs on mound is alleged to be that of Rai Bular, which bears out the existence of a grave-yard over there as early as the fifteenth century.

One Kalyan Dass popularly known as Kalu lived then in Talwandi. He owned some landed property over there and also held charge of the land records of the areas under Rai Bular. On the 3rd of the moon-lit half of April 1469 Tripta. Kalu's wife begot him a male child. who was named Nanak after his elder sister Nanki. She was so named as she had been born at the house of her Nana (grandfather on mother's side) in village Dera Chahal in Lahore district. This sister of Nanak was the first to observe some sort of divineness about her brother. That flared up all around when at the age of seven he astonished his teacher Pandit Gopal with his eloquence in explaining deeper truths about man and God and composed an aonstic on Punjabi alphabet giving divinely inspired interpretation to each letter. He always spoke and sang of one God and his love for Him and being rich in music and melody he cast irresistible spell on all those who listened to him. It was here that at the age of nine he was called upon to put on the sacred thread according to the Hindu tradition by the family priest Hardyal which he refused to do saying that the thread could do him no good and would be burnt with the body on his death. If it was at all necessary to wear one let it be span out of the cotton of Mercy and yarn of Harmony with twists and knots of truthful and temperate living in-fact he discarded all traditional rituals and caste and creed distinctions so scrupulously observed then. His was a God-inspired soul and his magnanimity made all that came into his contact magnanimous.

Rai Bhoe Ki Talwandi, his birth town, came to be known as Nanak-ayan (home of Nanak or Nankana after him and since then it has been called Nankana Sahib (Sahib being just Persian epithet of respect). Nankana Sahib is a town of Gurdwaras (Sikh temples), the most important of these being the 'Nanak's Ayan' called Janam Asthan or Birth place of Nanak. It was earlier known as Kalu's Kotha (Room of Kalu).Pandit Gopal's school, where Nanak had his first lesson is at present known as Gurdwara Patti Sahib and is about 150 yards to the south east of Janam-Asthan; and hardly 50 yards beyond that is Gurdwara Bal Lila, that commemorates the place where the boy Nanak enjoyed the company of his playmates and cast on them a spell with his novel games and sweet and melodious talks. In-fact they felt a strange sort of light emanating from his eyes. These three Gurdwaras were originally got constructed by one Baba Gurbakhsh Singh under orders of Maharaja Ranjit singh, when the latter visited the place of his return from Multan after its conquest in the year 1818-19.

Besides these there are three other Gurdwaras sacred to the memory of the boy Nanak. Two of these commemorate his having worked as a herdboy, to his father's cows. He would usually lead his cows to the nearby pasture grounds where they would continue grazing. while Nanak sat under some shady trees absorbed in meditation One day the cattle strayed into a neighbouring field and feasted on the luxuriant crop. Enraged beyond measure at his loss, the owner of the farm complained to Rai Bular chief of the place, who sent for Kalu and deputed a man to appraise the loss, but the appraiser 's report on the loss was almost negligible.