The Source Book On Sikhism

NANAK AND NUR SHAH OF ASSAM

Guru Nanak was in Assam in the city of Nur Shah, and a woman of black magic, who exercised strange powers over all that locality dwelt there. She fascinated and subordinated many by her spells, compelling them to dance to her tunes. She owned the whole country around, and many a mystic and many a celibate and Yogi had fallen into her snare.

Mardana went into the city to get some bread for himself, and he fell a victim to the machinations of the slaves of Nur Shah. They fed him, worshipped him, but “made him a lamb.” They put him under their spell, and he “drank without water and ate without bread!” Mardana was thus imprisoned in the spell of black magic of Nur Shah, and could not return to the Guru. Guru Nanak went to search for his Mardana, and found a lost disciple in Nur Shah also. She came at least and renounced her magic at the feet of the Guru. All her slaves were set free, and she obtained her freedom in the Song of Nam.