Mardānā

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Mardānā (d. c.1535 CE). Companion of Gurū Nānak. Mardānā was a Dom (Dum or Mirāsī), i.e. a musician of low-caste Muslim background. According to tradition Mardānā played the rabāb, a stringed instrument, to accompany Gurū Nānak's spiritual teaching, travelling with him to Indian centres of pilgrimage and to Arabia. Three śaloks of the Ādi Granth are attributed to Mardānā, one of the five Muslim contributors.