Janamsakhi means, roughly, birth story, and the term covers a body of narrative literature composed after Guru Nanak's death by his early followers, recounting his birth, his extensive travels (udasis) across India and, in some accounts, into Arabia and beyond, and the miracles and encounters attributed to him along the way. Unlike the Guru Granth Sahib, whose text is fixed and closed, the Janamsakhis exist in several distinct and sometimes conflicting textual traditions, the best known associated with figures such as Bhai Bala and Bhai Mani Singh, differing from one another in sequence, emphasis and specific incident even where they agree on the broad shape of Guru Nanak's life.
Among the most frequently retold episodes is Guru Nanak's visit to Mecca, in which he is said to have lain down to sleep with his feet pointed toward the Kaaba, and when a custodian rebuked him for the perceived disrespect and dragged his feet to point elsewhere, the Kaaba itself is said to have moved to align with wherever his feet now pointed, a story read as teaching that God cannot be confined to any single direction or location. Other widely told episodes include his childhood questioning of Hindu and Muslim ritual observance and a formative experience of immersion in a river during which he received his teaching mission.