CULTURE

Punjabi Language and the Gurmukhi Script - Origin & Development

Dr. Kuldip Singh, F.R.C.S.

Punjabi is a language by itself and not a dialect. The study of Punjabi shows that it has preserved some of the rarest structural peculiarities of the ancient Aryan speech. A comparative study of Punjabi and Sanskrit can go a long way to show how faithfully Punjabi has preserved some of the features of its ancestry. In many respects it is the nearest relative of Sanskrit existing today. According to Dr. Om Prakash Kahol: “Of all Indian languages, Punjabi is the most closely related to Sanskrit in its essentials - Verbs, phonology, as well as syntax.” Transformation of Sanskrit into Punjabi has followed the same lines, more or less, as the transformation of Latin into Italian. Of several examples given by Kahol, the following few portray the close resemblance of Sanskrit to the present day Punjabi :

Study of evolution of Bengali, Marathi and Hindi show that transition from Sanskrit to their modern versions has taken place in two stages, viz. from Sanskrit to Prakrit, to Apabhramsha and then from Apabhramsha to their present form. In Punjabi, on the other hand, the evolution is direct and so it is as old as Sanskrit. No other Aryan language of Indian can claim that antiquity.

Prof. Piara Singh Padam in his book “Punjabi Boli Da Itihas” quote several authors to conclude that Sanskrit from its beginning has been a language of literature confined to scholars and so no other language can be evolved from it. It is logical that both Sanskrit and Punjabi were evolved from the crude language or Prakrit being in use by the people 2500 years ago. The letter Rharha and its sound is unique in Punjabi and it does not exist in Sanskrit or other Indian language. An inquiry committee of Punjab University, Lahore in 1932 concludes that Punjabi was the oldest amongst the Modern Indian Languages. According to P.D. Gune in his Introduction to Comparative Philology".

Early eleventh century can be safely regarded as the beginning of the modern vernaculars. For our own arguments we can also take that the present day Punjabi language had also evolved by that time.

Linguistic boundaries of Punjabi : Punjabi with its variation Lahndi or western Punjabis spoken in East Punjab, West Punjab, lower half of Himachal Pradesh, Distt. Ganganagar of Rajasthan, and Dogri a dialect of Punjab is spoken in Jammu and Kangra. Western Punjab or Lehendi is also spoken in Kashmir hills and at least three million Punjabis reside in Delhi and above three million in Haryana. Thus it is the language of about 40 million people. According to Sir George Grierson in his linguistic survey of India: “Punjabi has its unique phonetic system and its own store of words. Some of the most common Punjabi words do not occur in Hindi or Hindustani. Punjabi can express any idea with its own stock of words and is well adapted for both prose and poetry.”

The Script When Guru Nanak Devji started writing Gurbani, he found that there was no existing complete script which could record all the sounds faithfully. There is no record of any writing or text using the present day alphabet before Guru Granth Sahib. The letters did exist in similar form in several scripts of his time. Comparing with Takre of lower Himalayas, 15 letters are common to both, 11 are somewhat similar, eight entirely different and "sarsha” is additional in Gurmukhi. All the 30 letters of Lande Mahajani script are similar to Gurmukhi. It seems that after the evolution of present day Punjabi in the 10/11th century, the area came under the occupation of Muslim rulers who brought and thrust the Persian language and script on Punjabis. Although the people used Punjabi, even though Hindus who were not converted to Islam, started learning Persian which had become the court language. It is clear that although spoken Punjabi kept on developing, its script could not do so. There is no record of any literary work in the present Gurmukhi script existing prior to Gurbani. Muslims had been ruling over Punjab for about 500 years when Guru Nanak Devji arrived on the scene. Three lines from Gurbani of Guru Nanakji in Sri Guru Granth Sahib point clearly to the state of literary activities of the Hindus:

(1)"antar Pooja Pareh Kateban Sanjam Turkaan Bhai"
The Muslims do idol worship in their homes but read the Muslim texts and have adopted the living of Turkis or Muslims. (S.G.G.S. page 471).

(2) “Khatrian Ta Dharam Chhodia Malechh Bhakhia Gahi”
In their homes they address each other as “Mian” and have adopted their (Muslims) language. (S.G.G.S., page 1191).

It is obvious that Guru Nanak rejected the Persian script for Gurbani. Sanskrit was understood by a small number of Brahmins. He wanted to preach Gurbani in the language of the masses: “Jaisi may aavai khasam ki bani Taisra kari gyan vay Lalo”, O Lalo, as I receive the word of the Lord, so do I utter (S.G.G.S. Tilang, M.I. 722). Guru Nanak made sure to record the Bani being revealed to him by Akal Purakh in the peoples’ language and in the script that he had himself evolved, by improving and modifying the contemporary Landey or Mahajani script. The letters along with their pronounciation are described as the alphabet in S.G.G.S.: Asa Mohalla I “Patti” page 432 in the following order “Sassai, eevary, oorhai, Kamkain, Kakkai, Khakhai, Gaggai, Ghaghai, etc. Guru Angad Devji rearranged the alphabetical order and wrote Punjabi or Gurmukhi primer for teaching the script to the Gurmukhs who were deeply interested to learn the Gurbani and write it for their own use.

If we visualise the scene, then out of the total population of Punjab, a very small minority had come under the influence of the Gurus. This small but devoted group styled themselves as Sikhs and started learning the Gurmukhi script. Muslims and majority of the Hindus continued to speak Panjabi but used Persian language and script for their work as well as literary activities. It is for this reason that when the Pothi Sahib was compiled and installed at the Darbar Sahib by Guru Arjan Devji, then apart from Janam Sakhis there was no other text written in Gurmukhi. Bhai Gurdas wrote his “Vars” around 1600 A.D. When Guru Gobind Singhji came on the scene in 1675 then apart from copies of Gurbani and Vars there had been no addition to Punjabi literature. Guruji collected a galaxy of literary persons around him at Paonta Sahib and Anandpur Sahib. Several of them were sent to Banaras to learn the Hindu mythology and other texts. Guruji encouraged them to compose their writings in Punjabi and these were scribed in Gurmukhi script. On listening to their compositions he offered his own personal comments which were included in several of these poetical texts. Guruji also composed his Bani in Hindi, Braj Bhasha and Persian and all his writing were scribed in Gurmukhi. A good part of their literary treasure was lost during the battle between 1700 - 1705. In the Eighteenth Century Sikhs were involved in a life and death struggle but the large number of scribes went on writing Sanskrit, Hindi and Persian texts in Gurmukhi script. Thus Upanishads, Puranas, Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharat, Bhagwat Purana, Vedantic texts, Panch Tantar, Shahnama Firdausi, Akbarnama were written in Gurmukhi and this trend continued in the 19th Century. This made Sir George Grierson comment in his “Linguistic Survey of India” Volume 9 page 24 (1918) that “The Punjabi literature is usually said to be written in Gurmukhi alphabet. As a matter of fact several languages have been written in Gurmukhi.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled over Punjab extending from Sutlej to Peshawar. He also continued Persian as the court and official language and script. Thus right up to end of Ranjit Singh’s kingdom in 1849, only the Sikhs had been learning the Gurmukhi script from 1540 to 1849. After annexation of Punjab, the British adopted the Urdu script and language as the medium of instruction in schools and also the court language of Punjab. Only Sikhs continued to learn the Gurmukhi script in addition. Thus from 1000 to 1885 A.D. the only script learnt by the Punjabi Hindus was Persian script. With the advent of the Arya Samaj movement they started learning Hindi and English. When independence appeared on the horizon, the Punjabi Hindus started attaching themselves to Hindi more and more, claiming it to be their mother tongue!

It is a strange irony of history that Hindus of Punjab, right from the 10th century continued to speak Punjabi as their mother tongue, but did not strive to evolve its proper script between the years 1000-1540 A.D. They learnt the Persian language of the rulers. Even now, although the Punjabi Hindus continue to converse in their mother tongue, Punjabi, yet they are using Hindi language and script for writing. A perusal of the Punjabi newspapers shows the tremendous literary activities in Punjabi, by the Sikhs but hardly any literary activities in Hindi by the Punjabi Hindus are reported in the Hindi press of North India. During one of my many conversations with my patients, a Hindu primary school teacher of Kangra  remarked that the politicians had done great harm to the people of Kangra by including it in the Hindi zone. He said that it is so difficult to teach Hindi to the village children of Kangra who are learning the script after generations of illiteracy. He said that, as an experiment, he taught Gurmukhi script to one class for a few months and was amazed how the children picked it up in no time. He said that we can literate the children of Kangra villages with great difficulty by teaching Hindi language and script. But if we want to educate them, we can do so only by teaching them in Gurmukhi script and Punjabi language in which they can express their thoughts so easily. We always think in our mother-tongue and if we do not write it to express out thoughts then our brain computer has to exert and do simultaneous translation into our adopted language. If the Punjabi Hindus continue to disown their Punjabi script and language, then it will take them centuries to change their mother tongue. Most of them, specially the vocal politicians, are from the business/trading class and do not realise the harm they are doing to their culture. The secret of success and rapid progress of the Japanese is that they think, use and keep on enriching Japanese. The clever amongst them learn foreign languages to borrow new ideas and quickly imbibe them in their own language.

In West Punjab (Pakistan) Islam is being explained in Punjabi. In 1988, I found them celebrating birthday of Prophet Mohammad Sahib by lectures and recitation of poetry in Punjabi. From the mosques after every Namaz the Maulvi would say “I ssVeley da vichar” .... There is fair amount of literary activities in Punjabi in Persian script in Pakistan. Realisation is bound to come soon that only the Gurmukhi script is the most scientific script for Punjabi. As in other states of India, the Punjabi Hindu should accept Gurmukhi as the natural medium of expression and literary activity being native to their mother tongue so that we can advance in every field of human endeavour.