Gurmukhi Lipi for Hindu Religious Scriptures

All-India Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Paryag (Allahabad), conferred the honorary degree of Sahitya Mahopadhyaya to Satya Pal Gupta for his valuable research in Hindi literature written in Gurmukhi script.

Hailing from Patiala, he got the opportunity to have access to the vast hidden treasures lying in the archives of Moti Bagh Palace, Patiala, and other palaces in the erstwhile PEPSU. He salvaged a total of 5,000 works of some 500 writers of repute, including the 52 poets of Guru Gobind Singh’s Court at Paonta Sahib. These literary geniuses who were in contact with the divine Guru, had a great influence on the thinking of the people and in their own way made history. Their language was Braj Bhasha — which is more akin to Hindi — but the script used was Gurmukhi. Any scholar or researcher who wants to tap this vast storehouse of Hindi literature can enter only through the door of Gurmukhi script. To this genre belongs Bhai Santokh Singh’s Suraj Parkash. Among the other obscure but worthwhile works are Balmiki Ramayana, Tulsi Ramayan, Mahabharata, Gita, Rama, Krishna, Upanishads, Puranas, Yog Vasishtha, Gulistan, Bostan, Hanuman Natak and Mudra Rakshas (a unique historical play in Sanskrit dealing with Kautilya and Chandragupt Maurya).

Among S.P. Gupta’s notable works are Gurmukhi Lipin Main Hindi Sahitya and Punjab ka Hindi Sahitya. That this genre of Gurmukhi literature is very voluminous goes without saying. The manuscripts of the works of the 52 poets alone weighed nine maunds (approximately 350 Kg). Not only poets, but also the royalty tried its hand at writing Punjabi poetry. Among such noble writers of poetry were Maharaja Rajinder Singh and Maharaja Narinder Singh of Patiala, and Maharaja Vikram Singh and Kanwar Fateh Singh of Kapurthala.