Language and Script Guru Granth Sahib

Language and Script Guru Granth Sahib

Abstract

The Sikh Gurus used Punjabi, the spoken language of the people of the Punjab, for dissemination of their Bani (philosophy). However, many Sikh as well as non-Sikh scholars believes that the Holy Book, Aad Guru Granth Sahib (AGGS), contains many languages including Sanskrit. But the present study shows that the language used by the Sikh Gurus is an Old Punjabi spoken by the people of the Punjab. Moreover, the comparison of the language used by the Bhagats from far away from Punjab shows that their language was also the Old Punjabi. It also indicates that Old Punjabi was spoken in different parts of India far away from Punjab. The present study further reveals that Panini synthesized Sanskrit from the spoken language of the Punjab people, Ancient Punjabi, which was named as Prakrit by him. This Prakrit, in fact, is the Ancient Punjabi, which gave birth to Sanskrit. It is a pity that many Sikh scholars believe it otherwise that Punjabi originated from Sanskrit. Present day Punjabi language is the result of continuous development without the aid of any Government during the last 4,000 to 5,000 years, which is a typical example of Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) Languages, which has phonetic and morphological system analogous to that observed in such languages as Greek, Latin, Celtic, etc.

Introduction

The Sikh Gurus preferred to use the spoken language of the people of the Punjab for writing their Bani rather than Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmans that was never spoken by the common people. The people of Punjab are called 'Punjabi' and their spoken language is also called 'Punjabi'. The name 'Punjab' was given to this land of five rivers by the Persians, who invaded it and settled there permanently around 1000 CE. Before their invasion this land was called 'Septa Sindhva' because long time ago seven rivers used to flow on this land. The river Sarsvati on the Eastern side dried up and the river Sind with its own tributaries on the Western side, forming the boundary, was not considered as a river of the main fertile land. Consequently, five rivers were left and the land on which these rivers were flowing was named as 'Punjab' (Punj = Five, Ab = Water/River) by the Persians [8]. Punjab and Punjabi are also spelled as Panjab and Panjabi, respectively. Since Punjab and Punjabi language is shared by people of Pakistan also, therefore, the following information from Pakistan Forum [3] is worth to know about the past history of the Punjab.

The intrusion of the Aryans started in waves after waves in about 3000 BC, and continued for about 1000 years - those Aryans were not a single tribe or race but they were comprised of an assortment of tribes from the Central Asia. So in first instance, those Aryans settled in the upper part of the mighty river; Sindh/Indus’ namely, ‘Sindh Valley’ or ‘Indus Valley’ -- which were then known as ‘Saptasindhva’ or ‘Sapta Sindhus’ meaning, land of the seven rivers (i.e. Sutlaj, Bias, Ravi, Chanab, Jehlum, Sindh and the now extinct river Saraswati).

Bode Roy Punjabi quoting Dr. Abinas Chandra Das as under; “The land in which the Vedic Aryans lived is called in Rigveda by the name of Saptasindhva or the land of seven rivers, which includes the Indus or Sindhu with its principal tributaries on the west and the Saraswati on the east. The Ganges and the Yamunas have certainly been mentioned once or twice but they have not at all been included in the computation of the seven rivers that gave the country its name”.

Bode Roy, Punjabi himself, writes in his book, ‘Saptasindhva’ as under: “Thus the area now forming Kashmir, the Punjab, the NWFP, Eastern Balochistan and Sind was the area of Aryan Settlement”.

The point I would like to make is that the language spoken by the Punjab people today is the result of continuous development of the language from the time of the arrival of the Aryans (during 3000-1000 BC). When the Aryans of Central Asia came to Punjab they brought their language with them, which had some influence of Persian, because the Aryans, who came to Punjab, had come through Persia (Iran) after settling there for some time. Their language was dialects of old Indo-Aryan language [2, 4, 6] but the Indian scholars of Sanskrit named it Apbransh (vulgar) [5]. This language had the phonetic and morphological system analogous to that observed in such languages as Greek, Latin, Celtic, etc.

Punjabi language has very strong relation with the language of Central Asia. For example, the word ‘Darya’ (river) of two rivers, namely Amu Darya and Syr Darya in Central Asia, is also used for all the five rivers of the Punjab, e.g. Sutlej Darya, Beas Darya, Ravi Darya, Chenab Darya, and Jhelum Darya. Similarly, in old days other rivers in India were also called as Darya but now are called as ‘Nadi’ or by other names.

Many Punjabi words resemble very closely with French words also. e.g. ‘deux’ (du -Two), ‘trois’ (troi –three), ‘cinq’ (panj –five), ‘sept’ (sat - seven), ‘nauf’ (nao - nine), ‘dix (das - ten); ‘savon’ (sabon – soap, V and B are interchangeable in Punjabi),… ‘Que est tu ?’ (kI ey qo ?) in French is pronounced the same way and has same meaning also (Who are you?) in Punjabi.

Addressing style with respect to elders or in formal talk: e. g. ‘tu’ (tu - you) for informal talk and ‘vous’ (tusin - you) for respectful or formal talk. Use of adjective after noun in the old Punjabi (Gur Purae ki Bani… AGGS p 616 and also as Mata Shri in TV Ramayan Series, etc. – During Ram time there was no Sanskrit or Hindi but Ancient Punjabi) was very similar to the grammar of French. Change of verb form with the change of gender and from singular form to plural form is common in the both Punjabi and French. Counting system is also same in French and Old Punjabi. For example, the number ‘80’ is pronounced as ‘quatre-vingts’ (four-twenty), similarly in Old Punjabi ‘80’ is pronounced as ‘char-vian’ (four-twenty).

Around 400 BC Panini, a Punjabi grammarian synthesized Sanskrit or Perfect Language (Sans + Krita means adorned, cultivated, perfected), from the local spoken language of the Punjab. At the same time he named the spoken language (Old Indo-Aryan Language) of the people of the Punjab as Prakrit (means not adorned or arranged i. e. not Sanskritized) [2, 4, 6].

It is not known what was the name of the language spoken by the Punjab people at the time when Panini synthesized Sanskrit from that spoken language around 400 BC. However, Prakrit, so-named by Panini, continued to be spoken by the people of Punjab and underwent many stages of its development. In fact modern Punjabi language spoken by the people of the Punjab (India and Pakistan Punjab) today is the same language, which was named as Prakrit by Panini around 400 BC.

New Language Synthesized from Ancient Punjabi

The newly synthesized language was adorned to such an extent that it was so difficult that it remained the language of the Brahmans only and the common people continued to speak the original language, so-called Prakrit. Pei [4] had mentioned that Prakrit flourished between 300 BC and 1200 CE. Therefore, it was the same Prakrit of Panini that was named as Punjabi by the Persians on their arrival in the Punjab around 1000 CE. It continued absorbing new words, terminology and phrases from Persian, Arabic, French, English, Greek, etc. and attained the present form. In fact the Prakrit should be called Ancient Punjabi because it was developed and spoken in the area that is now called Punjab. During the 3rd century BC Buddhist Canon was written in the same language, i.e. Ancient Punjabi (so-called Prakrit) that was spoken during that time in the Punjab where Buddhism flourished. Since the Buddhist Canon was known as Pali Canon, therefore, its language was also called Pali [4]. The Pali is in fact Prakrit (Ancient Punjabi). Pali is Ancient Punjabi word meaning in line (pal-pwl or series) since the Buddhist canon is in series.

Without going into the history of the languages of the Punjab, many scholars erroneously link the origin of Punjabi from Sanskrit. The comparison of some words of Punjabi with Prakrit and Pali [5] indicates that it was more close to these ancient languages from which Sanskrit was evolved. It means Panini synthesized Sanskrit from ancient Punjabi (named Prakrit by him). In other words Punjabi gave birth to Sanskrit. In spite of the fact that all the religious works were translated into Sanskrit, still it did not become the spoken language of the people.

Development of Ancient Punjabi

When the ancient Punjabi (Prakrit) moved away from Punjab, it underwent great dialectical changes: towards West it became Lahndhi, Sindhi, Multani in the hilly areas of the North it became Dogri, towards West and South, it became Haryanvi, Rajisthani, Marathi, Gujrati, towards East it became Brij (Hindi), and so on. However, the language of the Punjab remained Punjabi. Nevertheless, the languages of Southern India have originated from source other than Ancient Punjabi (Prakrit), and Sanskrit.

It is worth noting that the Vedas were written in Ancient Punjabi (Prakrit), the same is true about Brahmanas, Upanishads and some Sutra. All these great religious works were later translated into Sanskrit from 200 BC onward. This is supported by the fact that Sanskrit was synthesized around 400 BC by Panini and these Great Works were written before 400 BC when there was no Sanskrit [2, 4, 6].

Prof Sahib Singh [9, pp. 15-16] had reported the development of languages as follows: "The language of Vedas is different than that of old Sanskrit. The scholars have named that language as 'First Prakrit'. The language spoken by the people at the time of Asoka, the Great, (273-232 BC) was Pali, which was called 'Second Prakrit'. The Vedic language was modified and was named 'Sanskrit'. Simultaneously, the Prakrit languages continued to develop and were named differently in different regions of their developments for example, Magdhi in Magad and Bihar, Shoorsaini in Uttar Pradesh, Maharastri in Maharastra, etc. These languages are called Apbransh. These languages continued to exist up to 11th century."

It is evident that Prof. Sahib Singh [9] has also more or less same observation on the development of Ancient Punjabi. However, it is strange that while he was writing about the grammar of languages (including Punjabi and its dialects) of the Aad Guru Granth Sahib (AGGS) [1], he did not try to trace out the origin or the roots of the Punjabi language, the most extensively used in the AGGS. Although Prof Sahib Singh has done a commendable work on the grammar of Gurbani, it would have been more appropriative for him to trace out the grammar of ancient Punjabi, the so-called Prakrit, to develop grammar of languages of the AGGS rather than on the grammars of Sanskrit and Hindi. Since Prof. Sahib Singh based his Grammar of the language of the AGGS on Sanskrit that is why his rules are not applicable in most of the cases.

Language and Script

Before Guru Angad (1504-1552 CE) the Punjabi language was written in various scripts. The oldest script used most was Landhae before the arrival of Islam, thereafter, the Persian/Arabic scripts dominated in the Punjab because of the languages of the rulers. Guru Angad modified the Landhae alphabet that is now called Gurmukhi script or Gurmukhi Lipi. Therefore, the language of the AGGS is Punjabi in Gurmukhi Lipi having different dialects, like, Lahndhi, Sindhi, Multani, Gujrati, Dogri, Pre-Sanskrit (Sehskriti), a little Hindi (that is a modification of Urdu - a mixture of Persian and Punjabi), and vocabulary from Persian, Arabic, and other languages. Thus, the Punjabi language, used by the Gurus of the House of Nanak to write their Bani, has its roots in the old Indo-European languages rather than in Sanskrit, a synthesized language. It is wrong to say that there are many languages in the AGGS. In fact it is basically Punjabi with different dialects of Punjabi and also having vocabulary of many languages as explained above.

It is also wrong to say that Punjabi originated from Sanskrit rather it gave birth to Sanskrit. This statement may appear wild to some linguistics, who are under the influence that Sanskrit gave birth to all Indian languages. The alphabet of Gurmukhi script was further improved to pronounce different sounds introduced by the Persians, the Arabs, the English, the French, etc. in the Punjabi language. Similarly, punctuation system and other modern grammar rules have been added in the Punjabi language to make it more acceptable and applicable for communication and expression. Nevertheless, the author feels strongly that more research is needed to trace out the roots of the Punjabi language; to give it its right status in the Indo-European Languages; and to introduce Punjabi equivalents of scientific and technical terms of today.

Importance of Understanding of Ancient Punjabi

The current and modern Punjabi is quite different than that used by Guru Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus who succeeded to the House of Nanak in their Bani. Therefore, it is very important for the Sikhs in general and for the researchers in particular to study seriously the origin of Punjabi language and its dialects, and the ancient Punjabi language, so-named as Prakrit by Panini, spoken before Guru Nanak and its development during the Sikh Gurus’ period when the Bani was written by them. It has been noticed that translation and/or interpretation of Gurbani by one scholar into English and other languages is sometimes quite different than that of others. It is so because of incomplete understanding of old Punjabi of Gurus’ period. To interpret Gurbani in its real perspective it is very important to understand ancient Punjabi and its grammar of that time.

== Languages of Guru Nanak and Bhagats

==

Some samples of Bani of Guru Nanak and that of Bhagats’ from various places of India, and of Muslim Sufis, which is incorporated in the AGGS, are given as follows to show that it was Punjabi that was spoken from the 12th century to Guru Arjan time (when the AGGS was compiled in 1604) almost throughout India in which the Bani was written by the Sikh Gurus and Bhagats of India. 

1. Nanak (1469-1539) Punjab

AwKw jIvw ivsrY mir jwau ] AwKix AauKw swcw nwau ] AGGS, M 1, p. 9. Describing (knowing/understanding) It (God), I live (enlightened with wisdom);Forgetting It, I die (fall in illusion). (But) It is very difficult to describe (Know/understand) the True Name (God).

2. Sheikh Farid (1175-1265 CE) Punjab

prvdgwr Apwr Agm byAMq qU ] ijnw pCwqw scu cuMmw pYr mUM ]3] AGGS, Farid, p. 488. You (God) are Sustainer and Cherisher; You are infinite, unfathomable and endless Those who recognize the Ever-Existing - I kiss their feet and face.

ikAw qU soieAw jwgu ieAwnw ] qY jIvnu jig scu kir jwnw ]1] rhwau ] AGGS, Farid, p. 794. Why are you asleep? Wake up, you innocent being! Don’t believe that life in the world is forever. ||1||Pause||

3. Dhanna (1415-?) Rajasthan

igAwn pRvysu gurih Dnu dIAw iDAwnu mwnu mn eyk mey ] pRym Bgiq mwnI suKu jwinAw iqRpiq AGwny mukiq Bey ]3] AGGS, Dhanna, p. 487. The Guru has given the wealth of spiritual wisdom; Practicing meditation, the mind becomes one with Him. Embracing devotional love for the God, I have come to know peace; satisfied and satiated, I have been liberated. ||3||

4. Trilochan (1267-1350) Maharashtra

AMiq kwil jo lCmI ismrY AYsI icMqw mih jy mrY ] srp join vil vil AauqrY ]1] AGGS, Trilochan, p. 527. At the very last moment, one who thinks of wealth; And dies in such thoughts, Shall be reincarnated over and over again, in the form of serpents.

5. Kabir (1398-1495) Banaras

AYsw qYN jgu Brim lwieAw ] kYsy bUJY jb moihAw hY mwieAw ]1] rhwau ] AGGS, Kabir, p. 92. You have misled the world so deeply in doubt. How can people understand You (God), When they are entranced by Maya (illusion)?

jW iqsu BwvY qw lwgY Bwau ] Brmu Bulwvw ivchu jwie ] aupjY shju igAwn miq jwgY ] gur pRswid AMqir ilv lwgY ]3] AGGS, Kabir, p. 92. As it pleases God, so people embrace the love for the God, (Then) doubt and delusion are dispelled from within. Intuitive peace and poise well up within, And the intellect is awakened to spiritual wisdom. By Guru's Grace, the inner being is touched by the God's Love. ||3||

6. Jai Dev (1201-1245) Bengal

goibMd goibMdyiq jip nr skl isiD pdM ] jYdyv Awieau qs sPutM Bv BUq srb gqM ]5]1] AGGS, Jai Dev, p. 526. Meditate on the God of the Universe, the God of the Universe, O man; He is the source of all the spiritual powers of the Siddhas. Jai Dev has openly come to the God Since It (God) is the salvation of all in the past, present and future.

A critical analysis of the language of the above verses of Bhagats of Punjab and from places far away from Punjab clearly indicates that their language is very similar to that of Guru Nanak during the 15th century. Moreover, the language of Guru Nanak and that of Bhagats is also very similar to the current Punjabi language spoken by the peoples of Punjab, i. e. India Punjab and Pakistan Punjab.

Sanskrit Some scholars, who believe that there are many languages in the AGGS, also believe that the following Sloks of Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan are in Sanskrit language. It is a pity that they have failed to recognize that these Sloks have been entitled as Sehskriti Sloks but not as Sanskriti Sloks. Had these Sloks been of Sanskrit Guru Jee might have entitled them so. Let us examine if the following Sloks are in Sanskrit or in Punjabi:

slok shsik®qI mhlw 1 ] Slok Sehskriti Mahla 1

piV@ pusqk sMiDAw bwdM ] isl pUjis bgul smwDM ] muiK JUTu ibBUKn swrM ]… AGGS, M 1, p. 1353. You (Pundit) study the scriptures, say your prayers and argue too. You worship stone and sit like a crane. (Pretending to meditate but intention is to catch a fish). You speak lies and cover up your falsehood with golden ornamented (sophisticate) wordings.

slok shsik®qI mhlw 5 Slok Sehskriti Mahla 5

kqM c mwqw kqM c ipqw kqM c binqw ibnod suqh ] kqM c BRwq mIq ihq bMDv kqM c moh kutMb´qy ] n sMKM n ck®M n gdw n isAwmM ] AGGS, M 5, pp. 1353 & 1359. Where is left mother, where is left father? Where is left the love for wife and son? Where are left brother, friend, companion and relative? Where is left the emotional attachment of family? God has neither conch-shell, nor religious mark, nor paraphernalia, nor blue skin.

Dr. Sahib Singh [10] says that the language of these Sloks is Prakrit. According to him Sehskriti is pre-Sanskrit, i.e. Prakrit form. On the other hand Giani Harbans Singh [7] says that Sehskriti is a mixture of Hindi and Sanskrit.

If according to Dr. Sahib Singh the language of Sehskriti Sloks is Prakrit, the name assigned by Panini to the language that was spoken by the people of Punjab, then Sehskriti Sloks are in ancient Punjabi, not in Sanskrit as is apparent from early discussion on Prakrit.

However, a careful examination of the language of these stanzas clearly indicates that it resemble very much with the Punjabi language of Guru Nanak and that of Bhagats as discussed previously. The language of these two stanzas is very close to Punjabi language except that a suffix, sounding ‘ing’, has been added at the end of certain Punjabi words, e.g. bwd bwdM, smwD smwDM, swr swrM, kq kqM, sMK sMKM, ckR ckRM, isAwm isAwmM , etc. From this examination it also becomes very clear that Sanskrit was synthesized from ancient Punjabi by add a sufix, ‘-ing’ at the end of the basic Punjabi words in the early deveolpment of Sanskrit and later it was made more complicated by modifying the spellings of the basic Punajbi word also.

PUNJABI: A Natural Language The present day Punjabi has its roots in the Indo-Aryan Languages (Indo-European Languages). One should be proud to speak and own this language. This is so simple and smooth language that everybody in India wants to speak it in spite of the fact that it never got any financial support for its development by any Government during the last 3,000 to 4,000 years. In fact at present a very little is being spent for its development by the Punjab Government and it is almost neglected by the Central Government of India.

Its inherited characteristics of smoothness in flow and pleasing to ears and the easiness to express one’s views (philosophy) Ancient Punjabi was accepted as a language to disseminate Buddhism, which was later called Pali; then used by the Jainis to spread Jainism in this language, Pali; then by Shiekh Farid a Persian Sofi used Old Punjabi to spread his spiritual message; then almost all Bhagats of India used old Punjabi during Bhakati Movement to spread their message; and then by all the Sikh Gurus used Punjabi to spread their Bani (philosophy) to the people of South-east Asia.

This language appears to be easily acceptable and understandable by almost all people of Aryan origin. It is evident from the present trend in the Indian movies that no movie is a hit unless it has a Bhangra dance and a Punjabi song and even some Hindi songs are based on the tunes of Punjabi songs with some Punjabi words to make them hit songs. Moreover, the youth belonging to Indian Aryan origin (and particular Sikh youth) of the West will start dancing at the first beat of the drum with a Punjabi song even if they have some problem to understand it properly.

The survival of Punjabi for more than 4,000 years is attributed to its entire natural and innate characteristics described above that make PUNJABI to be called as a NATURAL LANGUAGE

Conclusion The present critical analysis of language of the Aad Guru Granth Sahib (AGGS) indicates that it is an Old Punjabi of Bhagats and Sikh Gurus’ period between 12th and 17th century. This Old Punjabi is in fact Ancient Punjabi, which was named as Prakrit by Panini around 400 BC.

The first stage of synthesizing Sanskrit was Sehskriti formed by added suffix ‘ing’ at the end of the basic Ancient Punjabi words later the spellings of basic Punjabi words were also modified and a new language called ‘Sanskrit’ was synthesized by Panini of Punjab around 400 BC.

The sacred books of Hinduism were first written in the Ancient Punjabi (Prakrit), which were later translated into Sanskrit.

The Sanskrit never became the spoken language of people of the Punjab or any other part of India. However, in the Punjab the people continued to speak Ancient Punjabi. The Ancient Punjabi continued to develop and absorbs vocabulary of other languages, i. e. Persian, Arabic, Greek, English, French, etc.

The present day Punjabi has its roots in the Indo-European Languages. One should be proud to speak and own this language. This is so simple and smooth language that everybody in India wants to speak it in spite of the fact that it never got any financial support for its development by any Government during the last 3,000 to 4,000 years. In fact at present a very little is being spent for its development by the Punjab Government and it is almost neglected by the Central Government of India.

Its smoothness in flow and pleasing to ears and inherited likeness of this language in the people of Aryan origin is evident from the present trend in the Indian movies that no movie is a hit unless it has a Bhangra dance and a Punjabi song and even some Hindi songs are based on the tunes of Punjabi songs with some Punjabi words to make them hit songs. Moreover, the Sikh youth of the West will start dancing at the first beat of the drum with a Punjabi song even if they have some problem to understand it properly.

REFERENCES

AGGS = Aad Guru Granth Sahib. 1983 (reprint). Publishers: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar. (M = Mahla, i.e., succession number of the Sikh Gurus to the House of Guru Nanak, P = Page of the AGGS).

Masson-Oursel, P. William-Grabowska, H. D. and Stern, P. 1934. Ancient India and Indian Civilization. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London. Pei, Mario. 1998. Sanskrit Language. Microsoft ® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.

Pakistan Forum: http://it-pakistan.net/mboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=159

Pei, Mario. 1998. Sanskrit Language. Microsoft ® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.

Punjabi Tae Hoor Bhashavan (Punjabi). 1970. Bhasha Vibhag, Punjab, Patiala.

Renou. L. 1954. The Civilization in Ancient India. Susil Gupta (India) Ltd., Calcutta-2. Singh, Giani Harbans. 1996? Aad Sri Guru Granth Sahib: Darshan Nerain (Punjabi). Gurbani Sewa Prakashan, Patiala.

Singh, Khushwant. 1966. A History of the Sikhs. Vol. I & II. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersy.

Singh, Sahib (Prof.). 1982 (7th ed.). Gurbani Viyakaran (Punjabi). Singh Brothers, Mai Sevan, Amritsar. (P 15).

Singh, Sahib (Dr). 1972. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan. (in Punjabi). Vols 10. Raj Publishers (Reg.), Jallandhar.

Article By

- Devinder Singh Chahal