ਵਰਤੋਂਕਾਰ:Satnam singh sandhu

THE ORIGIN OF GURMUKHI SCRIPT

HARKIRAT SINGH

Gurmukhi script, particularly its name 'Gurmukhi', irks some scholars beyond the limits of scholarly patience. Unfortunately some of these scholars do not know that it is a script and are completely ignorant of the history of Indian scripts. Others, who have reasonable information about the history of our scripts, simply pick up some letters from some old works and declare, "these letters were prevalent before the time of Guru Nanak, therefore, it is proved that Gurmukhi existed before the time of the Sikh Gurus." One such scholar is Mr. Chaman Lal, who in his article published in the Magazine, Indian Horizons' states....... Gurmukhi lineage is traced to Brahmi script. The Gurmukhi Script came into existence much before the advent of the Sikh Gurus."

Sikh readers have reasons not to believe such a statement. Some Sikh scholars themselves have been taking great pains and spending energy to prove the same statement. This is disturbing.

First of such scholars was Sardar G.B. Singh, whose book Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas was published in 1950. He goes to the extent of saying, “with the exception of its name the Sikhs or the Sikh Gurus have no connection with the script called Gurmukhi." (Translated from the original in Punjabi). This sweeping statement of the writer was based on his findings that most of the letters of Gurmukhi existed before the time of Gurus. And to find such letters he had to make unnecessary efforts - because he did not know what is a script, and the same seems the case with Mr Chaman Lal, whose remarks, that 'Gurmukhi lineage can be traced to Brahmi is correct. Now, when all of us know that the scripts of Indian origin have developed from Brahmi, it is but natural that some, if not all, letters of the old script do exist in the new from which has developed from the old one.

It is therefore, correct that most of the letters of Gurmukhi did exist before the time of the Gurus, but the Gurmukhi script did not exist. It is most unfortunate that our scholars do not know the difference between the letters and the script.

There are some more sources that confirms that the Grumukhi Scritp is not developed from the any Indian script but its natural development form local scripts.

Dr. Satnam Singh Sandhu