The Gurmukhi Script

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism places Gurmukhi within the Brahmi family of Indian scripts. Its letters existed before the Gurus in some form, but the script as such is credited to Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji. He is said to have given one letter to each Punjabi sound, made vowel signs obligatory, dropped unneeded letters and rearranged the alphabet.

The entry states that the name seems to have come from its use to record the words of the Gurus. It traces the wider family through several stages: Brahmi, then Kutil and Siddhamatrika in northern India, and then regional scripts such as Sharada and Devanagari as local languages rose. It notes that the script is used mainly for Punjabi, and also for Sindhi. Scripture also uses the alphabet as a poetic form, in acrostic compositions called patti and bavan akhari.[EoS]

Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji's compilation of 1604 was written in Gurmukhi. Hukamnamas were written in Punjabi in Gurmukhi characters, and the Encyclopaedia treats them as evidence for how the script and Punjabi prose developed.

The script writes more than one language. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji uses it for verse in several languages and dialects, and the Hikayat in the Dasam Granth are Persian stories written in Gurmukhi characters.[EoS][EoS][EoS][EoS]

The Sikh Rehat Maryada says every Sikh should learn Gurmukhi in order to read Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and asks those taking amrit to do so if they have not. The first letters of a name given in Sikh naming follow the hukam's opening letter in this script. BaniDB, the source of all scripture on this site, gives each verse in Gurmukhi with transliteration.[Src][DB]