Sant Bhasha

Sant Bhasha
ਸੰਤ-ਭਾਸ਼ਾ
Painting of Guru Arjan being fanned with a book before him. The Sikh gurus employed the Sant Bhasha language for their poetic compositions in the Sikh scriptures
Region	Northern Indian subcontinent
Era	Medieval-period to present-day
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Sant Bhasha
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Aryan Vedic Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit debated Prakrit[a][1] debated Apabhraṃśa Old Punjabi[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Writing system	Gurmukhi (including Anandpur Lipi)
Sources	Punjabi (various dialects) regional Prakrits Apabhramsa Sanskrit Hindi languages (Braj, Kauravi, Bangru, Awadhi, Old Hindi, Deccani) Persian Arabic Bhojpuri Sindhi Marathi Marwari Bengali[8][9][10][11][12]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Sant Bhasha (Gurmukhi: ਸੰਤ-ਭਾਸ਼ਾ; romanized: Sant Bhāṣā; lit. 'language of saints') is a liturgical and scriptural language composed of vocabulary common to northern Indian languages, which was extensively used by saints and poets to compose religious verses.^[13][14] It can be understood by readers with a background in either Punjabi, Hindi-Urdu and its dialects.^{[citation needed]}

Features

Sant Bhasha is notable for its high usage of inherited tadbhava vocabulary in-comparison to Sanskritic tatsama borrowings.^[15]

In Sikhism

Sant Bhasha is most prominently used in the central Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.^{[16][17][18][19]} The languages used include Punjabi and its dialects, Lahnda, regional Prakrits, Apabhramsa, Sanskrit, Hindustani languages (Brajbhasha, Bangru, Awadhi, Old Hindi, Deccani), Bhojpuri, Sindhi, Marathi, Marwari, Bengali, Persian, and Arabic. While vocabulary from all of these languages is used, Sant Bhasha is only written in the Gurmukhi script.^[20][21]

See also

• Sadhukadi
• Khalsa bole, coded language of Nihang Sikhs
• Sikh scriptures
• Guru Granth Sahib
• Dasam Granth
• Sarbloh Granth
• Sikh art and culture
• History of Sikhism

Notes

1. Paishachi, Saurasheni, or Gandhari Prakrits have been proposed as the ancestor Middle Indo-Aryan language to Punjabi.

References

1. Singh, Sikander (April 2019). "The Origin Theories of Punjabi Language: A Context of Historiography of Punjabi Language". International Journal of Sikh Studies.
2. Haldar, Gopal (2000). Languages of India. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India. p. 149. ISBN 9788123729367. The age of Old Punjabi: up to 1600 A.D. […] It is said that evidence of Old Punjabi can be found in the Granth Sahib.
3. Bhatia, Tej K. (2013). Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar (Reprint ed.). London: Routledge. p. XXV. ISBN 9781136894602. As an independent language Punjabi has gone through the following three stages of development: Old Punjabi (10th to 16th century). Medieval Punjabi (16th to 19th century), and Modern Punjabi (19th century to Present).
4. Christopher Shackle; Arvind Mandair (2013). "0.2.1 – Form". Teachings of the Sikh Gurus : selections from the Scriptures (First ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136451089. Surpassing them all in the frequent subtlety of his linguistic choices, including the use of dialect forms as well as of frequent loanwords from Sanskrit and Persian, Guru Nanak combined this poetic language of the Sants with his native Old Punjabi. It is this mixture of Old Punjabi and old Hindi which constitutes the core idiom of all the earlier Gurus.
5. Frawley, William (2003). International encyclopedia of linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN 9780195139778.
6. Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages : living, endangered, and lost. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 115. ISBN 9780520255609.
7. Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 411. ISBN 9781139465502.
8. Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1998). Introduction to Sikhism : 125 basic questions and answers on Sikh religion and history. New Delhi: Hemkunt Press. p. 12. ISBN 9788170101819.
9. Dhillon, Dalbir Singh (1988). Sikhism, Origin and Development. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. pp. 307–308.
10. Kohli, Surindar Singh (1993). History of Punjabi literature. Delhi: National Book Shop. pp. 24, 48. ISBN 9788171161416.
11. Johar, Surinder Singh (1999). Guru Gobind Singh : a multi-faceted personality. New Delhi: M.D. Publications. p. 56. ISBN 9788175330931.
12. Sukhbir Singh Kapoor; Mohinder Kaur Kapoor. Dasam Granth: An Introductory Study. Hemkunt Press. p. 39. ISBN 9788170103257.
13. Singh, Khushwant (1991). A history of the Sikhs: Vol. 1. 1469-1839. Oxford University Press. p. 298. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
14. Textual sources for the study of Sikhism. W. H. McLeod. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990. p. 5. ISBN 0-226-56085-6. OCLC 22243489.
15. Kohli, Surindar Singh (1993). History of Punjabi literature. Delhi: National Book Shop. p. 24. ISBN 81-7116-141-3. OCLC 29595565.
16. Deol, Harnik (2012). Religion and Nationalism in India:The Case of Punjab, 1960 -1990 (PDF). p. 48. Remarkably, neither is the Qur'an written in Urdu language, nor are the Hindu scriptures written in Hindi, whereas the compositions in the Sikh holy scripture, Adi Granth, are a melange of various dialects, often coalesced under the generic title of Sant Bhasha.
17. The making of Sikh scripture by Gurinder Singh Mann. Published by Oxford University Press US, 2001. ISBN 0-19-513024-3, ISBN 978-0-19-513024-9 Page 5. "The language of the hymns recorded in the Adi Granth has been called "Sant Bhasha," a kind of lingua franca used by the medieval saint-poets of northern India. But the broad range of contributors to the text produced a complex mix of regional dialects."
18. History of Punjabi Literature by Surindar Singh Kohli. Page 48. Published by National Book, 1993. ISBN 81-7116-141-3, ISBN 978-81-7116-141-6. "When we go through the hymns and compositions of the Guru written in Sant Bhasha (saint- language), it appears that some Indian saint of 16th century".
19. Introduction: Guru Granth Sahib. "The Guru Granth Sahib is written in Gurmukhi script. The language, which is most often Sant Bhasha, is very close to Punjabi. It is well understood all over northern andnorthwest India and was popular among the wandering holy men. Persian and some local dialects have also been used. Many hymns contain words of different languages and dialects,depending upon the mother tongue of the writer or the language of the region where they were composed."
20. Songs of the Saints from the Adi Granth By Nirmal Dass. Published by SUNY Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7914-4683-2, ISBN 978-0-7914-4683-6. Page 13. "Any attempt at translating songs from the Adi Granth certainly involves working not with one language, but several, along with dialectical differences. The languages used by the saints range from Sanskrit; regional Prakrits; western, eastern and southern Apabhramsa; and Sahaskrit. More particularly, we find sant bhasha, Marathi, Old Hindi, central and Lehndi Panjabi, Sindhi and Persian. There are also many dialects deployed, such as Purbi Marwari, Bangru, Dakhni, Malwai, and Awadhi."
21. Sikhism. The Guru Granth Sahib (GGS) By Harjinder Singh. "The Guru Granth Sahib also contains hymns which are written in a language known as Sahiskriti as well as Sant Bhasha, it also contains many Persian and Sanskrit words throughout."