The Gurmukhi Akhars / Alphabets

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Gurmukhi Manuscript - Style Writing

Ik Onkar Passion Project Development

The Gurmukhi Akhars / Alphabets

Structure and Writing System

Gurmukhī alphabets system of writing is an abugida, wherein, each consonant has an inherent vowel that can be changed using vowel signs. This sacred script adapted to write other languages, such as Braj Bhasha, Khariboli (and other Hindustani dialects), Sanskrit and Sindhi. They have roots in the proto-sinatic alphabet style (19th–15th century BCE) as part of the northwestern group of the Brahmi script.

In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Landa, Mahajani being the most popular. Modeled specifically on the structure of the Lahndi: Mahajani business shorthand, written as: Laṇḍā was used by Guru Nanak during his early apprenticeship days in storehouses. Laṇḍā form is the clipped alphabet style. The Laṇḍā alphabets belong to that writing system which including letter formations without a tail, that meant that the script is without any vowel symbols. Lahndi is a descendent of the Śāradā script from the northwestern group of the Brahmi script (Fig. 4).

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Figure 4. The Chart comprising different forms of Laṇḍā used in Punjab (Leitner, 1882) | (Pandey, 2009)

The Gurmukhī script was standardized for active use by the second Sikh Guru: Laṇḍā may be grouped into the two regional typological sub-classes of ‘Punjabi’ and ‘Sindhi’ (Fig. 5).

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Figure 5. Landa to Gurmukhi family chart

The Laṇḍā scripts were put to use prominently in the households and for the trade purposes in Punjab in those times. Sikh gurus, however, favoured the use of Proto-Gurmukhī for writing scriptures in manuscript-style granths.

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Gurmukhi Manuscript - Style Writing