Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the development of the sacred language of the Sikhs in the span of two centuries, a certain continuation of the Indian philosophy but put in a new context of the Nirguna Bhakti Movement in the Guru Nanak’s interpretation. The successors of the first Sikh guru developed a great amount of new vocabulary and interpretation of the traditional meanings of the philosopical expressions. The paper focuses on the creation of words: oankar, haumai, gurmat, manmukh, gurmukh, gurbani, sukhmani and changing the traditional meaning of certain words known in Bhakti: nam, hukam, bharam. The language is analysed both in the philological and cultural context.

The research tries to prove that in spite of the fact that the Gurbani Language is a kind of artificial composition of different medieval Punjabi and Hindi dialects but in fact, it became a sacred and liturgical language of Sikhism and played the main role in creation of the fundamental aspects of the philosophy of Sikhism.