The word 'Gurmukhi' literally means from the mouth of the Guru. It's thirty five characters and vowel modifiers were standardised by Guru Angad Dev Ji. Rather than use the Hindu scripts such as Sanskrit, Guru Angad Dev chose to make a new script for the Sikhs. Sanskrit was only restricted to the priestly Hindu class, but the Gurus did not believe in this elitism. Guru Angad Dev spent his lifetime teaching the Gurmukhi script to the common people of Punjab. Gurmukhi is not only used by Sikhs but by Hindus as well as Muslims living in Punjab to represet their common spoken language, Punjabi.

Sikhs are expected to make an effort at learning the Gurmukhi script and teaching it to their children in order to read the Guru Granth Sahib in its original written form.

Gurmukhi has 35 letters as well as nine vowel modifiers. In addition there are five special sound modifiers symbols. A vertical bar is used to indicate the end of a sentences. Two vertical bars indicate a longer pause between sentences or paragraphs.

In order to view the Gurmukhi letters you must download the following font. Amritlipi Click here to download

Click here to view the gurmukhi letters.