Sikh literature

A Sikh Sardar reading from a book, seated in front of a window, ca.1870

Sikh literature refers to the writings of the Sikhs. Traditional Sikh literature can be classified into various genres, such as the Vār, Sākhī, Rahitnāmā, the Gurbilās, the Shahīd Bilās, and the Ustat forms. According to Norman Gerald Barrier, the Sikhs of Punjab had the strongest sense of history out of the religious communities of Northern India and their literature covers the Sikh gurus, warriors, the Sikh Empire, and the colonial-period. The Sikhs (and the Dadupanthis) were one of the earliest Bhakti movement affiliated religious traditions that underwent the scripturalization process by organizing their literature into written canons, leading to the completion of the Ād Granth in 1604. During the guruship of Guru Gobind Singh, his Kavi Darbars produced literature, although most of these works were lost during the evacuation of Anandpur in 1704, being lost in the Sirsa river as per some accounts. One of these lost works was the large Vidya Sagar Granth. Historically, Sikh works were composed in languages and scripts other than Punjabi and Gurmukhi, such as Braj and Persian, although today Sikh literature is mostly produced in Punjabi in Gurmukhi.