Rag Asa Mahla 1 Patti Likhi, or “The Poem Of The Alphabet,” composed by Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, is another key composition from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. This composition appears on Ang (pages) 432-435. “Patti” means “tablet.”

In Patti Likhi, Guru Nanak details all thirty-five letters that form the Gurmukhi alphabet. This composition has 35 stanzas, where each stanza introduces the sound of each alphabet, and provides insightful commentary on the Sikh way of life.

Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru, also recorded Patti in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib (Ang 434-435). Another bani called “Bavan-Akhri” is recorded by Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru, in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib (Ang 250-262). Additional “Bavan-Akhri” is recorded by Bhagat Kabir in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib (Ang 340-333). Bavan Akhri refers to the 52 letters of the Devanagari script.

~Excerpted and adapted from “Gurmukhi: Guru Nanak Sahib’s Alphabets” by Harinder Singh, Sikh Research Institute (2021).

About Gurmukhi

“Gurmukhi” is a sacred script based on the transformative power of the sound current. lt derives from a Brahmi script in use between 5 B.C. and 350 A.O., before it branched off into a variety of other scripts.

The Gurmukhi script was developed by Guru Angad Dev Ji, the second Sikh Guru. Guru Angad put it into the form used in most of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib and other Sikh writings.

The literation translation of “Gurmukhi” is “coming from the mouth of the Guru.”

~ From Living Reality (1994) by Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa and “Sikh Dharma International Glossary”  (https://www.sikhdharma.org/glossary/).