Sikh literature

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 ShahīdBilās, and the Ustat forms. Sikh literature is more comparable to the literary traditions of other religions of the subcontinent, rather than being analogous to Punjabi literature, which is a regional-language literary tradition. Although usually employing Gurmukhi script, the corpus of Sikh texts utilize various languages aside from Punjabi proper, namely belonging to New Indo-Aryan, such as Saraiki, Khariboli, and Braj. Thus, the situation for Sikh literature is comparable to the literary tradition of the subcontinental Ismailis. 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.