The Source Book On Sikhism

Chapter Fifty

Punjabi is as old as

Sanskrit and Prakrit (1)

By Om Parkash Kahol

Late Prof. Om Parkash Kahol was one of the very few Hindu scholars, who believed that the Hindus of Punjab who had, all of a sudden, started disowning their mother tongue, were committing an ‘unpardonable sin’ against the motherland. For him, the Punjabi language was the ‘most precious gem in the treasure called the Hindu heritage’. Himself a staunch Hindu, Kahol believed that Punjabi was more akin to Sanskrit than any other language of India. (Professor Kahol was Dr. S.S. Sodhi’s professor of physics in S.D. College, Ambala Cantt (1948-1950.)

The Philological survey of Punjabi written by late Prof. Kahol in the fifties, is reproduced here for the benefit of our readers. The vicus expressed by the late Prof. Kahol will falsify many misconceptions, deliberately created by the vested interests.