Guru Angad Dev, the second Sikh Guru, is traditionally credited with formalizing and promoting the Gurmukhi script.

Bulleh Shah's poetry emphasizes inner spiritual experience and often critiques outward religious formalism and orthodoxy.

Tappa is a concise folk lyric, typically brief and emotive, often dealing with love or longing and sung with a distinctive rhythm.

Isti'ara denotes metaphor (an implied comparison), whereas tashbih refers to an explicit simile.

Majhi, the dialect of the Lahore–Amritsar region, is conventionally treated as the standard literary dialect of Punjabi.

Punjabi is a tonal Indo‑Aryan language where lexical tones play a role in distinguishing meanings of words.

Kafi is a short devotional lyric associated with Sufi poets like Bulleh Shah and Shah Hussain expressing mystical themes.

Waris Shah composed the celebrated poetic rendition of 'Heer' in the 18th century, which is canonical in Punjabi literature.

Shahmukhi, a Perso‑Arabic based script written right‑to‑left, is the primary script for Punjabi in Pakistan.

Baba Fareed is recognized as the earliest known Punjabi poet, whose devotional verses are among the first recorded in the Punjabi language.