Braj Bhasha in the Guru Granth Sahib and Vaishnava Devotion

Braj Bhasha appears as one of several literary languages incorporated into the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's central scripture, alongside the more dominant Punjabi, reflecting the wide multilingual devotional environment of the medieval North Indian bhakti movement from which both Sikh and Hindu devotional poetry drew shared vocabulary, meter and imagery even across distinct religious communities.

Braj Bhasha's central devotional role, however, remains within Vaishnava Hindu traditions focused on Krishna, particularly the Pushtimarg and Gaudiya Vaishnava lineages associated with theologians including Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, whose devotional communities in and around Vrindavan continue to compose, perform and study Braj Bhasha devotional poetry, songs and dramatic performances called Ras Lila, reenacting episodes from Krishna's life, as living ritual practice rather than purely historical literature. Modern Hindi devotional publishing frequently draws on and quotes classical Braj Bhasha poetry, including Surdas's compositions, presenting them alongside Hindi commentary and translation for contemporary devotees who may not otherwise read the older literary language fluently.