Dr. Goyal elaborately discussed almost all aspects of the theme and art of these poetic works. He extensively dealt with literary, cultural, philosophical, social and religious contents of these compositions and highlighted their unique contribution to our poetic tradition and composite Indian culture.

Dr. Goyal authored more than 30 books and about 200 research articles, which were published in research journals of several universities and also in almost all the prestigious research journals and reputed literary magazines of Hindi and Panjabi of the country and some national dailies. Some of his articles were included in ‘Encyclopedia of Sikhism’, ‘Panjabi encyclopedia’ and commemoration volumes on Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh and some other important volumes.

Dr. Goyal travelled on uncharted territory and dug out many a precious literary gems. One such gem rediscovered by him was a distinguished 19th century Hindi poet of Haryana, Mahakavi Santokh Singh, who composed two monumental epic poems ‘Guru Nanak Prakasha’ (Hindi), though the script was Gurumukhi. These epics were based on the life and teachings of the Ten Gurus and presented vividly the cultural, political and social history of their age.

Dr. Goyal brought this poet before the Hindi literary world for the first time and did extensive research work on the literary, philosophical and cultural tenets of his compositions. He got his works published in 10 volumes in Hindi by the Punjab Language Department, Patiala.

Dr. Goyal also did extensive work on the compositions of Guru Gobind Singh and the literature produced under his patronage at Anandpur Sahib. He also did in-depth studies on several other Hindi epic poems, available in Gurumukhi script, such as ‘Guru Shobha’, ‘Guru Bilas’, ‘Mahima Prakash’, ‘Guru Nanak Vijay’ and ‘Panth Prakash’ etc. He distinctly brought out specific trends and sensitivities of spirituality, humanism and heroism of these compositions, which together were not available in the whole range of Hindi poetry.

Dr. Goyal differentiated between ‘heroic poetry’ and ‘War Poetry’. He held the view that battles fought for a ‘noble cause’, for the protection of ‘Dharma’, ‘Truth’, ‘Justice’, Humanism, moral and ethical values came under the banner of ‘Heroic poetry’. He termed the heroic poetry composed at Anandur Sahib, which had an amalgam of spirituality and heroism (Bhakti and Shakti), as a ‘specific literary school’ in the annals of History of literature.

Armed with his findings of new literary trends and sensibilities in this literature, especially an amalgam of spirituality and heroism, not available anywhere else in the poetic compositions of that era, Dr. Goyal challenged the established concepts of the history of Hindi literature of the later medieval period, widened its horizon, propounded new concepts and thus gave new dimensions, new visions, new perceptions and new interpretations to the literary history of that period. It was true that no history of Hindi literature of the neoclassical age (Ritikal) could be complete without taking into account his contributions.

Based on his studies of hundreds of manuscripts and old publications, Dr. Goyal established the fact that Braj Bhasha Hindi had been the principal literary language of Sikh writers of Punjab from the 16th to the 19th centuries, though the script used was Gurumukhi.

Dr. Goyal published several critical books on Hindi Medieval literature and also published research articles on ‘Heroism in Valmiki Ramayana’, ‘Mahabharta’ and many other Sanskrit epics and heroic Poetry; ‘Sufi Sahitya’, ‘Sant Sahitya’, ‘Historiology’, ‘Research Methodology’, ‘Poetics’, ‘Hindi journalism’, ‘Folk lore of Haryana’ and several other topics relating to Medieval and modern Hindi literature.

Dr. Goyal had had the reputation of a highly talented scholar all over the country. That was why he was invited by over 50 universities in the country from Srinagar to Calicut and Mumbai to Guwahati for literary and academic assignments.

Though a scholar on medieval literature, Dr. Goyal had a keen interest in Modern Hindi literature also, and this gave his criticism a modern outlook.

“Ambua ki dal pe Kuke Coyalya” was a collection of his satirical, descriptive, narrative and other types of creative essays, memoirs, character sketches, reportage and other literary forms. These creative literary pieces reflected his inner self, his personality, sensibilities, emotions and sentiments, social and cultural concerns, his ideas and ideals.

Dr. Goyal published several articles on Haryanvi folk lore, Hindi literature and Hindi journalism of Haryana. In fact, it was he who initiated and patronized the study of ‘Haryanvi Folk lore’ in the seventies and prescribed it in M.A. & M.Phill dissertations on various aspects of “Haryanvi folk lore” such as “Haryanvi folk tales”, “Haryanvi Proverbs” and some eminent folk dramatists.

Dr. Goyal’s three books (edited), namely – “Haryana: Puratatva, Itihas, Sanskriti, Sahitya and Lokvarta”, “Haryana Kee Sahitya Sampda” and “Haryanvi Lok Sahitya”, presented very valuable, authentic and elaborate accounts of various aspects and forms of the rich historical, cultural, linguistic, literary and folklore tradition of Haryana.