The love-story of Hir and Ranjha - Pakistani epic

PAKISTANI culture has known writing from a remote past, and its oral traditions were committed to writing at different periods, although the mode of their transmission has always been oral. Each of the four provinces of Pakistan (North-Western Frontier Province, the Punjab, Sind and Baluchistan) has a number of folk-stories which have been transmitted from generation to generation in this way. Expressed in poetry, almost all of them were meant to be sung to the accompaniment of local musical instruments.

Hir and Ranjha is a favourite folk-story of the Punjab, a vast fertile plain watered by five rivers (the Indus, the Jhelum, the Chenab, the Ravi and the Sutlej). Sir Richard Temple, an authority on the legends of the Punjab, wrote that "Hir and Ranjha are commonly said to have flourished 700 or 800 years ago, but some other scholars assign them to the time of the Moghul emperor Akbar the Great, in the sixteenth century AD." The version which is regarded as a clasic was composed by the poet Waris Shah in 1766 in Punjabi, one of the mother-languages of Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

The story, according to Waris Shah's version, is simple, symbolic and dramatic. It opens with the following line:

Praise be to God who made love the foundation of the world.

The poet refers to the sacred relationship between God and man based on love, and glimpses of this humanized philosophy are seen throughout the long narrative, which may be summarized as follows. "Takht Hazara was a pleasant place on the banks of the River Chenab. The chief land-owner of the place had eight sons. He loved his youngest son Ranjha the most, so Ranjha's brothers hated him. On his father's death, Ranjha's brothers turned him away. He journeyed through wild forests and wastes and came to the River Chenab. He found a barge on the bank but the boatman refused to let him in. To kill time Ranjha played his flute which attracted the boatman, who allowed him onto the barge where he soon fell asleep. A little later he was awakened by a noise and to his great surprise he found a beautiful maiden by his side. She was Hir, the daughter of the chief of the Sial family of the town of Jhang. When she stepped on the barge she was furious to see this stranger, but when she took a close look at Ranjha she fell in love with him.

"She took him home and by some contrivance persuaded her father to employ him as a herdsman. She met him daily when he went out into the forest to graze the herd. Their clandestine meetings were soon discovered, Ranjha was banished, and Hir was given in marriage to Saida, to whom she had been betrothed while still quite young. Saida belonged to a family of Rangpur. Hir was not happy living with her husband and missed Ranjha badly.

"Ranjha left Jhang, disguised himself as a beggar, and went to Rangpur. On his way, he visited a Hindu guru and begged for his help. The guru blessed him. Ranjha came to Rangpur and somehow managed to get in touch with Hir. After a time they escaped, but they were pursued, caught, and brought back. They were taken before a judge who ordered Ranjha into exile.

"Unfortunately, immediately after this incident Rangpur caught fire. The people attributed this misfortune to the forced separation of lovers. Ranjha was called back and Hir was handed over to him. They went back to Jhang to Hir's home. But Hir's family had taken it as a disgrace. The family planned a stratagem. Ranjha was asked to go home to make preparations for his format marriage to Hir. Meanwhile Hir was told that Ranjha had been murdered, whereupon she fell down unconscious. While in this state she was given a poisonous drink and she died. A messenger was sent to Ranjha to inform him of her death. He came and was straightaway taken to her tomb. The shock was unbearable and he fell dead at the tomb of his beloved."

This story, reminiscent of that of Romeo and Juliet, has a symbolic and esoteric significance. It is a protest against the ills and vices of the feudal system prevalent at the time it was written by Waris Shah. Hir is a symbol of protest against the exploitation of women. Ranjha symbolizes protest against the social system and the inefficient institutions of his time.

The story of Hir and Ranjha is still as popular as ever. Dr. Mumtaz hasan has noted how "Buffaloes and cowherds are still the same in the old Punjab where wandering minstrels to this day sing the familiar poem, just as the bards of ancient Greece used to sing Homer. And when the ploughmen gather together in the village Dara (meeting place) at the end of the day's toil, it is remarkable how readily they turn to Hir and Ranjha to soothe and refresh their tired spirits. A man who can recite Hir well is always in demand. Nor is the popularity to the poem confined to villages. City audiences take just as much delight in Hir recitations broadcast by radio."

COPYRIGHT 1985 UNESCO
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