By SADIA DEHLVI
Waris Shah, poet mystic of the Chishti Sufi order revisited and immortalized the story of Heer and Ranjha, the celebrated folk story of Punjab. Heer, the tale of an immortal love is supposedly based on a historical event that took place in the sixteenth century.
Heer, the daughter of Chuchhak, the Sial chief of Jhang was betrothed in her childhood to Saida, the son of Khora, the village chief of Rangpur. She falls in love with Ranjha, son of another tribal chief. After his father’s death, Ranjha is expelled by his brothers from the family and deprived of his ancestral share in the property.
Later, Heer’s father employs him as a cowherd. Their families opposed the romance but the lovers continued to meet secretly in the fields. One day, Heer’s uncle spotted the couple and informed her father who placed the young girl under house arrest. A distraught Heer was then forcibly married to a Rajput, but managed to send a letter to her beloved Ranjha. After a series of tribulations, Heer dies and Ranjha learning of the tragedy returns and falls dead on her grave.
The love story has been retold through the ages in different languages, but was given its classical form by the mystic poet Waris Shah. His Heer is considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature.
In the tradition of Punjabi Qissa poetry, Waris Shah’s writings changed the status, tone and tenor of Punjabi poetry. Heer became a powerful commentary on the social, cultural and religious customs of the times he lived in. The verses of Heer are short, and commonly interpreted in a mystical sense.
While in the forest, Ranjha meet the five Pirs who say, ‘O son, eat your fill and drink grey buffaloes milk and live on fat of the land. Dismiss all sadness from your mind. God himself will set your affairs right.’ Ranjha replies, ‘I am in great distress. I beseech you bestow the girl Heer upon me, for the fire of love is devouring me.’
The Pirs answer, ‘all your wishes will be fulfilled; your arrow will hit the target, and your boat will reach the shore. Heer has been bestowed on you by the Darbar of God.’
Waris Shah identifies the five Pirs as Khwaja Khizr, the mystic immortal figure in the Quran and the Sufis Baba Farid, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Shaykh Bahauddin Zakariya and Makhdum Jahaniyan Jalal Bukhari. They bless Ranjha, and promise to help in all tribulations. However, they warn that he should not take Heer as a wife.
The barber woman Mithi, whom Ranjha and Heer take into confidence, tells Ranjha, ‘The way of love is hard and torturous. The taste of love is bitter as poison. The lattés of passion are like the coils of a snake and only wise men know its secrets’. Waris Shah does not hesitate to have Ranjha admit that the Yogi Balnath who lived on the mound called Tilla Balnath knows the way to salvation.
Waris Shah came from the village of Jandyala Sher Khan in Sheikhupura, now in Pakistan. His father’s name was Gulshar Shah. Waris Shah acknowledged himself as a disciple of Pir Makhdum of Kasur. Waris Shah’s parents are said to have died when he was quite young. He studied under many teachers, including the famous Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza. After completing his education in Kasur, he migrated to Malka Hans, a village twelve kilometres north of Pakpattan. Here, Waris Shah lived in a in a small room, adjacent to a historic mosque, now known by his name.
In his youth he fell in love with Bhag Bhari, a village girl of Pakpattan. The poet’s family came from reputed Sayyid lineages who were scandalized at the thought of his association with commoners. The situation led Waris Shah to move residence, seeking solace by sublimating his own unrequited love in the poetic expression of Heer and Ranjha.
He wrote the celebrated story of the martyred lovers in 1766 AD. The opening verse of the tale begins with the words, ‘First let us acknowledge God, who has made love the worth of the world. It was God that first loved, and Prophet Muhammad is His beloved.’
Although best known for Heer, the mystic poet wrote other books among which the Ibratnama and Ushtarnama are famous. Waris Shah died on 21 Muharram 1203 Hijri/1798 AD. His dargah is at Jandyala Sher Khan in Punjab, Pakistan. Waris Shah guided generations of Punjabi poets of the medieval and even today, continues to inspire writers and singers across the subcontinent.
