By Dr. Fatima Hussain

Date:09-04-06

Source: The News

Waris Shah. a name to be reckoned with in the tradition of Punjabi qissa poetry, is best known for his seminal work 'Heer', considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature. Around 1766 AD, Waris borrowed the story and plot of the legend of Heer Ranjha and structured it anew. Contrary to earlier happy endings, he raised it to the level of a tragedy of classical dimensions. The earlier versions of 'Heer' were written by Damodar (around the time of Mughal emperor Akbar's reign), Muqbal and Ahrnad Gujjar. Several reasons may be attributed to this shift toward a tragic end.

a). Waris Shah's own experience of unfulfilled love for Bhagbhari, which also made him extremely critical of the social norms.

b). Punjab was an area which, on account of its natural and human resources as well as their strategic location, played a crucial role in the political fortune of the subcontinent. This area was one where the money economy and trade and manufacture had developed and reached a fairly high level. Traders and administrators played an important role because Punjab was well placed at the juncture of important trade routes to Central Asia. As a result, the history of Punjab had and has been witness to many storms, along with several peaceful interludes.

In the eighteenth century, the period in which Waris Shah writes, Punjab lay exposed to several invasions from the northwest, as it had been earlier. The Mughal empire was disintegrating and, historically, the eighteenth century was a century of turmoil and crises, as has been debated by historians like Muzaffar Alam, Satish Chandra, Irfan Habib, P. J. Marshall, etc. This was, perhaps, the reason why the Punjabis are a determined resilient lot, even today.

Coming back to the point, Punjab faced the brunt of Nadir Shah's and Ahmad Shah Abdali's invasions. This, along with his personal failure, perhaps, was the reason why Waris Shah gave a tragic ending to the tale. It was a continuation of the pessimism which prevailed in the eighteenth century.

c). Coupled with this is the fact that by the time Waris Shah was writing, European works of Aristotle, Plato and others had become known in South Asia. This might also have had a profound influence on Waris Shah's work. However, his 'Heer' was by no means a case of mechanical appropriation of western thought. In its own way, 'Heer Vaare Shah' is marked by a diversity of sources and a richness of literary imagination. Waris Shah was well grounded in Muslim as well as Hindu traditions. His knowledge was wide ranging -- from astronomy, medicine, social rites, to even breeds of horses and cattle. Moreover, Waris Shah's 'Heer' reflects a distinct flavour of Punjabiat. The use of folk idioms from rural Punjab, the stark realism of the narrative, set apart the 'Heer' of Waris Shah from earlier versions.

'Heer' has attracted a variety of interpretations and critical approaches. It can be analysed from a historical, sociological, mystical, and artistic as well as literary angle. Interestingly, there is a Marxist interpretation to the Heer Ranjha story. Material concerns seem to be of paramount importance as the author weaves the fabric of the contemporary social network. Human values are subverted in the face of material benefits.

Then, there is also a Freudian perspective in which Heer Ranjha can be visualised. Kaido, Heer's uncle, is an important marker in this regard. S. S. Hans of Patiala University has interpreted Heer Ranjha from the point of view of geography, talking of the notions of watan, desh, etc.

Then, of course, we have the Sufi interpretation of Heer Ranjha. Waris Shah, a disciple of Peer Makhdum of Kasur, was inspired by the moving personal experience of unfulfilled love of Bhagbhari. This imparted him the insight to express the Heer Ranjha legend as an eternal, ever-fresh dialogue of immutable love, highlighting a range of human emotions and feelings. His is a work of vast and varied potential, containing high romance and deep pathos. However, according to some scholars, the broad categorisation of the work as belonging to the Sufi genre, quite like the works of other Punjabi poets, robs the Punjabi literature of variety. Nevertheless, there is an undeniable fragrance of tasawwuf associated with 'Heer'.

The elusive Heer, like the formless absolute, i.e. God, awakens in Ranjha, the Sufi, a desire that overpowers his mind and heart, and does not allow him any peace. The impulse towards union, wisal, is avoided through a series of narrative incidents that delay the satisfaction of desire, until the seeker is purified. This is likened to the several stations or maqamat that a mureed (disciple) has to pass through before he attains the final union with the beloved, Allah. To achieve this goal, he has to seek the assistance of his spiritual master, the peer who is the kanphad yogi of Tila Balnath in Jhelum.

Ranjha is also blessed by the Panj Pirs. The union is entwined with the widespread Sufi notion of annihilation or fana, which is a cause of celebration for the Sufi. The death of a Sufi heralds the ultimate union with the Beloved, God, and is celebrated by an urs. In fact, this is the true birth of the Sufi. The divine form of 'Heer' suggests both Allah's might and majesty (jalal) and His gentle grace (jamal).

Earning love can be a protracted and painful process, for which everything worldly has to be abandoned, a process which involves much self-mortification. For this, the path of truth (haqiqat) has to be followed, apart from reposing an unending trust in God (tawakkul). Waris Shah describes, in vivid hues, the pain and sorrow inflicted by separation.

The vocabulary, the similes deployed by Waris Shah, convey devotional emotions with skillful restraint. Though the formulaic plot of Sufi romance contains a set of easily predictable conventions and motives, Waris Shah's Qissa Heer Ranjha shows a great deal of inventiveness in reinterpreting the formula and intensifies the experience without fundamentally altering it. The romance of Heer Ranjha, based in the context of the Islamic world system, demonstrates that the creation of a generic formula shares in the larger logic of exchange and circulation that governed the cultural interactions in the geographical region of the subcontinent.

In a characteristic Sufi style, Waris Shah exposes the hypocrisy of the priests (ulema) and is obliquely critical of the divisions in society, and the dichotomy between precept and practice in Muslims. He gives a strong pedagogic message of accommodation in society. If we try to envision how the sequence of events in the narrative is related to the social order, there is no singular explanation that would allow us to posit a homology between narrative and social form. Finally, though the romance constructs a fantasy world to liberate the imagination, it should be analysed within the historical circumstances of its imagination. Conversely, it also constitutes an important source for studying the history of eighteenth century Punjab.

(Dr. Fatima Hussain, who teaches History at Delhi University, presented this paper at the Waris Shah International Conference, 2005)