New Punjabi poets are trying to rejuvenate a form of poetry once suppressed by the colonisers

By Dr Saeed Bhutta

The News: May 3, 2009

Contemporary Punjabi poets are trying to revive their literary heritage by writing the kafi, It is an attempt to eliminate the alienation produced by the colonial period. With a 500 years old classical tradition, its acceptance is a part of Punjab's collective unconscious. The best writers of the present age have chosen it for their creative venture. The contemporary kafi poets are trying to give a new form to the Punjabi genre to secure for it a status in the age of the computer. It is a very welcome effort for Punjabi literature.

What is the etymology of the word kafi? What is its historical background? Researchers have divergent views on it. Kafi is a thath and a raga of music. You may sing a kafi in any raga (may be Bherwein). In other words, there is no definite relationship between raga and kafi.

"One argument that is forwarded in relating the poem kafi with the raga kafi is that kafi thath is source of many ragas and all of them have been popular. Among the holy saints, which include Moen-ud-Din, Nizam-ud-Din, Amir Khusro and Bulhe Shah, these have been very popular. Common people are their audience and it is not strange that for the transmission of their poetry they used the most popular raga, kafi. But there is one thing that goes against it. Many kafis of Shah Hussain do not fall in the category.

Syed Ali Abbass Jalal Puri writes "kafi is a well known genre of Punjabi poetry, which Shah Hussain has composed in ragas and which Bulhe Shah and Ghulam Farid carried to sublimity. There is a tradition that earlier its name was kami (related to kam or sensuality and love). This later changed into kafi. Majority believe that kafi meant kamil or perfect.

Sharif Kunjahi traces its origin to Kav which is a Sanskirit word. Even before the arrival of Muslims in the Sub-Continent this word was used for poetry. The passage from kav to kafi is not improbable. It is difficult to arrive at a definite conclusion about the origin of the word.

What is the form of kafi? Dr. Nazir Ahmed opines "kafi is usually a rhymed composition of five or seven and sometimes more verses. At times it has a climactic line. But the content is usually mystical. The term kafi is generally used with reference to the work of Muslim mystics."

In the British period Punjabi language had been thrown out of curriculum. As a result many Punjabis were alienated from Punjabi. After the creation of Pakistan some middle-class intellectuals started thinking afresh about their language and literature. They arrived at the conclusion that true creative activity is possible only in the mother tongue. They were also fully aware of the fact that in order to put an end to the alienation created by the colonial period, they shall have to come back to their literary heritage. Many poets wrote kafis in the classical tradition. But they could not rise above it. kafis have also been written after independence. But the kafis of Mushtaq Soofi, Ghulam Hussain Sajid, Shahzad Qaiser, Khaqan Haider Ghazi, Rifaat Abbass and Professor Sharib have carried this genre forward thematically.

Mushtaq Soofi, in his kafis in Haith Vagay Daria has followed Shah Hussain by repeating every line. He did not bring any change in the form of kafi but he has based most of his kafis on the songs of Sandal Bar. Even some of the climactic lines are actually the songs of the Bar. For his metaphors, landscapes and romance, he chose the diction of the Bar. He regrets that there is no dearth of resources, but there is barrenness in them, of which there seems to be no end. He dreams of an ideal society in his poetry. The beauty of the Bar, the landscape and the romance have been so blended that his work has attained sublimity.

The first poetry collection of Ghulam Hussain Sajid Dunia Phiray Ghamazi includes some kafis beside other poems. But his Pani Ramz Bharay is a book of kafis which he has named Waee. Waee is the name of a collective prayer which is offered to break the stifling force of cruelty and exploitation, when it reaches its extreme. Sajid is the child of the river Ravi. The beauty of the Ravi and the rich culture of the Bar are ingrained in his unconscious. He wishes that the oppression around him ultimately come to an end and a new world blossoms. His approach is subjective in this era of ideological poetry. There is a bitter sweet melancholy that runs deep through his poetry and casts a spell over the reader.

Shahzad Qaiser has published four collections of his kafis. The form and mood of these kafis is classical. His diction is also very close to that of the kafi. His kafi deals with the problems of human existence, the inner barrenness, the relationship between the body and the soul, mortality of man and the blessing of the Murshid.

The two poetic collections of Khaqan Haider Ghazi Band Gali Vich Sham and Dam Dam Nal Dhamal also include some kafis. He has described the agony of his own time through an address to Baba Farid, Sultan Bahoo, Lal Qalandur and Bulhe Shah. This kind of style basically flourishes in a period of intellectual barrenness only when people become callous to the cries of pain. In such a situation the poet address one who has been through such a torture. In the other kafis of Khaqan which have been addressed to Bulhe Shah, the pain of this age has been concentrated in twenty eight stanzas. The agony of time, oppression and cruelty has been so blended in the classical tradition that this kafi has become the representative genre of this generation.

Rifaat Abbass has published two collections of kafis Sangat Veda and Ishk Allah Saien Jagia. Their form is classical. Sangat Veda deals with man from the age of Vedas to the present age. In Ishq Allah Saien Jagia there are two basic metaphors, Ishq and Allah. Apparently these two are the subjects of classical kafi. The poet has beautifully adapted these metaphors to the folk dialect, molding everyday life into beautiful verses is his distinction.

A collection of the kafis of Professor Sharib Koi Androu Dur Kharkavay has been published. The great distinction of his kafi is that he describes the internal problem of human existence in folk tradition. Separation from the beloved, the pain of deprivation and the wailings of separation from the beloved are so beautifully blended with the memory of the landscape of the old Punjab that his kafi becomes a beautiful epitome of form and content. The poet is looking for a person through whom he may explore the internal possibilities of existence. Despite its ugliness, he does not allow the beauty of life to be absent from the mind. His poetry expresses the feeling of unequal distribution of wealth, deprivation and despair. But the spell of the desire for the beloved turns this ugliness into an aesthetic experience.