kuldeepsidhu
Member
Warris Shah is to Punjabi poetry what Chaucer was to English - the pulse beat of its people. He turned poetry into Punjabi and Punjabi into poetry. His chief contribution was the creation of the immortal Heer, the epic poem of love of Heer and Ranjha, sung by the people of Punjab in the same style and syntax without any variation since the time it was completed and composed in 1776 during the 8th invasion of Ahmed Shah Abdali. Warris Shah was 36 at that time. He lived to see his Heer sung for nearly a quarter of a century. Enthralling generations of Punjabi poets, opera writers and listeners, Warris Shah is a literary calossus who bestrode the literary scene of Punjab as no other poet did after Farid. With Warris Shah begins the modern period in Punjabi poetry. Addressing Warris Shah, Amrita Pritam, the prima donna of Punjabi poetry today, wrote after the partition holocaust: "If the tragedy of one Heer could make you cry, what would have happened if you were alive in 1947 when a million Heers were raped in the same land".
Heer-Ranjha is both history and poetry. As history it is unread; as poetry it is exquisite. Bulle Shah made these 600 stanzas of Heer immortal by singing it in Kaafi style. Heer has been sung in a dozen styles but the most lyrical is Kaafi. It is said, when it was first sung in Soviet Union people went wild in ecstasy.
Warris Shah describes Punjab as a fertile country with fields of mustard and corn yielding a rich crop. The rulers of Punjab were said to be corrupt and commited atrocities, extorted revenues mercilessly from innocent people. That brought the Hindus and Muslims closer to each other. The foreign invasions further cemented their ties and they developed remarkable cordiality and amity. There are also stray references to the shawls of Lahore and Kashmir, the Phulkaris of Multan, the silken Lehngas and the Tahmads of Takht Hazara, the home town of Ranjha in district Sargodha, now in Pakistan. There was enough milk and honey in Punjab as described in Heer, and the rivers of Punjab have been referred to very evocatively.
More than the official or the formal historical account, Warris Shah's epic can be easily regarded as an authentic source of the history of Punjab. But more than that, Warris Shah is the historian of the heart of his people.
Warris Shah died in 1790, at the age of 60.
source:http://www.punjabiworld.com
Heer-Ranjha is both history and poetry. As history it is unread; as poetry it is exquisite. Bulle Shah made these 600 stanzas of Heer immortal by singing it in Kaafi style. Heer has been sung in a dozen styles but the most lyrical is Kaafi. It is said, when it was first sung in Soviet Union people went wild in ecstasy.
Warris Shah describes Punjab as a fertile country with fields of mustard and corn yielding a rich crop. The rulers of Punjab were said to be corrupt and commited atrocities, extorted revenues mercilessly from innocent people. That brought the Hindus and Muslims closer to each other. The foreign invasions further cemented their ties and they developed remarkable cordiality and amity. There are also stray references to the shawls of Lahore and Kashmir, the Phulkaris of Multan, the silken Lehngas and the Tahmads of Takht Hazara, the home town of Ranjha in district Sargodha, now in Pakistan. There was enough milk and honey in Punjab as described in Heer, and the rivers of Punjab have been referred to very evocatively.
More than the official or the formal historical account, Warris Shah's epic can be easily regarded as an authentic source of the history of Punjab. But more than that, Warris Shah is the historian of the heart of his people.
Warris Shah died in 1790, at the age of 60.
source:http://www.punjabiworld.com
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