Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

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Sassi - The Lady of Bhambore[This tale takes place in the Pakistani city of Bhambore, which is east of Karachi]

Fates were feared as well as revered by the denizens of Bhambore. The year was 1250, and the city of Bhambore where both Hindus and Muslims lived together in the spirit of love and camaraderie. Bhambore was just a dot on the map of South-Asia, housing a motley of sects and religions, seething with ritual and culture. One dice of commonality amongst these peoples was their Belief in Fate, and this Belief alone was to jolt one Brahmin family out of their warm hearth, and toss them into the river of a tragedy.

One fateful evening, a baby girl was born in an illustrious Brahmin family, who were known to be pious, kind and god-fearing. According to the custom, a horoscope was drawn for this newborn babe as a guide to her future and upbringing. Unfortunately, the stars predicted nothing but a shadow of looming tragedies which could bring shame and dishonor to this Brahmin family. The unlucky stars were carved in tiny lines on the palms of her little hands. Predicting, that as a young girl she would fall in love with a boy of different faith, resulting in scandal and marriage. After reading this horoscope, the parents were devastated with grief and despair. Their love for their daughter was turned into the tides of simmering, churning horror, which they could neither drown, nor confront. The fates were leering at them with an open challenge, and they had to defy the very fates to save the pride and honor of their family. Their daughter was to be abandoned to her own cruel fate, where no shame could ever tarnish the family name. This child of fate was put into a basket of straw and left to the mercy of the waves in a small river.

The gentle currents of the river had carried this basket miles down to another village on the outskirts of Bhambore, where a washerman was pounding his own basket of linen on one rock of a washboard. Mohammed was the name of this kind man who earned his bread with the sweat of his brow and with the strength of his hands. Right now, beads of sweat were trickling down his wide brow, as he dealt mighty blows to the soiled sheets and coverlets. Snatching a pile into his arms, he was about to rinse them when he espied the basket, almost floating close to the shore. Tossing the bundle of linen to the ground, he reached out for the basket with great alacrity. The light of joy and warmth washed over his sturdy features, as he discovered the innocent treasure swaddled in softest of white silks.

Mohammed was a middle-aged man who had married late, though his wife was young and beautiful. Both had prayed and longed for a child, but had remained childless. This late afternoon, when Mohammed had seen this little girl swaddled in the white purity of peace as well as silks, his heart had leapt with joy. A gift from God, especially for them, Mohammed had almost swooned with rapture and gratitude. Forgetting about his laundry, and clutching the basket to his breast, he had raced home to share this miracle of life with his wife. The young bride was ecstatic, more so by the happiness of her husband, than by the prospect of being a mother to this beautiful girl. Immediately, the baby was adopted by them and named, Sassi.

Sassi was truly the child of Bhambore! No more a child, but a young maiden of fifteen summers, her beauty had bloomed like a fair rose, attracting envy and admiration from all. Her dark eyes and dark hair clear down to her waist were enough to make young men swoon with awe and desire. Her own youth was unfolding with the buds of desires, but no beau had impressed her to the extent to wear the chains of wedlock. Wedlock was far from her mind one citron evening when she roamed happily with her friend Rakhi in the town bazaar, making small purchases from the eager vendors whose enthusiasm was difficult to ignore.

This bazaar the size of a small, meandering valley was teeming with merchants from neighboring towns, who were wont to come here once a month to promote their own goods. Among them was one young merchant by the name of Pannu, who had come here the first time accompanied by his brothers. He was the youngest and most handsome of all the brothers, and endowed with an ardent spirit which could fly unbridled if his heart was touched. Four brothers in all, they were the sons of a wealthy chief from the town of Kech Mekran. An exception to the rule, they didn’t come here every month but twice a year, for their town was about one hundred miles east of Bhambore. Punnu was assigned the stall of perfumes, selling as well as flirting with young ladies with the lighthearted gaiety of a carefree youth. Rakhi had just selected a bottle of musk and was ready to pay, when she was befuddled by the expression on Punnu’s handsome face.

Punnu was not even aware that he had sold a bottle of musk, his gaze was arrested to Sassi, rapt and devouring. Sassi too was caught in abeyance, stricken more by the sparkle of admiration in his eyes than by the fire of mute reverence.

“The strings of my heart are broken, o fair maiden,” Punnu murmured to himself, unable to tear his gaze away from this miracle divine. “Let me hear the music of your voice to mend my broken heart,” he pleaded.

Sassi couldn’t breathe a word, but the arrow of cupid buried deep in her heart was surfacing in her eyes, writing volumes with the ink of love. Wordless and sightless, their hearts were locked in the embrace of a Union Sublime, not ever to be sundered apart in the everlasting cycle of time and timelessness.

All three brothers of Punnu, after counting their profits and packing their merchandise were about to leave, when they noticed that Punnu was sitting in his stall oblivious to time and place. Aggravated beyond measure, they pelted Punnu with reproof, urging him to pack and get ready for a journey to the next town. Punnu’s only response was that he wanted to stay in Bhambore and had no wish to journey farther. Simmering with rage and cursing their own impatience, they departed without even asking the reason for his strange decision in wild contrast to his former eagerness in traveling.

Smitten with love and delirious with longings, Punnu was destined to find the home of his beloved. Besides, the town was small and every child in town could point to the house where the most beautiful Lady of Bhambore with long, raven hair resided. Once finding the house, Punnu prostrated himself before Sassi’s parents, begging for the hand of their daughter in marriage.

Mohammad was delighted by the manners of this handsome youth, and finding Sassi willing, was thrown into a fit of exultance. His only condition for this marriage was that Punnu become a washerman and live with them, for they couldn’t think to be parted from their one and only daughter. Punnu had no objection to earn his living by any means as long as Sassi was to be his bride.

Sassi was the loveliest and happiest of brides, and the entire town was invited to feasting and celebration on this auspicious day of her wedding with Punnu. This marriage was made in heaven, people could not help exclaim, even after the wedding vows were dissolved into weeks, and the loving couple could not endure to be parted as if they had not seen each other in centuries. Punnu’s brothers, on their return journey toward Kech Mekran, halted at Bhambore, only to find their younger brother married and bewitched. All of them were heard urging him to return home along with his bride, but Punnu was adamant in staying with his in-laws, and renouncing all claims to the wealth of his parents. So the brothers had no choice but to depart, their hearts heavy with sorrow and disappointment.

Upon reaching Kech Mekran, all brothers were reprimanded by their father for neglecting their brother, and leaving him with the choice of marrying the daughter of a lowly washerman. He was so incensed in fact, that he had commanded all his three sons to ride back to Bhambore and drag Punnu home with whatever devices they could conjure, no matter what hurdles of arguments they had to confront and surpass. All three brothers, herded in one carriage, were back on the road toward Bhambore. On their way, they were quick to devise a plan, loading their carriage with drinks and gifts. Once in Bhambore, they offered costly gifts to Sassi and her parents, telling them that these were the tokens of love from their own parents to bless their son’s marriage with the Lady of Bhambore. After enjoying a simple but delicious supper, they begged the hospitable hosts to spare Punnu for a few hours to settle the accounts of lands and merchandise with his brother. The parents of Sassi were too happy to grant them this leisure, making them comfortable on the verandah where they could discuss their affairs without intrusion. Sassi was kept inside to help her parents in cleaning and making arrangements for the comfort of the guests who were to stay there for the night.

Out on the verandah, the brothers were engaged more in filling the cup of Punnu with strong drinks than talking about matters relating trade or estate. Inside the house, Sassi was helping with the cleaning and preparing beds for the guests, for they had shown their intention in staying for the night.

Meanwhile, Punnu had become a victim to drunkenness much earlier than his brothers had anticipated. Totally intoxicated, he was hauled into the carriage, not in the least aware of his besotted self, nor of the perfidious schemes of his brothers. After putting everything in order and resting a while in wait for Punnu and his brothers to come in, Sassi had straggled onto the verandah. Her parents had gone to bed, and she was etched on the verandah like some fair apparition, her dark, silken hair caressed by night breeze. She stood there inert at first, her dark eyes searching the moonlit emptiness miles ahead. Suddenly, her heart was throbbing, and her psyche throwing open the gates of a presage which had been with her all evening. In a flash, she knew that those evil brothers had taken her Punnu away from her. She was swaying, her gaze cutting through the laughing, mocking stars like the shafts of lightning. Inside her very bosom was erupting forth a volcanic fury, and this fury alone was lending her the scepter of strength and madness. She was not swaying, but running! Running like a spirit mad and spirit provoked.

“Punnu, Punnu,” the heartrending lament of Sassi was seducing the night into pitiful laments as she kept racing toward moonlit voids.

Pressed by grief and madness, she had become a wild spirit of the night, splintering the sky and the stars with the pincers of her despair. ‘Punnu, Punnu’, the shadows and alleyways were awakened by her cries, leaping after the silent night to comfort her agony and delirium. Not a living soul was her companion on this lacerating journey toward doom and annihilation. Mile after mile were dissolved under her blistered feet, her dress torn and her hair disheveled, but her cries of ‘Punnu, Punnu’ were like wildfire, licking their own flames with hungry tongues. Only one sleepless shepherd, tossing on his straw mattress, was the one to catch these strings of lament. Snatching the lantern from his bedside, the shepherd hurled himself out of his hut, but the cries were silenced. The silent night staring back at him through the cold, glittering eyes of the stars, innocent and peace-loving.

Plodding a few paces away, he stumbled over rocks and pebbles. Finally staggering and trying to gain his balance over the bleeding feet of a young girl. Her ebony eyes lit by the flood of moon, were fixed to the stars. Resting on the pillow of her own black, silken hair, her face had attained the purity and transparency of crystal, glowing in its own cold, cold orb of brilliance. The shepherd touched this lifeless miracle, and wept and sighed. Fetching a spade from his hut, he dug a grave on the same spot where this nameless Beauty had expired, and buried her most prayerfully and reverently. Being a pious and religious man, he sat down by the grave, hugging himself, his head tucked in between his knees. The reason for sitting beside the grave was his own religious conviction that a body could not be left alone the first night of its death. So he sat there patient and mournful, waiting for the dawn to return to his hut.

The carriage racing toward Kech Mekran had covered a considerable distance, when Punnu came to his senses. Discerning the trick of his brothers, he begged them to turn back. Since the brothers were adamant in taking him home, he became wild with rage, threatening to use violence if they did not stop the carriage. Barely, the carriage had come to a sudden halt, that he jumped out, and began racing back toward Bhambore. Like Sassi, he was seized with madness, tearing the silence of the night into lumps of agony by his wild cries, ‘Sassi, Sassi’.

The pearly dawn was fading against the blush of its own cheeks, when the shepherd was awakened from his slumber by the same heart-rending cries he had heard not too long ago. But this time the voice was hoarse and heavy, repeating an equally alien name, which; perhaps, had a link to Punnu, he was thinking. Rubbing his eyes to forced awakening, he was about to follow the voice when a shadow whisked past him in the semblance of a man gone stark mad. ‘Sassi, Sassi’, the morning itself was singing one dolorous lament through the lips of this mad lover, who was not even aware of his own existence.

“Stop, young man,” the shepherd cried after him. “Could this be your Sassi, a beautiful girl with dark eyes and dark, silken hair, whom I buried here in the middle of the night? She died…” he could not speak, as Punnu whirled around, as if stung by a serpent coiled around his neck.

Punnu staggered toward the grave, blind and stunned. Though his eyes were lit up by the sparks of agony, and his face was a convulsion of torment indescribable. The violence of his own madness had spoken to him that his Beloved was no more. Towering low over the grave, he clawed at his chest, insane and tormented.

“Sassi, Sassi! The Lady of Bhambore is calling me…” Punnu’s nails had dug deep into his chest. Though the wounds were of the flesh, it seemed his heart was bleeding. It could have been, for he wailed like a wounded animal. “Sassi, Beloved,” the pallor of the dusk itself split shuddering as he tumbled over the grave in one heap, his mournful cry silenced.

The shepherd wept again, digging another grave beside Sassi, and burying the mad Lover with sorrow deeper than his own loneliness and bewilderment.
The parents of Sassi, who had found and nurtured her with joy, now came mourning at the altar of their own Loss and Grief. The villagers of Bhambore, too, came in droves, to respect and revere the Memory of this Beautiful Miracle who had kindled their village with warmth and laughter. For a whole week they prayed and mourned over the fresh graves, drenched with numb, stinging grief. Trying to ward off the tormented spirits, splintering the night with their ceaseless cries, which they had not ever encountered before.

“Punnu, Punnu…Sassi, Sassi…” the night-long vigils of the friends and family could not soothe these anguished spirits, their own hearts torn and pleading.
Weeks were dissolved into months and months into years, but the nights in Bhambore were not ever to entertain peace and silence. Even after centuries, the air still repeats in sibilant notes the tragic names of this young couple. “Punnu, Punnu”. “Sassi, Sassi.”

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Thats too long to read naa :bummer:

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

To mat parro..

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Heer Ranjha

Ranjha quarrels with his brothers and their wives and leaves his home in Takht Hazara

Takht Hazara is a pleasant place on the banks of the river Chenab. It is the abode of the Ranjhas who live there in proud luxury. Mauju Chaudhri was chief land owner in the village. He had eight sons and two daughters.Of all his sons Ranjha was the most beloved of his father; and as his father loved him, so his brethen hated him. Now it came to pass on the Night of Nights that the leaves of the Tree of Life were shaken and by the decree of God, Mauju died.

After Mauju's death, the good land was given to the brothers and the land barren and inhospitable land was given to Ranjha: and Ranjha's enemies flapped their arms exultantly  and said, 'Now Ranjha's brethren have entangled him in a net'. And they jeered at the Jatt, saying, ' How can a man plough who wears long hair and anointshis head with curds'? His brothers jeered saying, 'He wears a looking glass on his thumb like a woman. He plays on the flute all day and sings all night.

So Ranjha, with his flute under his arm, left his father's country declaring that he would no longer eat or drink in Takht Hazara. Ranjha quarrelled with his brethren and left Takht Hazara.

Ranjha reaches the mosque

After much journeying he reached a mosque, hunger and cold fell upon him and weariness of travel. Then he took up his flute and played, and strange things happened. Some became senseless and others hearts yearned when they heard the music. Not a man or woman remained in the village. They all thronged around the mosque. Last of all out came the Mullah who was a very bag of quarrels.

The Mullah protested that he knew all the doctrines of the faith and all the prayers ordained for believers, and could lead the pious across the bridge of salvation. 'But', said he, 'lewd fellows like Ranjha should be spurned from the assemblies of honest men.

Hearing this, Ranjha jested right merrily at the Mullah's morals and his bawdy tricks, so that his hearers were much astonished and not a fewe were mightily pleased. He teased the Mullah sorely, 'Mullahs run after women in mosques and cultivated land like laymen. They are like curses clinging to the house of God'. The Mullahs face was blackened. So Ranjha slept in the mosque during the night and at early dawn he set forth on his travels.

Ranjha reaches the bank of the Chenab

At the third watch of the day, when the sun began to slope to the west, Ranjha reached the bank of the river Chenab. Many travellers were assembled at the ferry waiting for Luddan, the ferryman, to take them across. Ranjha said, 'Master ferryman, for the love of God take me across the river.'

Ranjha, weary of entreating the ferryman, sat down in a corner by himself. He drew out his flute and played the sad music of separation from one's beloved. Ranjha, having solaced his soul with music, paid no heed to the entreaties of the folk at the ferry, but taking his shoes in his hands, set his feet in the river. Luddan's wives tried to prevail on him to return and caught the skirt of his clothing. But Ranjha replied to them, 'It is best that those in trouble should die.'

But the people ran and caught him and brought him back saying, 'Friend, wenter not the river or you will be drowned.' So they caught Ranjha by the arms, put him in the boat and seated him on the couch of Heer. Enquiring as to who's couch it was, the people replied, 'This is the couch of a Jatt damsel, the daughter of Mihr Chuchak. She is as lovely as the moon. The queen of the fairies always seeks Gods protection from her beauty. Those who have become a prey to her charms can find no shelter on earth. Her beauty slays rich Khojas and Khatris in the bazaar, like a murderous Kizilbash trooper riding out of the royal camp armed with a sword. Luddan and his boatmen are afraid of her, even as a goat fears the wolf. She is the pride of the Sial assembly. Her name is Heer.'

Heer and her companions come to the ferry

Heer and her girl friends came to the river to bathe. The tinkling of their anklets was heard from afar. They descended on the boatman as a hailstorm sweeps over a field. They ordered the guards to be bound hand and foot. Heer spoke straightaway and said, 'Luddan, you black-faced rogue, why have you defiled my couch? Whom have you allowed to sleep on my bed? have you no respect for me or fear of God that you have done this thing?'

Luddan lifted his hands and said, 'Spare me, Lady, I am innocent. I did not invite the lad to sleep on your bed. The songs that he sings have cast a spell over our hearts.' Heer made answer in her anger, 'Does he not know that this is the kingdom of my father Chuchak; I care for no one, be he a lion, an elephant or the son of a noble. Does he think he is the son of Nadhu Shah or that he is the Pir of Baghdad?'

Heer turning to Ranjha said, 'Sleeper, arise from my bed. Who are you and why have you chosen my sleeping place?' Heer cried aloud in her wrath to her maid servants to belabour him with cudgels. The queen in her wrath was furious to behold.

The meeting of Ranjha and Heer

Ranjha opened his eyes and beheld Heer and said, 'Be gentle with me sweatheart.' Heer's heart melted within her even as the snow of Kashmir melts under the tyrannous sun of June.

Ranjha had his flute under his arm, and earrings in his ears. His beauty was as that of the full moon. Their four eyes met and clashed on the battlefield of love. The heart of Heer swelled with happiness even as a loaf swells with heaven. She sat in his lap as lovingly as arrows nestle in the embrace of a quiver. They conversed happily,one with the other. Love triumphant rode on the field of victory.

'It is well,' quoth she, 'that I did not beat you or say anything that was unbecoming.' Ranjha replied, 'This world is a dream. Even you, proud lady, will have to die. Take back your couch and quilt and I will depart hence and be seen no more.

Heer made reply, 'This couch, Heer and everything of mine is yours. I have been wandering masterless amongst my friends, and now God has sent me Ranjha to be my Master.'

Ranjha replied, 'Oh beauteous Lady. The wine of your beauty has intoxicated me, but you walk disdainfully.' Heer replied, 'I am your slave. Tell me, friend, whence have you come?'

Ranjha replied, 'Giurl, I am Ranjha and a Jatt by caste. I am from Takht Hazara.' And he told her his story. Heer replied with folded hands, 'I will remain your slave and all my hand maidens will do your bidding. Journeys end in lovers' meeting.

Ranjha becomes Chuchaks Cowherd

So Heer pledged her faith and Ranjha trusting her, stood before Mihr Chuchak. Heer went into the presence of her father and made Ranjha stand beside her. Heer said, 'My father, hail. My father, I have found a servant who can tend our buffaloes.'

Chuchak said, 'He seems to be a mere lad, but he has wise eyes and a kindly disposition. You are championing his cause with zeal. We will see how the boy turns out. We accept what you say; the boy can be given charge of the buffaloes, but bid him take care, as it is no easy task to tend buffaloes in the Bar.'

Thus it came to pass that after a while Heer came to Ranjha and consoled him with sweet talk. Heer said, 'I will bring you butter and sugar and sweat bread. Go and drive the buffaloes into the forest and trust in God. I and my sixty maids will accompany you and together we will track the footprints of the lost cattle.'

Ranjha meets the Five Pirs in the forest.

Ranjha took upon himself the task of a herdsman. Good fortune however came to him and he met the Five Pirs on the way. Ranjha saw by their countenances that they were holy men and besought their help.

The Pirs replied, 'Child, 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 replied, 'Sirs, I am in great distress. I beseech you bestow the girl Heer upon me, for the fire of love is devouring me.'

The holy Pirs answered and said, 'Child, all your wishes will be fulfiled; your arrow will hit the target, and yourboat will reach the shore. Heer has been bestowed on you by the Darbar of God.' Thus by the grace fo God and the kindness of the Five Pirs, Heer, the Jatt girl, was bestowed on Ranjha.

Heer and Ranjha meet in the forest.

Heer Jatti set out from the Jhang Sial. She came to fulfill the eagerness of her heart, for she was possessed with love for Ranjha. She brought him boile rice, sugar, butter and milk, and she said, with weeping eyes, 'I have been searching for you all over the forest.' Ranjha said, 'God himself hath said in the holy Koran, Verily your deceit is great. Satan is the lord of evil spirits and women. Women falsify the truth and feel no shame. Only if you intend to keep your word, Heer, can the son of Mauju endure the humiliation of being a servant.'

Heer comforted Ranjha with sweet words and poured out all her sould to him. She said, 'We shall be surrounded by enemies and you must confront all troubles with patience. But beware of Kaidu, my wicked uncle. The world will reproach us and those who are ignorant will cast taunts at us, but the true lover sacrifices his life for his beloved. Lovers have no support but God.
Thus everyday Heer used to take a bowl of rice and pudding to Ranjha in the forest, and she swore to be true to him. She gave up her spinning and no longer sat with her girl friends. She was with Ranjha all the day. She set aside the blanket of beholding her wantonness. 

The news spread over the whole of Jhang that Heer had fallen in love with a shepherd and that she went to visit him every day in the forest.

Heer's mother is angry with her and Kaidu finds her in the forest with Ranjha

When Heer came back from the forest, her mother rebuked her, saying, 'The taunts of the village folk have consumed us utterly. If you cease not from wickedness your father Chuchak and your brother Sultan will cut you in pieces.' 

Heer replied, 'Listen Milki, my mother, as long as breath remains in my body I will not leave Ranjha.' Heer would not listen to her mother and continued to visit Ranjha in the forest.

Meanwhile Kaidu the cripple, Heer's uncle, constantly urged Chuchak to Chastise Heer. He kept watch over her footsteps as a spy. 

Heer had gone to the river to fetch water, and Ranjha was sitting alone, so Kaidu, in the guise of a mendicant faqir, came to him and begged for alms in the name of God, and retired towards the village.

When Heer came back from the river she asked Ranjha where the other half of the pastry was, and he told her that a crippled faqir had come and begged in God's name. Heer replied, 'Ranjha, where have your wits gone? That was no saintly faqir but my Satanic uncle Kaidu who goes about to destroy me.

The heart of Heer was scorched with anger against Kaidu. So she ran and overtook him in the way and fell upon him in her wrath like a tigress. Half of the pastry fell on the ground, and the other half Kaidu snatched from Heer, and having secured his prize, the cripple ran off as fast as his crooked legs would carry him to the village.

Kaidu came before the council of village elders and said, 'See, here are the pieces of pastry which Heer gave to Ranjha. Will you now believe when I tell you she is a shameless hussy?' The elders came and told Chuchak what Kaidu had been saying in the assembly of the elders. Chuchak was wroth and said, 'Kaidu is a talebearer and a liar; he chases moths all day. 

Kaidu said to Milki, 'For god's sake get your daughter married.'   Heer withstood her parents to their faces and refused to give up Ranjha.

Scandal Spreads in the village and Chuchak dismisses Ranjha and then recalls him

When Ranjha brought the cows back that night Chuchak was wroth, and he called Ranjha and in the presence of all his kinsfolk rebuked him saying, 'Friend, give up the buffaloes and go away.' 

Thereupon Ranjha threw down his shepherds crook and blanket and quit Chuchak's herd of cattle, even as a thief leaves the hole in the wall when he hears the watchman's footsteps. And he spoke to Chuchak in his anger, 'For twelve years I have been grazing your buffaloes and now you turn me away without wages.' Ranjha in a rage shook the dust of the Sials off his feet and gave up the service of Chuchak.

Milki said to Chuchak, 'All the people curse us for having turned the cowherd out without paying him his wages. Go and beseech him to come back. Tell him Heer is disquieted by his absense.' Chuchak said to Milki, 'Go you and pacify him.'

Milki having found him, she entreated him saying, 'Do not fret over much about the quarrel you had with Chuchak. Parents and children often fall out in such small matters. Come back and milk our buffaloes and spread Heer's couch. Since you have gone she has been much displeased with us. Our cattle, our wealth, the Sials and heer are all yours.' So Ranjha Hearkened to the words of Heer's mother, and once more became Chuchak's herdsman.

The Qazi admonishes Heer but she refuses to give up Ranjha

When Heer came back from the forest her parents sent for the Qazi. The Qazi said, 'It is not becoming for the daughter of Chuchak to talk to cowherds and penniless coolies. In a few days the messengers of your wedding will be here. The preparations for the marriage are all but complete. The Kheras will bring a marriage procession in a few days to take you to the house of your husband.'

Heer replied to her father, 'As wine-bibblers cannot desert the bottle, as opium-eaters cannot live without opium, so i cannot live without Ranjha. The Qazi was wroth and said, 'Nobody can stop or stay this wicked girl. heer's pride knows no bounds. She must be given in marriage at once.'

Heer called aside one fo her girl friends and sent her to Ranjha at once with the following message, 'My parents and the Qazi are oppressing me and my life is being taken from me even as sugar is pressed out of a sugar mill. You, friend, are living happily but an army of sorrows is invading me.'

Ranjha has audience of the Five Pirs and Mithi discourses on love.

Ranjha stood before the Five Pirs with folded hands and weeping eyes, and he prayed, 'For God's sake, help me, or my love will be ruined.' They said, 'Ask any favour of us and we will give it up.' Ranjha replied, 'Admit me to your holy order, make me Malang and give me Heer as my Malangan and Mate.'

Ranjha and Heer took counsel how they might conceal their plans from Heer's parents, so they decided to take mithi, the barber woman, into their confidence so that they might meet in Mithi's house. Mithi's house was near the watering place of the cattle.

Heer used to come during the night and stay till one watch of the night remained and then slip back to their own house. In the morning Ranjha drove the buffaloes out to graze in the forest. Under the pretence of bathing, Heer and her friends used to meet him in the forest on the banks of the Chenab.

But the shephards heard of these things and came and told the news to Kaidu, and Kaidu told Milki. Milki sent for Heer as Kaidu went about the village saying, 'I tell you the girl walks arm in arm with Ranjha all day in the forest.'

Heer thrashes Kaidu and Kaidu complains to the village elders

Heer's girl frienhds came to her saying, 'Your evil uncle is stiring up the whole assembly of elders against you. So Heer took counsel together with her girls, and at her bidding they waited for an opportunity and caught Kaidu and surrounded him. They tore off his beggars girdle and threw him on the ground. Their blows resounded like the hammers of the coppersmiths. They then burnt his hut and let the dogs and chickens loose all over his property.

So Kaidu resolved in his own mind how he might catch Heer and Ranjha in the forest, and bring Chuchak to see them. The next morning Ranjha drove the cattle intot he forest, anda fter two watches of the day had gone, Heer and her companions in their scarlet clothes came into the forest. The girls played together and then went back to their homes. Ranjha and Heer stayed behind and slept together peacefully in the forest. Kaidu ran off to the village as fast as his cripple legs would carry him, and said to the Assembly of Elders, 'Come and see the strange things in the forest.'

Chuchak finds Heer and Ranjha in the forest.

Chuchak muttered to himself, 'We have been dishonoured before the whole assembly.' He saddled his horse and took a spear in his hand. Heer heard the noise of the oncoming horse, and said to Ranjha, 'Get up, my father is coming.' Then she wept and said, 'I shall not come here again, so forgive me.' And she hurried from Ranjha's side.

Mihr Chuchak was tortured with rage and said, 'I will break your legs in two and cut off your head. Only thus will the scandal be stopped.' Heer turned towards Ranjha and said, 'Shepherd, leave your buffaloes and go away to your home. No one in future will care for what has happened. I am your own dear daughter and it is not meet for men of gentle birth to bring their own disgrace by publishing abroad their daughters' defects.' Chuchak bewildered and bethought that Heer ought to be given away in marriage soon. 

When Ranjha became a shepherd, news was taken to his brethren in Takht Hazara. The brothers of Ranjha wrote to the Sials. 'Ranjha has cut off our nose by becoming a grazier of buffaloes. We shall be grateful to you if you will send him back; otherwise we shall have to come with a special embassage to lay our request before you.'

Chuchak replied, 'We have employed Ranjha as Heer's servant. Why have you turned such a young man as this out of your house? He is neither lame nor lazy nor clumbsy fingered. We will not turn him over, but if he wishes to see his brothers no one will prevent him.'

Ranjhas brothers and their wives wrote tauntingly to Heer. Heer had the letter read out to her and she told the contents to Ranjha, and after consulting him, she caused the following answer to be written on her behalf. 'Your letter has been recieved. We are shocked at its contents. We have employed Ranjha as a grazier of buffaloes and we will not let him go.'

Chuchak proposes to get Heer married.

Chuchak was determined to marry Heer somewhere to avert disgrace, and his brethren agreed with him, but they urged that the Sials had never given their daughters tot he lwly Ranjha tribe and that they would be disgraced if they gave their daughters to such lowly and needy folk. The brotherhood recommended an alliance with the house of the Kheras as being Jatts of good lineage whom Chuchak would be proud to won as relations. So CHuchak took the advice of the brotherhood and announced the betrothal to his friends and relations. They sang songs and made merry. The Kheras recieved the news with great joy. They assembled in crowds and danced with delight. But when Heer and Ranjha heard the merriment, Heer was angry with her mother for betrothing her against her will and said she would never go with the Kheras however much her mother tried to make her.

Heer said to Ranjha, 'Great tyranny has fallen upon us. Let us go away to some distant part of the country, for when once I am admitted into the house of the Kheras they will never allow me to come back. Ranjha replied, 'Love does not taste well if it is composed of theft and stealth and abduction.'

The girls of the Jhang Sial assembled together and came before Ranjha and asked, 'How fares it with you now? You should say to her, "If you intended to turn your face from me why did you make me undergo such hardships?" Ranjha replied to the girls and said, 'The uttering of many words is folly; all ills must be borne with patience. If God is good, the Kheras and Heer Sial will never mate together. The patience of the heart is victorious over the world. Those who keep silent always succeed.'

Heer's girls came and said to her, 'You have been insincere and have deserted your faith. If you intended to break faith with him why did you first encourage him and then break his heart? He has borne the taunts of the whole world for your sake and you have been a great tyrant. Remember that the throne of God trembles when a man is deprived of his right.'

Heer replied to the girls, 'Hide him under your sheet and bring him to me disguised as a girl, but do not let my parents know.' So one night the girls brought Ranjha disguised as a girl, and Heer and Ranjha once again pledged their troth to be true to one another.

Heer is married to Saida against her will.

Meanwhile the Kheras asked the Brahmans to consult the Stars and to fix the marriage. The Brahmans fixed Virwati (thursday) in the month of Sawan for the wedding. The guests turned green with jealousy when they saw the abundance of good things. A large host of people came to enjoy Chuchak's hospitality. 

Ranjha left his buffaloes and sat in a corner sad at heart.
Meanwhile flocks of beautiful women lined the tops of all the houses to watch the marriage procession. The crowd and the noise was great as at the Fairs of Pakpattan. The girls went wild with jealousy when they saw the costly robes of the married Sial women. Then came the musicians, the dancing girls and the jesters and the minstels with trumpets and cymbals even from Kashmir and the Dekhan.

When the procession arrived Ranjha's sould and his heart were scorched like roasted meat; and said to himself sadly, 'Saida is drunk with joy today though he has not touched wine. Saida has become a Nawab and Heer his princess. Who cares for Ranjha the poor shepherd? Death is better than life without my beloved.'

When the relations of the bride and the bridegroom met they put the bridegroom and his best man on horseback.

The bride and bridegroom were made to sit facing each other and put 'surma' in each other's eyes. The Qazi who was to solemnise the marriage was given a seat on the floor. They appointed two witnesses and an attorney and prepared to offer prayers. They told her the definition of Faith and made her repeat, 'There is only one God and Muhammad is his Prophet.' They made her read the six Kalmas and taught her the Five TImes of Prayer.

The Qazi again admonished Heer but she was displeased and refused to say a word to him. The Qazi said to Heer, 'You should obey the oders of your religion, if you wish to live.'

Heer replied, 'I shall cry out in the Court of God that my mother betrothed me to Ranjha and has broken her promise. My love move is known ot Dhul Bashak, to the Pen and the Tablet of Destiny and to the whole earth and sky. Where the love of Ranjha has entered ther eis no place for the authority of the Kheras. If I turn my face to Ranjha what shelter will there be for me in the Day of Judgement?'

For a whole watch of the day did the Qazi admonish Heer and urge her to accept the marriage arranged by her parents. Chuchak said to the Qazi, 'Listen to me. The marriage procession of the Kheras is sitting at my door, and if the marriage is not accomplished I shall be disgraced and the face of the Sials will be blackened.' The Qazi replied, 'You can only gain your object by deceit. Tell the bride's attorney that consent to the marriage must be wrung from Heer, even against her will. If Ranjha the shepherd makes trouble we will cast him into the fire.'

Heer is taken to Rangpur

Thus Heer was married by strategem and put into the Doli by force. Heer cried out to Ranjha, 'Today your wealth has been looted by the kheras. Takht Hazara and Jhang are left masterless. Other brides have clothes of gren, red and yellow but I wear only mournful white.' The Kheras marched with the Doli of Heer, and at dawn they reached the forest, they halted and sat down to eat and drink and be merry.

The Kheras rode after deer and hunted lions and foxes and showed much cunning with their bows and arrows. They roasted the meat they had killed and set aside a portion for Heer. Heer finding herself alone and the Kheras merry making, made signal to Ranjha, called him into he Doli and embraced him tenderly. One of the Kheras noticed this and urged the procession to move on, and at last they reached the village of Rangpur. The girls lifted the bride out of the Doli and poured oil over the threshold. Heer's mother-in-law swung water round her bride's head and drank it and gave thanks to God. 

When they espied Ranjha sitting near, they snatched the basket form his head and frightened him away. He drew near Heer by stealth and spoke to her. Heer said, 'Ranjha, this love of ours must last for all our life long. The Five Pirs stand witness between you and me. I swear I will never be the wife of Saida. I will write to you that you should come and see me in disguise of a fakir. If you do not come and see me, my soul will vanish away.

Heer is unhappy in her new home.

Ranjha resolved to become a fakir and get his ears bored and bing back Heer captive or perish in the attempt. Meanwhile Heer languished in the house of her father-in-law. She refused to put on jewellery or gay clothes. She ate no food and lay awake all night thinking of Ranjha.

Sehti, her husbands sister, spoke to her saying, 'Sister what spell has overcome you? You are growing weaker everyday. Tell me the secret of your heart that I may cure it.' So Heer told Sehti all her history and Sehti sat by Heer and consoled her saying she too had a lover, Murad Bakhsh, a camel driver, and that somehow they must contrive to help each other in their troubles.

One night Saida full of delight placed his foot on Heer's bed. Heer thrust him away saying, 'I have not yet said my prayers.' But Saida was wilful and would not heed, so Heer in her distress prayed to her Pir. The Pir at once appeared and Heer said, 'I am the betrothed of Ranjha. My love is pledged to him.' So the Pir chastised Saida, broke his bones and tied up his hands and feet.
The Five Pirs saw Heer sitting in devout meditaion they appeared at aonce by the order of God. They awakened her and said, 'Child get up. What grief has overcome you?' Heer gave a deep sigh and tears came from her eyes as she replied, 'The love of the Jatt whom you gave to me has made me mad. This love of the shepherd has ruined me. God has made you my protector and I come to the Pirs for help in my trouble.'

The Pirs were overcome with compassion, and said, 'He will meet you in person very soon for so it has been ordained by God.'

Heer sends a message to Ranjha

After a year had passed a Jatt girl from Rangpur was returning to Jhang Sial to visit her own home and she came to Heer andoffered to take any message she might want to send her parents. Heer replied, 'say, "You have given me over into the hands of enemies. May my parents be drowned in the deep stream. I will have nothing to do with them." Then seek out Ranjha and say to him, "Come to me or I shall die. I have thrown dust on the head of the Kheras and spat in the face of Saida."'

When the girl reached Jhang of the Sials she asked the folk there, 'Where is the boy Ranjha?' The girls replied, 'He is now a grown up lad and has given up all affections of the world. He roams about in the forest where there are wolves and tigers.'

So the girl went in search of Ranjha and said to him, 'Heer is on the point of death. She shows no affection for her husband's house, although they have made all efforts to please her. She will not allow Saida to touch her and she will not go near him. Go back to her disguised as a Jogi and manage to meet her somehow.' 

Ranjha, heard this message, rejoiced exceedingly. He said to himself, 'The river of Love is deep but a boat must be fashioned to cross it. I must disguise myself as a fakir.'

Ranjha decides to become a Jogi

Ranjha set off for 'Tilla', the hill where Balnath the Jogi dwelt. After many days journeying, Ranjha reached Tilla, and bowed his head and placed a piece of gur before Balnath as an offering, and clasped the fet of the Jogis. Ranjha folded his hands before Balnath and said, 'Make me a fakir. Let me be your chela and be my Pir. He said to Ranjha, 'My lad, your looks are saucy and you have commanding airs. Your demeanour is not that of a servant but of onw whom others obey. Only those whose souls are submissive can become Jogis.' 'Oh Jatt, tell the truth. What has befallen you that you wish to relinquish the pleasures of life and become a fakir? The tast of Jog is bitter and sour. You will have to dress as a Jogi, to wear dirty clothes, long hair, crpped skull and to beg your way through life. You will have to become divinely intoxicated by taking kand, mul, post, opium and other narcotic drugs. You Jatts cannot attain Jog.'

Ranjha replied to Balnath, 'I accept all your conditions. I beseech you to give me Jog and to drown me in the deep waters of the Fakiri.'

The guru took Ranjhas clothes and having rubbed him in ashes and embarrassed him, made him sit by his side. Then he took a razor of separation and shaved him completely. Then he bored his ears and put earrings on him. He gave him the beggar's bowl, the rosary, the horn and the shell in his hands, and made him learn the words of Allah. He taught him the way of God and the gurus from the beginning, 'Your heart should be far from other men's women.

Ranjha having achieved his desire and having been granted Jog, shook off the disguise pentience. Balnath was sad and hung his head and he said, 'Verily I repent and am sorry for having given Jog to this youth.'

Ranjha laughed him to scorn saying, 'We Jatts are cunning strategists and we use all measn to compass our hearts desire. I will invoke the name of my Pir, my guru and of God and pitch my flag in Rangpur where I will cut off the nose of the Kheras and spite the Sials. What can a Jatt do with a beggars bowl or horn, whose heart is set only on ploughinh? My heart begs for Heer and for Heer alone.'

At last the guru understood that Ranjha had been wounded sore by the arrow of love and that he would never give up the search for his beloved. He closed his eyes in the Darbar of God and uttered this prayer:

'Oh God, the lord of earth and sky, Ranjha the jatt has given up his kith and kin and that he possesses and has become a fakir for love of the eyes of Hir, who has slain him with the arrow of love. Grant, Oh Lord, that he may get his hearts desire.'

The Five Pirs also prayed in the Court of God that Ranjha might receive that which his heart desired. Then there came a reply from the Darbar of God, Heer has been bestowed on Ranjha and his boat has been taken ashore.' Balnath opened his eyes and said to Ranjha, 'My son, your prayer has been granted. Go and invade the Kheras and utterly subdue them.'

Ranjha arrives at Rangpur

So it came to pass that Ranjha came to the village of the Kheras. The beauties of Rangpur thronged round the Jogi. When the women of the village saw the beauty of the Jogi they surrounded him in multitudes, old and young, fat and thin, married and unmarried. They poured out all their woes to the fakir and many wept as they told their stories. Some complained of their faither-in-law or mother-in-law. Some complained that their husbands beat them, others that neighbours were unkind. Ranjha made all the girls sit close to him and told them of ways to help themselves.

Saida's sister said to Heer, 'Sister, this Jogi is as beautiful as the moon and as slender as a cypress tree. He cries "God be with you". Some say he has come from Jhang Sial. Others say he has come from Hazara. Some say he is not a Jogi at all but has got his ears bored for the sake of Heer.' Heer replied, 'I entreat you not to touch on this subject. It appears to me that this is a true message form God, and that it is Ranjha. Heer said to the girls, 'Bring him somehow to me that we may find out where he comes from and who he is, who is his guru and who bored his ears.'

The girls encircled round the handsome Jogi and asked him ceaseless questions about himself. The girls then went and told Heer, 'Heer, we have enreated the Jogi but he will not listen to us.

Meanwhile Heer's heart was rent with the pangs of separation from her lover and she was devising come way of seeing Ranjha. The Jogi at the same time decided to visit the house of Mehr Ajju. So Ranjha took up the beggars bowl and went from door to door, playing his shell and crying, 'You mistress of the courtyard, give alms, give alms.'

The Jogi passed on into the courtyard of a Jatt who was milking a cow. He blew his horn and played on his shell and roared like an intoxicated bull. The cow alarmed by the noise kicked the rope and spilt the milk. The Jatt in a fury exclaimed, 'Fancy giving alms to this poisonus snake.'

The Jatt's wife flew at Ranjha and abused him and all his kith an kin, his grandparents and great-grandparents for spoiling the milk. She pushed him away and tore his shirt and flung taunts at him. The Jogi in his wrath kicked her and knocked out all her teeth. The jatt seeing his wife on the ground raised a hue and cry and shouted, 'The bear has killed the fairy. He has killed my wife. Firends, bring sticks and come to my aid.' The men cried, 'We are coming, we are coming.'

And the Jogi in alarm took to his heels. As he passed by one of the houses he saw a beautiful girl sitting all alone like a princess in a jewelled chamber of the king. He knocked at the door and said, 'Heer, bride of the Kheras, are you well? Give me alms, give me alms.'

Saida's sister Sehti appears, and begins to quarrel with the Jogi.

Ranjha meets Heer

Sehti said, 'Jogi, if you have all these powers perhaps you can cure our bride Heer. Everyday she is getting weaker.' Ranjha replied, 'Sehti, beguile me not with vain words. Bring your bride here that I may see her and inspect the colour of her eyes and face.

About this time Heer came into the courtyard and from one of the inner chambers she overheard the words of the Jogi. ZShe wondered who the speaker might be and she said to herself, 'Perhaps he is my king Ranjha!' Heer said to the Jogi, 'Jogi, go away from here. Those who are unhappy cannot laugh.' The Jogi replied to Heer, 'We are the perfect fakirs of God. Ask anything from us, fair beauty, and we can bring it about.' Heer replied, 'It is not true, Jogi; parted friends cannot be reunited. Tell mewhen the true God will bring back the lover I have lost?' The Jogi replied, 'I know all the secrets of the universe. On the Resurrection Day everything will be revealed.'

Heer stood up and said, 'This Jogi has reas the signs of the stars correctly. He is a true pandit and Jotshi. Tell me Jogi, where is my lover who stole my heart away and brought ruin on himself.' The Jogi replied, 'Why are you searching outside, your lover is in your house. Put off your veil, my beautiful bride and look if you cannot see your lost lover.'

Heer said, 'Jogi, it cannot be true. He cannot bee in the house.' Then she decided to draw aside her veil. She glanced att he Jogi and behold! It was her lost lover. And she said to him softly, 'Our secret must be hidden from the eyes of Sehti.' The Jogi replied, 'Bride of the Kheras, do not teach wisdom to the wise. Be not proud of your beauty but be kind to ol friends.'

Sehti quarrels with the Jogi and turns him out of the house

When Sehti saw the hearts of Heer and the Jogi had become one and that Heer had fallen under his spell, she began abusing the Jogi to her, 'Sister, all Jogis are liars. This snub-nosed squat dirty-faced wicked Jogi cannot be trusted. 

The Jogi: 'A Jatt woman is only good for four things, pressing wool, scaring sparrows, grazing lambs and nursing a baby. She loves quarrels and beats fakirs. She looks after her own family and abuses others.'

Heer glanced at the Jogi and made signs to him to stop quarrelling and she urged Sehti not to quarrel with the Jogi. Sehti lost her temper and said to her maid-servant Rabel, 'Let us give this fakir alms and turn him out. Give him a handful of millet and tell him to go away.' The Jogi and Sehti continue to quarrel.

Heer said to Sehti, 'What strange perverseness is this? Why quarrel with holy fakirs whose only support is God?' Sehti replied, 'O viruous one whose sheet is as stainless as a praying mat! The whole house is yours and who are we? You are as important as if you had brought a shipload of clothes from your father's house. You flirting hussy and milker of buffaloes! You are still running after men. You never speak a word to your husband Saida, but you are hand in glove with the Jogi.'

Heer replied, 'You have picked up a quarrel with the fakir. Beware the fakir is dangerous.' Sehti replied, 'As sure as I am a woman, I will tell my brother of your disgraceful conduct with the shepherd.'

Ranjha complained bitterly to Heer of the way he had been used, and he entreated God, saying, 'Why hast thou separated me from my beloved after bringing us together?' And the Jogi wept bitterly and he said to himself, 'I will fast forty days and forty nights and I will recite powerfil enchantments which will overcome all difficulties and will unite me to my beloeved.'

Ranjha retires to Kalabagh

Ranjha meditated deeply in his heart, and he collected ashes from the hearth and sat down on a hillock in the garden of Kalabagh. Then he recited spells and incantations and a voice came from the Five Pirs saying, 'Go to, my child, your grief is gone. You will meet your beloved in the morning.'

It came to pass that on Friday all the girls of the village assembled to pay a visit to the garden in Kalabagh. They put out his fire, threw away his beggars bowl and wallet and scattered his bhang. They broke his pestle and mortar. They threw away his turban, his chain and his tongs, his cup and his horn. Then the Jogi gave a loud roar from inside the garden and wih a stick in his hand advanced to attack them. The girls hearing the terrible roar of the Jogi, all ran away, all save one beautiful sparrow whom he caught.

She cried, 'Help, help,' and threw off all her clothes and ornaments to save her life. If you touch us we shall die. What have you to tell me? My aunt Heer has been your friend from the beginning. We all know she is your beloved. I will take her any message you give me.'

The Jogi sighed when he heard the name of Heer and he sent a message through the girl to Heer complaining how badly she had treated him, and the girl ran off and told Heer. Heer replied to the girl, 'Ranjha has been foolish to babble the secret of his heart to a woman.'

The next day in order to compass the object of her desire, Heer went to Sehti and clasped her feet and tried to win her over with soft words saying, 'help me to meet my Ranjha. Those who do good actions will be rewarded in Paradise. If you restore Heer to her lover, you will meet your lover Murad.'

Sehti and Heer make Friends

Sehti's heart leapt with joy and she said to Heer, 'Go, I have forgiven your fault, as you have been faithful in love from the beginning. Let us go and bring about a reconciliation of the lovers'. So Sehti filled a big dish with sugar and cream and covered it with a cloth and put five rupees therein. Then she went to the garden of Kalabagh and stood with her offering near the Jogi.

Ranjha said, 'The dish is filled with sugar and rice and you have out five rupees on the top of it. Go and see, if you have any doubt in your mind.' Sehti uncovered the dish and looked at it, and behold, it was full of sugar and rice. When Sehti beheld the miracle which the fakir had performed, she besought him with folded hands saying, 'I have been your slave from the beginning with all my heart and soul. I will follow your footsteps and serve you with devotion as your maid-servant. My heart, my property, all my gril friends and Heer herself belong to you. i now pu all my trust in God's fakir.'

Ranjha said to Sehti, 'I have grazed buffaloes for many years for the sake of Heer. Tell her that a grazer of buffaloes is calling her. Bring Heer, the Sial, to me, and then you will obtain your lover Murad.

Sehti takes Ranjha's Message to Heer and Heer meets Ranjha in the garden

Sehti went to Heer and gave the message of the Jogi, saying, 'You got him to tend your buffaloes by deceit and now you have broken your promise and married Saida. By the practise of great austerities, he has obtained the help of the Five Pirs, and he has shown me his power by a miracle. Go to him at once as a submissive subject with a present in your hand, for a new governor has been appointed to rule over us.

So heer took a bath and clothed herself in silk and scented her hair with attar of roses and all manne of sweet scents. She painted her eyes with antimony and rubbed 'watna' and 'dandasa' on her face and lips, and the beauty of them was doubled. She put handfuls of earrings in her ears and anklets on her feet. Jewels shone on her forehead. She was as beautiful as a peacock.

Heer salaamed with folded hands and caught Ranjha's feet, saying 'Embrace me, Ranjha, for the fire of separation is burning me. My heart has been burnt to a cinder. I return your deposit untouched. Since I plighted my troth to you I have embraced no other man. Let us go away together, my beloved, wherever you will. I obey your orders.' And Heer threw herself round his neck. Like mas things they swung together int he intoxication of love. The poison of love ran fire through their blood. 

Heer left Ranjha and consulted Sehti on how she might arrange to meet him again.

Sehti and Heer plan a stratagem

Sehti and Heer consulted together how Heer might leave the Kheras and be united to Ranjha. Sehti went to her mother and spoke about Heer. Heer came before her mother-in-law like Umar the Trickster and wove a cunning web of deceit saying, 'Mother, i am weary of staying indoors. May I go into the fields with Sehti?'

Sehti's mother replied, 'Heer may go and walk about, and may be she will recover her health and strength. But remember Heer, be prudent, and when you leave this house do not do what is unbecoming to a bride. Take God and the Prophet to witness.'

Sehti assembled her girl friends together. To please the bride Heer, she is to be taken into the garden and she will also pick cotton in the fields. So int he morning they all assembled together.

They laughed and sang and played games together, and one of them took a sharp thorn from an acacia bush and pricked Heer's foot. Sehti bit it with her teeth and caused blood to flow, and they pretended like Heer had been biten by a snake. Sehti raised a cry, 'The bride has been biten by a black snake.'

The people of the village when they saw Heer said, 'Search out an enchanter who knows powerful spells.' And the Kheras brought hundreds of fakirs and hakims and enchanters and they gave her cunning drugs. 

Heer's mother-in-law beat her breast and said, 'These cures do no good. Heer is going to die. Heer's fate will soon be accomplished.' Sehti said, 'This snake will not be subdued by ordinary spelss. There is a very cunning Jogi in the Kalabagh garden in whose flute there are thousands of spells.'

So Ajju said to Saida, 'Son, brides are precious things. Go to the fakir and salaam him with folded hands.' When the Jogi heard Saida's voice his heart leapt within him and he suspected that Sehti and Heer had invented some cunning startagem.

Ranjha is called in to cure Heer's snake bite 

Ajju went and stood before the Jogi with folded hands and besought him o come and cure Heer. Nad the Jogi at last consented, and as he went to the house of Ajju a partridge sang on the right for good luck. 

Meanwhile, Sehti took charge of the Jogi and lodged him in the hut belonging tot he village minstrel. He gave orders that bread must be cooked for the holy man. 'No man or woman must come near or cast their shadow on it. A separate place must be prepared and Heer's couch placed on it. Only Sehti may come; only a virgin girl must be allowed to cross the threshold.'

Ranjha went outside the house and made ready to depart, and Sehti came to him and salaamed to him saying, 'For the love of god, take my poor boat ashore. I have set all plans of the Kheras at naught and tarnished the reputation of the whole family. For the sake of your love, I have given Heer into your hand. Now give me my lover Murad. This is the only request I make of you.' 

And Ranjha lifted his hands and prayed to god, 'O godrestore this jatti's lover to her.' So god showed his kindness and Murad, her lover stood before her. So Murad took Sehti on his camel and Ranjha took Heer. Thus the bridegrooms set forth with their brides.

The discovery of Heer's escape with Ranjha

The next morning the ploughmen yoked their oxen and went forth to plough, and so, the house of the sick bride was empty. They looked inside ans outside and they woke up the watchman who was asleep near the door. There was a great stir in the town and everybody said, 'Those wicked girls Heer and Sehti have brought great disgrace on the whole village. They have cut off our nose and we shall be defamed through the whole world.'

So the Kheras drew up their armies on hearing the news. Now the armies of the Kheras succeeded in overtaking Murad, ut the Balooches drew up their forces and drove back the Kheras.

Destiny overwhelmed both the lovers. For the Kheras came in pursuit and found Ranjha asleep, his head resting on Heer. They took Heer away and beat Ranjha unmercifully with whips until body was swollen.

Heer advised Ranjha to seek for justice from Raja Adali. So Ranjha cried out aloud, and the Raja heard it and said, 'What is this noise?'

Ranjha and Heer before the Raja

Ranjha came before the raja and his body was sore with the blows of the Kheras' whips and he said, 'May you and your kingdom live long. I have been beaten in your kingdom and have commited no fault.'

So the Raja issued orders to his armies and they overtook the Kheras and brought them before the Darbar of the Raja.

The Raja was angry with the Kheras and said, 'You have committed a great sin in troubling this holy fakir. I will cut your nose and ears off and hang you all, if the Qazi says you are liars.

So they came before the Qazi, and the Qazi said, 'Let each side make a statement on aoth and I will administer the justice of Umer Khattab.' So the Kheras spoke.

Then the Qazi turned to Ranjha and said, 'Fakir, have you got any witnesses? Without witnesses to the marriage she can be no wife.' Ranjha replied, 'Listen to my words, you who know the law and the principles of religion. On the day our souls said yes, I was betrothed to Heer. In the Tablet of Destiny, God has written the union of our souls. What need have we of earthly love when our souls have attained the Divine Love?'

The Qazi was angered and snatched heer from Ranjha and gave her to the Kheras saying, 'This fakir is a swindler and a pious fraud.'

Heer sighed with grief and said, 'O God, see how we are consumed as with fire. Fire is before us and snakes and tigers behind us and our power is of no avail. O Master, either unite me with Ranjha or slay both of us. The people of this country have exercised tyranny against us.

Thus did Heer invoke curses on the city. And Ranjha lifted up his hands likewise and invoked curdses on the city. 

See the power of God. Owing to the sighs of the lovers, the city caught fire. Fire broke out in all four quarters of the city. It destroyed houses both small and great. 

The astrologers cast their lots and said to the raja, 'The pens of your officials are free from sin. But God has listened to the sighs of lovers. Hence this misfortune has overwhelmed us. Fire has descended from the city. If you will call up and conciliate the lovers, perhaps god will forgive all those who have sinned.'

So the raja sent out his soldiers, and they caught the Kheras and brought them into his presence. And the Raja took Heer fromt he Kheras saying, 'I will hang you all. Heer the Jatti belongs to Ranjha. Why do you oppress strangers?'

So Ranjha and Heer stood before the Raja, and he said to them, 'God's curses on those who tell lies. I will kill those who oppress the poor. I will cut off the nose of those who take brides. You may go to your rightful husband.

*** The poisoning of Heer and the Death of Ranjha***

Thus God showed his mercy and the Raja caused the two lovers to meet again. And Ranjha called down blessings on the Raja saying, 'God be praised and may weal and wealth come toy our kingdom. May all troubles flee away and may you rule over horses, camels, elephants, batteries, Hundustan and Sind.' So Ranjha set off towards his home taking Heer with him. 

Now the shepherds were grazing their buffaloes in the jungle and they espied Heer and Ranjha and when they drew close, they recognised them. They went and told the Sials, 'Behold the shepherd has brought the girl Heer back. He has shaved the beard of the Kheras without water.'

The Sials said, Do not let them go away. Bring Heer to her aunts and tell Ranjha to bring a marriage precession in order to wed Heer.' And they brought Heer and Ranjha to the Sials.

The the brotherhood brought Heer and Ranjha to their home and laid a rich couch for them to sit on and all the family was happy. They took the Jogi's rings out of his ears. They shaved him and out a rich turban on his head, they gave him a silk shirt and sat him on the throne. They ensnared the heart of Ranjha with their cunning, for they were communing in their heart how they might kill Heer. Kaidu was forever plotting evil against them. Thus they became responsible for the murder and they themselves caused the blot on their own fame.

Meanwhile, Ranjha at the suggestion of the Sials had gone to his home, and he told his brethren to prepare a marriage procession so that he might go and marry Heer. Many baskets of fruit and sweets were put on the heads of the barbers. They prepared bands of minstrels and fireworks, and Ranjha's brothers' wives danced with happiness and sang songs.

Ah, put not your trust in life. Man is even as a goat in the hands of butchers.
Meanwhile, somebody whispered into Heer's ears that her parents were gonna send her back tot he Kheras and that they had already sent a message to have her fetched away. Nad Kaidu chided Heer saying, 'If the Kheras come there will be trouble, many quarrels and much disturbance. The witnesses of the marriage will come and they will confound your made-up tales.'

Kaidu and he Sials held counsel together, and Kaidu said, 'brethren of the Sials, such things have never befoer been said of our tribe as will be said now. For men will say, 'Go and look at the faithfulness of these Sials. They marry their daughters to one man and then contemplate giving her in marriage to another.'

And the brethren made the answer, 'Brother, you are right. Our honour and your honour are one. All over the world we are taunted with the story of Heer. We shall lose fame and gain great disgrace if we send the girl off with the shepherd. Let us poison Heer, even if we become sinful in the sight of god. Does not Heer always remain sickly and poor in health?'

So Kaidu in his evil cunning came and sat down beside Heer and said, 'My daughter, you must be brave and patient.' Heer replied, 'Uncle, what need have I of patience?' And Kaidu replied, 'Ranjha has been killed. Death with a glittering sword has overtaken him.'

And hearing Kaidu's words Heer sighed deeply and fainted away. And the Sials gave her sherbet and mixed poison with it and thus brought ruin and disgrace on their name. The parents of Heer killed her. This was the doing of god. When the fever of death was upon her, she cried out for Ranjha saying, 'Bring Ranjha here that I may see him once again.' And kaidu said, 'Ranjha has been killed, keep quiet or it will go ill with you.'

So Heer breathed her last crying words, 'Ranjha, Ranjha.'

They buried her and sent a message to Ranjha saying, 'The hour of destiny has arrived. We had hoped otherwise but no one can escape the destiny of death. Even as it is written in the Holy Quran, 'Everything is mortal save only God.'

They sent a messenger with the letter and he left Jhang and arrived at Hazara, and he entered the house of Ranjha and wept as he handed the letter. Ranjha asked him, 'Why this dejected air? Why are you sobbing? Is my beloved ill? Is my property safe?'

The messenger sighed and said, 'That dacoit death from whom no one can escape has looted your property. Heer has been dead for the last eight watches. They bathed her body and buried her yesterday and as soon as they began the last funeral rites, they sent me to give you the news.'

On hearing these words Ranjha heaved a sigh and the breath of life forsook him.

Thus both lovers passed away from this mortal world and entered into the halls of eternity. Both remained firm in love and passed away steadfast in true love. Death comes to all.

The world is but a play and fields and forests all will melt away in the final day of dissolution. Only the poet's poetry remains in everlasting remembrance. for no one has written such a beautiful *Heer*.
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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Sohni Mahiwal

Sohni was the daughter of a potter named Tula, who lived in Punjab near the banks of the Chenab River. As soon as the Surahis (water pitchers) and mugs came off the wheels, she would draw floral designs on them and transform them into masterpieces of art.

Izzat Biag, the rich trader form Balakh Bukhara, came to South-Asia on business but when he saw the beautiful Sohni he was completely enchanted. Instead of keeping mohars (gold coins) in his pockets, he roamed around with his pockets full of love. Just to get a glimpse of Sohni he would end up buying the water pitchers and mugs everyday.

Sohni lost her heart to Izzat Baig. Instead of making floral designs on earthenware she started building castles of love in her dreams. Izzat Baig sent off his companions to Balakh Bukhara. He took the job of a servant in the house of Tula, the potter. He would even take their buffaloes for grazing. Soon he was known as Mahiwal (potter).

When the people started spreading rumors about the love of Sohni and Mahiwal, without her consent her parents arranged her marriage with another potter.

Suddenly, one day his barat (marriage party) arrived at the threshold of her house. Sohni was helpless and in a poignant state. Her parents bundled her off in the doli (palanquin), but they could not pack off her love in any doli (box).
Izzat Baig renounced the world and started living like a fakir (hermit) in a small hut across the river. The earth of Sohni’s land was like a dargah (shrine) for him. He had forgotten his own land, his own people and his world. Taking refuge in the darkness of the night when the world was fast asleep Sohni would come by the riverside and Izzat Baig would swim across the river to meet her. He would regularly roast a fish and bring it for her. It is said that once due to high tide he could not catch a fish, so he cut a piece of his thigh and roasted it. Seeing the bandage on his thigh, Sohni opened it, saw the wound and cried.

From the next day Sohni started swimming across the river with the help of an earthen pitcher as Izzat Baig was so badly wounded, he could not swim across the river. Soon spread the rumors of their romantic rendezvous. One-day Sohni’s sister-in-law followed her and saw the hiding place where Sohni used to keep her earthen pitcher among the bushes. The next day her sister-in-law removed the hard baked pitcher and replaced it with an unbaked one. At night when Sohni tried to cross the river with the help of the pitcher, it dissolved in the water and Sohni was drowned. From the other side of the river Mahiwal saw Sohni drowning and jumped into the river.

This was Sohni’s courage, which every woman of Punjab has recognized, and is applauded in songs: “Sohni was drowned, but her soul still swims in water…”

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Mirza Sahibaan

Mirza Jatt was a Muslim and a great archer. Sahibaan was the youngest daughter of Mahni. Mirza and Sahibaan who were cousins and childhood playmates, who fell in love with each other. Sahibaan was betrothed forcibly to Tahar Khan by her parents, and without any hesitation she sent a taunting message to Mirza, to his village Danabad, through a Brahmin called Kammu.

This is the time you have to protect your self respect and love, keep your promises, and sacrifice your life for truth. Mirza who was a young full-blooded man, came to Sahibaan and eloped with her towards the Danahbad. But on the way, Mirza stopped under the shade of a tree to rest for a few moments. When Sahibaan's brothers heard about Mirza they hurried to find them and take back their sister. They caught upto Mirza and Sahibaan at this tree.

Sahibaan was a virtuous and a beautiful soul who did not desire any bloodshed to mar the one she loved. She did not want her hands drenched in blood instead of henna. When Sahibaan saw her brothers coming for her she realised they would kill Mirza, but as Mirza was a great acher and marksman, he could also kill her brothers. Being caught between the lines and confused she took the side of her brothers by breaking Mirza's bow and arrows so he couldn't harm them. She presumed on seeing her, her brothers would feel sorry for her and forgive Mirza and take him in their arms. But the brothers attacked Mirza and killed him. Upon seeiong this, Sahibaan took a sword and slaughtered herself and thus bid farewell to this world.

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

there were no brahmins in Pakistan.

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Adam Khan & Dur Khanai

In the country of Swat, there were several villages, which were more beautiful than any others. One was known as Upper Bazdara and the other was called Lower Bazdara. To be brief, they were like gardens of paradise in which every flower was a beauty mark on a sweetheart's brow.

In Lower Bazdara there was a Pathan whose blood coursed constantly with manly valor always active day and night. The name by which he was renowned was Hasan Khan and he was glorious with his head crowned by honor. God gave him the kind of son who was outstanding among the world's beloveds. His parents named him Adam Khan and the light from his face was like stars in the sky. He had a friend, a comrade whose name was Miru, and the name of another friend, Balu, was known everywhere. They walked all over arm in arm and he was a pearl in its shell with them around him. Their houses were all in Lower Bazdara and the hearts of suitors looking at them would be shattered.

The house of Bibi Dur Khanai was in Upper Bazdara and it was famed in all directions for its elegance. It belonged to the fine gentleman in Upper Bazdara who was known by the name, Ta'us Khan. He had no boys, not a son in his house, and he was in sorrow's fetters, suffering for a son. He did have this perfectly beautiful daughter who was the image of a houri in Paradise. Her parents had named her Dur Khanai and she was much esteemed in that land.

Her father said, "My daughter, that's very nice, and what you say all seems admirable to me. But it wouldn't be a proper situation for you, sitting for the mulla with a burqa on your head. Lesson time for you is over, so sit inside in purdah and don't go wandering around!"

To be brief, friend, every day Dur Khanai expressed this longing to her father in the same way. The result was that she made her father agree by that means and he said, "All right, fine girl, take your lessons!" So the mulla came to her every day and Dur Khanai said her lessons to him. She was always accompanied by her good-natured old maidservant whose name was Gulunai. Dur Khanai was always saying her lessons and God imparted every kind of knowledge to her.

[In those days] there was a man named Payu Khan who was known to everyone by that very name. "Son, my cherished child," said his honored father, "tell me a little of your heart's secret." [He replied,] "My heart longs to be betrothed to Dur Khanai, so do that to make my heart a flourishing flower garden."

The narrative came thus from the narrator, and I saw this romance in a book. Dur Khanai had an aunt in Upper Bazdara who lived there in her own house. She had a daughter [ready to be married] whose name was Baskai and every one knew songs of her beauty. [The aunt decided,] "Dur Khanai should come to Baskai's wedding, for some girls will be coming from the groom's side and some from Baskai's." Baskai's mother set off by herself like a nightingale going on its way to Paradise. She made this speech before Dur Khanai's father, explaining politely and respectfully, "Baskai's wedding is arranged for today or tomorrow, and since Dur Khanai would enjoy being there, may I take her?"

Dur Khanai's father turned his face from Baskai's mother and he politely put the matter this way. "Since we've become responsible to other people for Dur Khanai, we are not now free in regard to her. She's been betrothed to Payu and if she leaves the house now, it would be very bad." [But] in short, Dur Khanai and also her nurse, Gulunai, both went off in burqas with the aunt. When they all entered Bazdara, [after greeting] Baskai, they all embraced each other. [There at the wedding] every man was gripped by love for Dur Khanai and truly, they'd have given up life and wealth for her.

It is said that at that time there was a saint named Pir Salih ] who'd be counted as among the best of saints. When that faqir learned of his situation, he got extremely sad and depressed. [His nephew] Ikram Khan said, "Uncle dear, why do you grieve and what makes you sit heartsick, lost in thought?"

When the nephew learned the reason, he made this speech to Pir Salih. Now listen so you'll understand it, a for it's a pearl in the hands of meaning. "* He is known by the name Adam Khan and people say his father's name is Hasan Khan."

Ikram Khan set off from home with his uncle's permission and when he arrived at the house of Adam Khan, Adam Khan gave him a pir's welcome and said, "May God bless this meeting with a fakir. I'm standing here eager to serve you and may the Lord grant all that you ask." [Ikram Khan said,] "In fact, I'm just sent by my dear uncle who's sitting back there secluded on a bed of sorrows."

Adam Khan said, "I am only a servant at your gate and I always wait with hands out to greet you." His friends, Miru and Balu, also were with him and they fixed themselves up with weapons at that time too. They quickly set up a target on the maidan [for fortune telling] and Adam Khan said, "Each man should shoot at the target!" Adam Khan was nervous and said, God, save me from catastrophe!" Adam Khan wept a deep sigh from his chest and right then his arrow hit the target.

Adam Khan together with friends of his own age set off to visit the faqir. Pir Salih raised his hands in prayer and he offered a prayer for Adam, "May courage from prayers accompany him!" and he said,"Go, may God anoint you with a dream fulfilled!"

[Adam Khan sings at the wedding.] "Show me the white cheeks of the new moon's face and we'll be happy for years like two titmice." Thus Adam sang fine badalas and Dur Khanai was listening inside in a corner. [She said,] "A sweet voice comes to my ear in such a way that my soul goes in the air with excitement. The rebab's gentle voice joins with it too and my grief- stricken heart is happy. He plays each string of the rebab in such a way that the living would die entombed by his song."

The nurse said, "0 my darling, I've raised you like my heart's daughter. That [singer] is a Pathan named Adam Khan and the crowds are in an uproar over him everywhere. If you want to see him, get up quickly, and put ointment on your heart yourself!"

At the nurse's speech, Dur Khanai went quickly and at the wall she revealed her slender neck. She revealed for a moment her brow's beauty spot and she slew the whole gathering without a sword. Dur Khanai's gaze fell on Adam Khan and sense and reason left her body. Instantly she fell face down on a bed like a date palm falls down in a typhoon. She said, "Mother nurse, I was unprepared today, my mouth was open today to breathe my last breath too early."

When Dur Khanai's aunt heard her words, she sat by her, devastated. She said, "My niece, what's come over you that you're burning from head to toe, suffering over someone? Which country's prince has ravaged your house and who's consigned your sweet body to sorrow?" [She replied,] "My soul is leaving, aunt, for God's sake, silence! Don't give advice to me twice. Adam Khan's taken my heart from me, I've lost my heart to Adam Khan!"

So Baskai was married, people dispersed from there, and a commotion arose over the love of Adam Khan and Dur Khanai. One man went in a hurry to Hasan Khan and he said, "Khan, come, hear this tale! Adam Khan is madly in love with Dur Khanai and, as you may realize, this will cause great mischief. If Payu learns about this matter, your life will be in danger, believe me!"

When Hasan Khan learned that news, all sense and reason instantly left his heart. He quickly sent a messenger to Adam Khan, "Come, and sit quietly at home!" Adam Khan sped off with no delay and with him were Miru, Balu, Shamshad, and his father. Dur Khanai had gone off like a houri, and she was filled with a beauty like Joseph's.

When day passed, then night's turn came, and night's darkness spread far and wide. Adam Khan said to Miru, "My friend, I can't rest after seeing my beloved. I'm breathing my last breath, I'm in agony, for the beautiful vision of my sweetheart is in my heart." They both discussed strategies together and their hearts were desolate with sorrow.

Leaving Balu in that place, they set off as they went in search of Dur Khanai, his shining moon. Miru said to Adam Khan, "My noble sir, sit here, don't leave this place. I'll go first and find out the situation for you and then I'll give your name there on this matter. Though I would die, I'm your devoted friend to the death and I should be counted in the circle of your servants."

To be brief, Miru set off in the direction [of Dur Khanai's house] and he entered her house politely. [With the way cleared,] Adam Khan set off toward his beloved and the stars in the sky were watchmen for his good luck.

When daylight made the sky's edge red, Miru called out to Adam Khan. Miru cried, "Adam Khan, the time is short! Be alert, I'm telling you! Come on, leave this meeting! That's enough now, or the watchman will tell folks about you."

Adam Khan left Dur Khanai and he was filled with trembling like an autumn leaf. The three, Balu and Miru together with Adam, all departed, weeping in sorrow as they took leave.

When Dur Khanai's eyes saw the ring, her body was instantly a burning brand. Poor Dur Khanai came to life at that sign and she began to sparkle, freed of her agony.

The mosque's imam calls for prayers for gain and Dur Khanai quickly raised her head to gain. On some pretext, she left her home and she went to her nurse's dwelling, my fine friend! She said, "Oh mother, I'm sad and depressed, and some time has passed since you've come to ask about this poor girl. You raised me like a pet mynah and you've rid me of grief in days past. I'd sacrifice life and wealth for my beloved if it were possible but the way I'm being cheated of him, it seems pointless. Something has happened to me, mother nurse, and I have no one but you to sympathize! [Go!] Tell him, 'She's mad with grief over you and she's forever fleeing from the house, just going wild.' Have him ask about my situation some time, for my last breath is going from my throat!"

When the nurse heard Dur Khanai's condition, she too was turned inside out with grief. She quickly sent a man to Adam Khan, telling him, "Go again to that beautiful house! Give Dur Khanai's greetings respect-fully to Adam Khan and after the greetings, give him her statement, and say to him, 'Leader of all the world, may God keep you constantly from sorrow's burden.'"

Seeing the light, that man set off and in Bazdara he went bustling up to Adam Khan. "It's my duty to tell you about all the sorrows visiting that miserable girl. If you don't ask about that poor girl, you'll soon hear that she's been buried."

He said, "Messenger, get up, go back, and may the sweepers use my eyelashes at my beloved's door! [Take her this necklace and say, ] 'Here is a sign sent by that wretch burdened down with grief in his love for you.' "

One day it happened that Payu got ready and he set out with friends, intending to hunt. He said, "Come on, friends, let's go hunting and then on the tenth day, we'll return to our town."

When Dur Khanai learned that Payu had left, her heart went again toward her beloved. She said to Gulunai, "Be quick, go to my lover and say, 'Come quickly to the fine bazaar of beauty! The gardener's left the garden, the garden is empty and the black crow stands back in grief for it.' "

Gulunai goes off by way of the garden and her pace is very stately, lest anyone be looking. [She says to Adam Khan,] "Bibi Dur Khanai invite's you to come quickly, so get up, Dur Khanai's expecting you. Payu's gone hunting, get there quickly, reunion's cup awaits your hands." When Adam Khan learned that news, he gave many pearls to Gulunai. Miru was one, Balu was the second, and Adam Khan was the third who hurried off to Dur Khanai.

[Learning of the marriage, Adam Khan runs off to the wilderness and then returns to his father's house.] Putting both hands on his forehead respectfully, he gave a deep bow to his father, the khan. He said, "Father, kind sir, hear my humble words, hear how today's tidings have put great sorrow on me! Dur Khanai holds my heart in her hand, and so I sat disheartened in the forest."

There was a man known as Mirma'i and he was like a beautiful moon in wealth and holiness. Hasan Khan went to his house for nanawati, going personally to great lengths against Payu. [Abasing himself] Hasan Khan said to him, "Great friend, I regard even the maidservants at your door as fine ladies! When Payu took Dur Khanai to his house, he put a fire of sorrow on Adam Khan. Give me help for God's sake, I've come for nanawati, heal my heart! Get up and tie honor's sword at your waist. Don't drive me away in anger, speak to me nicely!" Mirma'i said, "Everyone should take care of whatever friends he has in such a situation."

Adam Khan and Hasan Khan, Miru and Balu too, and all the relatives and elders gathered together. Mirma'i also had all his relatives along and his son, Gujar Khan, was in it with them. When all those people were assembled at [Payu's house in] Bazdara, people were amazed at the rows of riders. Adam Khan had sent a man earlier to tell his beloved that he was on his way. Adam Khan mounted Dur Khanai behind himself and he quickly took her clear away. Adam Khan took Dur Khanai away rapidly and then they went in nanawati to the house of Mirma'i. Dur Khanai stayed in Mirma'i's house while Payu's house turned ashen without the light of her beauty.

The words written in the book [that I read] are quite correct regarding Dur Khanai's slay at the house of Mirma'i. After some lime, Payu spoke in this way with Mirma'i, talking of an agreement with him, "I will give you great wealth beyond counting, for my heart's breath is staying in your house. Dur Khanai has been the apple of my eye since long ago and I'll die from the taunts about this affair. I'll give you uncountable wealth and money if you'll give me back Dur Khanai, for God's sake!" [Betraying his trust, Mirma'i accepts the bribe and gives Dur Khanai back to Payu.]

Dur Khanai's heart had by then become one with Adam Khan's and the villain, Mirma'i, acted wrongly toward them. Adam Khan and Dur Khanai kept beating their foreheads with sorrow and both of them had eyes constantly brimming with tears. Adam Khan said to Gujar Khan, "Friend, your father acted quite despicably toward me. I had brought my beloved to his house and he behaved without any sense of shame at all."

When Gujar Khan heard that kind of statement, he turned pale and held back his fears. Gujar Khan instantly gathered together each one of his relatives and he stated his contempt [for his father] to them all, "Since my father has acted extremely dishonorably, there's a stain on us until the Resurrection." Gujar's supporters came with weapons slung over their shoulders as side by side, they went after Payu, "Since we are acting for honor against Payu's relatives, we'll fight on a clean field with Gujar Khan!"

[After an unsuccessful fight to retrieve Dur Khanai] the wounded all lay everywhere, Payu had won victory, and Gujar Khan was defeated. Balu was also wounded in this, he finally died, and Adam Khan was tarnished with grief over him. [Roaming about deranged by Balu's death and the loss of Dur Khanai] Adam Khan wandered on the plains of separation and like the legendary Farhad; he was out of his mind.

Now they say that there was then a group of yogis whose proper country, it seems, was in Hindustan. They had come here for their own amusement and they wandered around to guesthouses quite secretly. Those yogis saw Adam Khan when worries were raining on him day and night. The yogis inquired of someone, "Why is that man shouting and making such a noise?"

Miru said to them, "He had a friend whom he needed constantly at his side. His friend whose courage was admired by everyone gave his life bravely in service to him. And in Bazdara there was a fairy-faced girl who was like the sun among all beloveds. The poor man is so deeply in love with her that he got down from his throne to become a beggar. That peri was named Dur Khanai and she's made his throat choke up with grief. His name's well known, it's Adam Khan, and in truth he is a lion of Pathans."

When the yogis learned these matters, they immediately started talking to Miru this way. "We'll have him meet with Dur Khanai and we'll make the rest of this business our responsibility." They quickly threw ochre robes on Adam Khan and they made him a malang like themselves. They did that to both Adam Khan and Miru and then they took the two of them along.

When the group entered Bazdara, they sat in the guesthouse of Payu Khan. They put on such a show for him that men and women too stood all around them. Payu said to the yogis, "This house is yours and a feast has been fixed for you here." [Dur Khanai comes to watch and] when Adam Khan's eyes looked around, he raised them to that sun of beauty. Dur Khanai was standing there for him as before, with her black eyes, slender lips, and long neck. The yogis went out of there to a garden and they were seeking some signals from the lady.

Now when Payu Khan would go somewhere out of ' the house, my brother, the house would be empty for Dur Khanai. Dur Khanai would rush out to the garden and she'd sit in the shade beside the wall. One day Dur Khanai had been waiting for Adam Khan and suddenly Payu came peering down on her. Payu had been suspicious of the yogis and he instantly took precautions of his own. Payu drove away the yogis, the maidan was emptied, and Dur Khanai's sorrow returned to what it was before.

The yogis set off, going toward their homeland, and Adam Khan and Miru then went to their own homes. Dur Khanai went crazy from her great grief, and her hair was tangled, her clothing in tatters, and her eyes full of tears. To be brief, being separated was like being put in an oven, and Adam Khan and Dur Khanai were in great agony.

Adam Khan's father, Hasan Khan, was in mourning because his son was set on fire by love. One day Hasan Khan called Miru to him and he said, "Listen to what I say! Adam Khan ought to have a wife somewhere and thus he may kill the fire of grief with the water of patience. They say that in one village there's a certain girl who's as slender as an Iranian sword. This flower bud is named Gulnaz and she'd suit this nightingale of ours. You should show her to him however you can, and you might look at her with your own eyes too."

When Miru was told those matters, he went and stood before Adam Khan, "0 prince, let's go somewhere and travel from village to village for otherwise we'll just sit here grief-stricken." When they entered the village of Bibi Gulnaz, they wandered in the lanes all through the village. Miru said, "There is a house here with a girl in her fine youth who's like a houri of paradise. She's known by the name Gulnaz and she's admired among all beauties. It would be good now for us both to see her and maybe you'll like that girl with the elegant neck." Adam Khan said, "Good, let's go, friend, we'll walk as far as her street."

When their call for alms came to Gulnaz's ears, she immediately rushed toward the street. She herself filled their skirts with alms and she said, "Take this, fakirs, and go in some other direction." [Miru said,] "I am Miru, this other one is Adam Khan, and this poor man's come here himself to see you. For God's sake, give him orders from your lips and refresh his eyes dried up by separation. Being denied his lover's curls consumes him and so he has come to you weeping."

When Bibi Gulnaz learned of this situation, she was overjoyed in 'her heart, "Dur Khanai's lover needs me! I'll be the fashion among lovers in this world!" Then Gulnaz said to him, "Leave this place and don't sit alone any more. There's an old woman in a certain house and she's become an expert in the book of love." [And Gulnaz says she will meet him there.]

When Adam Khan learned these things, he set off with Miru right away. They both stayed in the old woman's house and thanks to her, his anguish went away and he was happy. [Gulnaz arrives at the door.] A lovely fragrance wafted from her clothes and her beauty was of the highest order. The old woman took the beautiful Gulnaz inside [to Adam Khan] and it was like nightingales coming to the same place in a meadow.

Now when Bibi Gulnaz went inside, she became at once the confidante of Adam Khan. They laughed and joked all night long and it would make any listener's mouth water. [But her spell wears off and Adam Khan thinks of Dur Khanai] Then Gulnaz got up and went home, for she couldn't cope with the cries of the grieving man.

Adam Khan started on the road for home and his eyes overflowed with cascades of blood tears. He took to his bed, ill with fever, and his tongue called for his darling constantly, "Tell her how ill I am, wake her, get her up from the sleep of ignorance! If only she'd come, I'm about to breathe my last! My soul's just is waiting for the sight of her." Still pleading, he gave up his soul for his beloved and Azrael took him to the sky.

Freed of grief, he fell peacefully into death's embrace and all the world learned of his death. One woman sped to Dur Khanai's side and she said, "Dur Khanai, see Adam's honor! That famous man perished for love of you and he'll be renowned for his faithfulness until the Resurrection." People were saying, "Adam Khan has died today and he crumbled away with grief over Dur Khanai."

When Dur Khanai learned of this rumor, she instantly fell face down on her bed. [To the maid who told her] Dur Khanai said, "May you be childless, for you've made me drunk with this grief." Putting a hand on her breast, she breathed her last. Lifeless at that moment, she gave up her soul.

A hue and cry arose immediately at Dur Khanai's death and Payu too learned the news from those cries and shouts. Some people say that when Dur Khanai learned of Adam's death, she fell on the bed and started to scream. [She cried,] "Lord, make me Adam Khan's companion, don't burn me alive in red fire any more!"

Listen to this! Adam Khan was buried there and this is how they found solace together in one place. Dur Khanai was buried near the same place as Adam Khan and behold how she was loved by her lord! People had made the grave and when opening up the niche, they saw Adam Khan was in it, soiled with earth. Dur Khanai was lying there with him in an embrace and all the people were completely amazed at this. [The two were reburied separately.] To test this, they again tore open the graves and Adam Khan's arms again held Dur Khanai. This time they both were left in the earth of the grave and they'll be lying in each other's arms until the Resurrection.*

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

:) Very good collection PP! Anything relevant?

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Depends on what you mean by "relevant"? ;).

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

Is sab ko kaun gadha parhay ga? Promiscous Paki don't you have anything else to do other than spend life on boring, half-ar*ed GupShup?

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

i thought they would be text messages for mobiles etc :blush:

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

It would be an interesting read I'm sure. Appreciate your effort. may I ask where did you get it from? From some website or literature?

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Re: Pakistani Romantics: For Valentines Day

good effort though :)