Stories behind folk songs

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
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Who was Preeto?

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I think its just an imaginary character. Looks like Uncle Google will remain quite busy today.

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BTW Jugni is a folk character of Potohar region like Sassi, Heer, etc

Rawal Jugni - A Folk Tale of Potohar - Dramatized on PTV Award …](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARunE8-VKk0)

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Re: Stories behind folk songs

Jugni

Jugni, a popular Punjabi folk song sung for the last so many years again got fame and popularity after Arif Lohar, the son of late folk artist Aalam Lohar, presented it with modern composition. The other day Arif Lohar was questioned by a Karachi TV compere who first sang or who was the creator of this genre of folk song? Arif or for that matter most of our singers hardly know the history of music, particularly the branch of folksongs.
Who originally sang song of Sammi? Nobody knows that. Same was the case of Jugni. Arif has heard it from his father and being an actor-singer of lok-theatre he also popularized it, therefore Arif was right when he said Jugni was originally composed and sung by his father Aalam Lohar. Arif is good and unassuming artist but we should not expect from him that he would go through the history of Punjabi folk poetry on which some substantive research work has been done in East Punjab.
Incidentally, it were the non-Muslim writers and scholars who mainly worked in this field and most of their work has been published in English and Punjabi in Gurmukhi script.
Deviande Satiarthhi and Ram Saran Das were two big names in this field. Ram Saran Das’s Punjabi Lok Geet in Persian script was published from Lahore in early forties. He was a lawyer by profession who was the resident of Krishan Nagar. We should not expect from Arif that he has studied literature on folk songs. He saw that his father was a very successful in Jugni, which he very innocently dedicated to his father.
Punjabi scholar Snawar Chadharr has contributed a research paper to Lahore weekly, Humshehri, in which he politely says that Jugni is also an old form, yet in our times Aalam was master of that. But the recent research shows that Jugni was also in the early 20th century and then in the second decade when Jallianwala tragedy was enacted by the British and the first time in the history of the subcontinent the civilian population of Punjab was made the target of strafing from air. Following are the Jugni lines recorded by the late Saleem Khan Gimmi:
Here the refrain-line does not include Allah Bismillah Meri Jugni. Here it is Bhai Meria Jugni Uoo… Sher Meria Jugni Uoo. Aalam Lohar’s Jugni always had Allah Bismillah Meri Jugni.
Chadharr refers to another scholar Karam Jeet Singh Oajala whose research appeared in daily “Punjabi Tribune”, East Punjab, bearing date of Sept 24, 2005. Oajala with reference to the octogenarian persons says that they had heard Jugni in the first decade of the last century when the Golden Jubilee of the Queen was celebrated throughout India.
There were two singer-poets Mahnda of Hasanpur in Amritsar district and his partner Bishna also from Majha area. They were folk singers and on the Jubilee they staged their show wherever in Punjab the Jubilee Torch travelled. They made the Jubilee a character through which they had showered praises on the British Queen and her rule.
How the word Jubilee was changed with Jugni. According to Oajala, Mahnda and Bishnu turned against the British rule and now they criticized through their Jubilee giving it a new name of Jugni… Jubilee…and Jugni. The following lines have been attributed to Mahnda and Bishnu who were hauled up at Gujranwala when Jallianwala uprising flared up. It is said that both artists were killed by the police. This story needs to be substantiated by further research.
The late Afzal Parvez was perhaps a senior contemporary of Aalam Lohar. Writer and singer Afzal Parvez started his journey in the footsteps of Davinder Satiarthi and collected folk songs and scripts of lok theatre dramas (also published in a book form) in early 50s.
He contributed his field research to the now defunct daily Imroze. It was almost totally original attempt and very soon a book was prepared which unfortunately published much later in early 70s with title Bann Phulwari and with the introduction by the late Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
This was certainly an exhaustive study mainly related to Upper Sindh-Sagar Doab..Rawalpindi, Hazara and Azad Kashmir areas. In his opinion, Jugni was perhaps a character from folk story perhaps heroine of Jugni-Rawal… the later to whom name of Rawalpindi is associated. That proves that Jugni is also an old popular name of a folksong which provides a base for all those who have talent to compose more lines and add to that. Afzal Parvez’s Jugni is sarcastic and it does not have the words Allah Bismillah.
(The dialect is Potohari plus Pahari and two words of same meanings..my..maharra and maindha, the former is used on the southern side of the GT Road near Rawalpindi and the latter on the northern side of the Road.

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They do have many, one of which is Aalha, it is story of prithivaraj chauhan and commander Aalha of Mahoba, other being Ramcharitmanas and sursaagar :slight_smile:

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I think Sassi Punnoo is a Sindhi Character.

Heer Ranjha and Mirza Sahiban are all based in Jhang. What kind of history Jhang has and now it is associated with LEJ/ASWJ etc.

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Sassi is from Bhanbhor (Sindh), Punhoo is from kaich Makraan (Balochistan). Their graves are in Lasbella Balochistan.

Jhang was dominated by Sufis like Waris Shah and now its all fake thekedars of religion

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Re: Stories behind folk songs

An interesting thing is that Sassi Punnoo has been recited in Punjab quite often, and same is the case with Sohni Mahiwal which is part of Shah Abdul Lateef’s Shah jo Risalu.

Sohni Mahiwal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The story also appears in Shah Jo Risalo and forms part of seven popular tragic romances from Sindh, The other six tales are Umar Marui, Sassui Punhun, Lilan Chanesar, Noori Jam Tamachi, Sorath Rai Diyach and Momal Ranocommonly known as Seven heroines (Sindhi: ست سورميون ) of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

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Interesting. I only knew about Prithvi.

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Sohni Mehwal’s graves are reported to be in Shahdad Kot (Sindh), which is far away from Chenab. Shah Lateef’s depiction suggests that the river in the story was Indus and not Chenab

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Ok, waisay tou saray darya Indus main hi aatay hain aakhir kaar :p

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But Shahdadkot is far away from Jhang / Gujraat and the dead bodies of Sohni / Mehwal would not have traveled safely in the presence of crocodiles in river Indus :p

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No crocodiles in River Indus, all are in mangopir :p

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River Indus did have crocodiles during the era of folk tales. They became extinct or traveled to Haleji lake (Thatta). The river still have Dolphins at Sukkur

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It was Prithivi who humiliated King of Mahoba and ran away with her love interest Princess Sanyogita of kannauj, and to defeat Prithvi in battle, King of Mahoba assigned Commander Aalha and his brother Udal :), they sing this in ballad form, KKF allahabad waale can tell better :)

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^ interesting @dolphins.

So what is the story of Sohni Mahiwal according to Shah Abdul Lateef?

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Stories behind folk songs

Have you guys heard this song 'peera'n ho peera'n '

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Its same version as popular in Punjab. Same Kacha ghaRa and jealous sister-in-law. life1 story :hehe:

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yes heard it. Its haunted

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My brother used to sing it when he was a kid. :)