Rediscover Bhanbhore’s most famous love story

Sassui and Pannu might be famous but the city’s museum has no trace of them

BHANBHORE: Sassui, the virgin bride of Pannu, has been largely neglected at the Bhanbhore archaeological site and museum. Not many people here show interest in talking about this famous folk legend, save for one man, Khamiso, an office assistant at the museum.

Who was she, where did she come from and what actually happened to her? The tale of Sassui unfolds right here.

"She was a girl born in Bhutto Wahan village in Dera Ghazi Khan to a Hindu couple," narrated Khamiso. "At the time of her birth, her parents met a fortune-teller who informed them that she will one day marry a Muslim prince. After hearing this prediction, Sassui's parents placed her in a wooden box and placed her in a [river] in Deri Ghazi Khan. The box then travelled towards Bhanbhore."

According to him, the wooden box travelled in the Indus Delta and ended up near the boat of a man named Mahmood. "After opening the box and finding the baby, Mahmood then raised Sassui," said Khamiso. "As she grew up, word of her beauty spread far and wide, so much so that a young prince, named Pannu, travelled to Bhanbhore from his hometown of Kech Makran in Balochistan to see this beauty."



The office assistant went on to explain that upon finding out that Sassui was the daughter of a washer-man, Pannu sneakily sent his clothes for laundering in order to catch a glimpse of the renowned beauty. He asked for her hand in marriage but was initially refused, said Khamiso. "Then, the father said that Pannu should wash the villagers' clothes and if he proved to be a successful washer-man, he could marry Sassui," he narrated.

Unfortunately for him, Pannu knew nothing of washing clothes and ended up tearing them to shreds. In order to pacify the villagers and keep the tale of his ineptitude from Mahmood, he placed gold coins in the clothes in order to buy their silence. "In the meantime, Pannu's brothers discovered he was in Bhanbhore and was getting ready to get married to Sassui, so they came rushing from their hometown to dissuade the young prince from marrying the peasant girl," he explained. Pannu married Sassui but his brothers did not give up their campaign to get the marriage dissolved and drugged and kidnapped him, taking him back to Kech Makran," lamented Khamiso. "The next morning when Sassui woke up, she found that Pannu was missing and felt cheated. She travelled far and wide in search of her beloved but found no trace of him." Along the way, according to him, Sassui faced many trials, such as an attempted rape and indifference from residents. "She was so frustrated that she pleaded to God for the barren land to split apart and take her in," narrated Khamiso. "So strong were her petitions that the barren land split open and she fell into the opening, which then closed with her in it. Only a ripped piece of her clothing was left on the earth. Pannu, too, felt depressed and left his brothers in search of her. When he found the tattered clothing, he, too, uttered the same words and the land once again split into two and swallowed him up."

According to Khamiso, even today, parents, when giving away their daughter to their husbands, make sure she is surrounded by female friends or relatives when going to her husband's bedroom. "They only leave her once she is securely in the company of her husband, so as to prevent Sassui's plight from befalling the girl," he asserted. "In the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, he narrates the entire tale of the two lovers. When Pannu came to this land it became fertile. Otherwise, Bhanbhore was barren."

Nevertheless, the museum holds no such trademark of Sassui nor do the people boast of this amazing legend. "This is all thanks to General Ziaul Haq; he made sure that this folk tale did not survive here. Hence, people are cautious about narrating it," lamented Khamiso.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2016.