Mind your language
I am charmed by the Punjabi language that evolved in and took its name from the land of five rivers.
I am charmed by the Punjabi language that evolved in and took its name from the land of five rivers.
Here’s why: with two distinct scripts, Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi, it boasts of around 130 million speakers the world over, laying claim to being one of the oldest surviving languages. About a dozen of the 35 alphabets in Gurmukhi date back to the BC era.
The language has a literary tradition of nearly a millennium. Guru Nanak, Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu and Bulleh Shah enriched it in between whereas Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Munir Naizi, among others, contributed their bit in the 20th century.
There is an even older oral tradition as well. Noted Punjabi writer, Saeed Bhutta, audio-recorded and then published a book called Kamal Kahani — a narrative by Mian Kamal Din of the Meraasi clan who are famous for some telling legends.
Folktales of Raja Risalu, Dulla Bhatti, and Ahmed Khan Kharal told in an art form called ‘var’, which continues to evolve and mesmerise the people.
Often, people add to the Punjabi folktales and the language does not seem to mind it. There have been successful attempts by later poets to add to Heer of Waris Shah. And interestingly, many of the verses sung and remembered by people are not by Waris Shah. For instance, “doli chahrdian marian heer cheekaan” is by Piraan Ditta Truger — a poet who added hundreds of couplets to Waris Shah’s tale.
Riddles are way too winding and proverbs are aphoristic. Tappa, mahya and bolian are unique to the language and seem to fit the ethos of the land. One feels as if the thought they so befittingly carry would not have been possible in any other form.
Music and rhythm is central to the language for the first bard of the language Farid wrote in musical measures so that it could be sung. Moreover, the thrill and excitement that one feels in the province’s dance forms and music instruments such as dhol define the quintessential Punjab. Affluence, valour, spears and horses, rivers and rivulets are central to the narrative of the land.
Woman characters in all the leading folklores such as Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahinwal and Mirza Sahiban are not portrayed as a mere object of desire but as strong protagonists.
It is said that a language survives if it has at least one of the three props — economy, religion or literature. Punjabi is lucky to have a literature that will sustain it.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2014.
Here’s why: with two distinct scripts, Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi, it boasts of around 130 million speakers the world over, laying claim to being one of the oldest surviving languages. About a dozen of the 35 alphabets in Gurmukhi date back to the BC era.
The language has a literary tradition of nearly a millennium. Guru Nanak, Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu and Bulleh Shah enriched it in between whereas Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Munir Naizi, among others, contributed their bit in the 20th century.
There is an even older oral tradition as well. Noted Punjabi writer, Saeed Bhutta, audio-recorded and then published a book called Kamal Kahani — a narrative by Mian Kamal Din of the Meraasi clan who are famous for some telling legends.
Folktales of Raja Risalu, Dulla Bhatti, and Ahmed Khan Kharal told in an art form called ‘var’, which continues to evolve and mesmerise the people.
Often, people add to the Punjabi folktales and the language does not seem to mind it. There have been successful attempts by later poets to add to Heer of Waris Shah. And interestingly, many of the verses sung and remembered by people are not by Waris Shah. For instance, “doli chahrdian marian heer cheekaan” is by Piraan Ditta Truger — a poet who added hundreds of couplets to Waris Shah’s tale.
Riddles are way too winding and proverbs are aphoristic. Tappa, mahya and bolian are unique to the language and seem to fit the ethos of the land. One feels as if the thought they so befittingly carry would not have been possible in any other form.
Music and rhythm is central to the language for the first bard of the language Farid wrote in musical measures so that it could be sung. Moreover, the thrill and excitement that one feels in the province’s dance forms and music instruments such as dhol define the quintessential Punjab. Affluence, valour, spears and horses, rivers and rivulets are central to the narrative of the land.
Woman characters in all the leading folklores such as Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahinwal and Mirza Sahiban are not portrayed as a mere object of desire but as strong protagonists.
It is said that a language survives if it has at least one of the three props — economy, religion or literature. Punjabi is lucky to have a literature that will sustain it.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2014.