It is a paradox that a poet who never married nor had a woman in his life composed a tale that became an iconic love story. This very fact may give us some clue to unfold the mystery of creative process. Absence of love or unrealised love may help a poet more to discover the mundane and transcendental secrets of the phenomenon. Ever present absence of something essential creates angst that may put a creative person on an un-chartered course, leading to a socio-psychic area rarely explored but pregnant with meanings, imagined and unimagined.

Waris Shah (1722-1798), like Homer and Shakespeare, worked on given story and sprung a master piece but also as was the case with them, he made his story the saga of his people that became synonymous with the soul of the society he was a part of. In his creative process dealing with the particular he created universal and focusing on the concrete ended up with the abstract.

Waris Shah took the popular love story and undoubtedly built on what Damodar Gulati and Madho Lal Hussain had made it to stand for. But what distinguished him from his predecessors was his unique imagination that created a broad new context for his retelling of the tale. This context was the imaginative reconstruction of complex agrarian society based on the historical reality of last 5000 years in the ‘land of five rivers’ called Punjab. Placed in such a context the love story assumed a rather different symbolic significance, it became a chronicle of heroic individuals in conflict with a well-established hierarchical society, representing historical forces of emancipation which perpetually keep erupting. To get some sense of how a love story is transformed into something far bigger it suffices to say that waris Shah’s protagonists, Heer and Ranjha come into conflict with all the institutions; social and official, religious and secular in their unending ordeal, exposing the reality of the traditional and the sacred.

Young Ranjha is not treated as their equal by his elder brothers after the death of their father who did not love them less but loved the youngest more, shattering the myth of family that traditionally stands for love and caring. Ranjha is denied his fair share of the ancestral property. “So they (Ranjha’s brothers) sent for the Qazi and the assembly of elders. They bribed the Qazi and the good land was give to them, and the barren and inhospitable land was given to Ranjha---“. State and society openly defy the principles of justice and fair-play that pushes Ranjha to the edge. Leaving his home and property he embarks on a journey that has no destination. In search of shelter he goes to a mosque to spend his first night like a lowly traveler. Waris Shah juxtaposes the aesthetic richness of the mosque against the utterly soulless rituals of its occupant, the Mullah, who is absolutely devoid of compassion for the people he is supposed to guide in the matters of faith. The Mullah seeing Ranjha says, “Who is this infidel with long hair? This is no place for rogues. Cut your long hair so that you may be acceptable in God’s sight”. Ranjha retorts “You have a long beard like a venerable Sheikh, yet you behave like a devil. Why you send innocent travelers and poor Fakirs like me away? You sit in the pulpit with the Quran in front of you, yet all this is your cunning trap ---”.

Luddan, the sailor, representing the cut-throat mercantile class, refuses to let penniless Ranjha enter his ferry who wants to cross the river in a bid to be away from the hurtful view of his ancestral home. “He who is for yonder shore, let him pay his pence. Him who pays his pence, we will take across; even though he may be a dacoit or a thief. We will not repeat his name, but we chase away all beggars and Fakirs like dogs. Those who attempt to enter our boat forcibly, we throw then into the river----“.

When parents of Heer get the inking of socially undefined relationship between her and Ranjha, they decide to arrange her marriage. Here again Qazi is employed as a ploy. He, with all his persuasive arsenal of religious logic, twisted and false, designed to serve the vested interests of upper class, tries to persuade Heer to agree to the marriage proposal. Religion for him is a matter of opportunistic convenience not a question of fairness and justice. The Qazi advises Heer thus: “Child, with all the gentleness we give you counsel---It is not becoming for the daughter of Chuchak to talk to cowherds and penniless coolies---Turn your spinning wheel, and sing the merry songs of Chenab---“. When Heer talks back, the Qazi threatens her, “If we were to condemn you, you will be done to death at once. If evildoers are killed, God does not avenge their death”. When Heer refuses to accept Khera as her husband, Qazi again thunders, “Do the bidding of your parents and accept the khera as your husband. Are you queen of Jamshid or the daughter of Nadhu Shah that we shall be afraid to tell you the truth? I shall beat you with the whips of Sharia---“.

Finally Heer leaving her in-laws, the Kheras, runs away with Ranjha. Both are captured close to river Sutlej in the vicinity of a town called Qabula and are presented in the court of the Raja who refers the case to the Qazi. When Ranjha claims that Heer is his wife, the Qazi says, “Fakir, have you got any witnesses? Without witnesses to the marriage, she can be no wife”. Ranjha pleads his case, “Listen to my words, you who know the law and the principles of the 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 attained the divine love?” The Qazi is not convinced with his otherworldly logic and says, “Speak the truth and have done with these falsehoods. Give up your evil ways or you will taste my whip.” So he hands over Heer to the Kheras.

Waris Shah’s overriding concern is not the happenings but rather the ways in which happenings happen. His expose, complete and devastating as shown above briefly, betrays a malady that had effected all the institutions of the society; secular and religious. They are thoroughly corrupt, decadent and regressive, serving the interests of status quo. So he is not interested, it seems, to simply tell the story as it was already well-known. He tells it with a difference. He himself hints at it at the start, “Friends came up with a request; let us compose the love story of Heer afresh.” What is fresh about his narrative is his brave endeavour to evolve a popular discourse which critically examines every aspect of life in a society suffering from social and religious rigidity but faced with political anarchy unleashed by historical forces and the invaders like Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah that made the fate of individual and collective uncertain. Waris Shah with a unique sense of selection placed the story in a new context that enabled him to create a critical narrative aimed at debunking the elite inspired moribund discourse underpinned by reactionary notion of traditionalism.

Note: The translations used are from the book ‘Waris Shah: The Adventures of Hir and Ranjha” by Charles Fredrick Usborne (1874-1919). — soofi01@hotmail.com