Waris Shah is not only the people’s poet but is also the undisputed bard of the Punjab. His Qissa [the Tale] has been so popular that generation after generation it found innumerable singers, interpreters and above all reciters who rote learnt the entire tale as if it was a scripture.

We all know he wasn’t the first to compose this tale. Much before him, the Qissa had already been penned by Damodar Das Gulati and its characters liberally used by Madho Lal Hussain as metaphors and symbols in the tradition of Vedanta mysticism. Waris Shah declared at the very outset that he was re-telling or re-narrating the tale. “The friends came with the request that I compose the Heer’s legend afresh… ,” he tells us.

The tale was already popular but what was it that made Waris Shah’s version immortal? One can venture the following summary. One,Waris dropped the inessentials/details and showed the real meat of the saga. Two, going beyond the apparent love story he made it an odyssey of the longstanding Punjab’s agrarian society. Thirdly, his tale turned out to be a compendium of socio-cultural and politico-spiritual life of the community with a history spanning over thousands of years. Fourthly, he celebrates the racial, cultural and spiritual diversity of his homeland depicting it as an open and inclusive society. Fifthly, he creates his narrative as a kind of discourse that explicitly counters the official narrative upheld by foreign Muslim rulers and their paid clergy. Sixthly, he builds his narrative with his materialistic worldview; he makes his characters interact and confront all the essential institutions of the state and society exposing their moribund and extractive nature. Seventhly, building on what his predecessors such as Damodar Das, Madho Lal Hussain and Muqbal had created, he paints his main protagonists as indefatigable rebels in search of human relationship based on choice in freedom in a hierarchical society. Last but not least, he uses the Punjabi language the way no one else ever used it before or after him. He expands the boundaries of the language by creating minilingual structures through the use of odd but enriching compounds, unfamiliar yet palatably acceptable new words, coining unimaginable phrases and a large fresh dose of borrowings from diverse languages including Sanskrit, SadhBhasha, Arabic and Persian. He even at times takes the liberty of bending the grammatical rules and gets away with it. In his hands Punjabi becomes a new language making the inexpressible expressible.

Dr Manzur Ejaz, a well-known writer, intellectual, cultural activist and development economist, has hinted at the abovementioned aspect of Waris while discussing him in comparative terms in one of his books which is in fact a spin-off from his major work titled Waris Nama being reviewed here. It’s a monumental work in five volumes spread over 1,400 pages published by Sanjh Publications, Lahore.

Waris Nama is a ‘has it all’ book on Heer Waris. The sheer toil and academic sweat that have gone into it make it a remarkable feat. Its publication is a literary event that needs to be celebrated. Manzur Ejaz despite being a doctor has no tolerance for literary airs and intellectual pretensions that define most of the contemporary academics. He consciously avoids literary jargon, a defining feature of contemporary literary critics, in order to talk direct to lay readers and scholars alike. Waris Nama encompasses the entire text of Heer Waris. The format chosen in all the volumes is the same but simple and effective. The text comprises stanzas [Bandds] of varying length, 631 in all. So there we have generally acceptable text of each stanza followed by glossary, paraphrase of each line with literal meanings and finally the explanation. Waris Shah, being an unmatched master craftsman as pointed out earlier, offers a challenge with his linguistic constructions and rich vocabulary which both attracts and deters the modern readers who have tenuous grip over Punjabi language due to covert and overt colonial and post-colonial onslaughts of foreign languages on the populace in the region. So glossary in a way is a key to the understanding of the text. Manzur Ejaz has solved this problem pretty well which in no way implies that further work in this direction is not needed. The bard has nurtured an arboretum showing us the undergrowth of linguistic elements coming from diverse literary traditions. The density overwhelms the newcomers as much as it fascinates them. The paraphrasing done by the author further helps the readers to come to grips with the kernel of what the verses stand for. Author’s reasoned explanation is cogent and rationally convincing. But it should be kept in mind that no explanation of the original text can be final or definitive as a good poetic product cannot be subjected to a single interpretation. It being multi-layered is always open to multiple interpretations which keep changing with changes in the socio-cultural conditions of the readers. It’s noticeable that Manzur Ejaz steers clear of spiritual mumbo jumbo the Heer Waris has traditionally been made epitome of. He sticks to his materialist analysis and interpretation which creates a fresh perspective and contemporary relevance of the tale and the text.

Dr. Manzur Ejaz, an insightful writer and organic intellectual, has done a remarkable job with the publication of Waris Nama which will prove a milestone in promoting the fresh understanding of the legend and the poet. His is the latest successful effort to interpret classical poetry from a historical and materialistic perspective which is in a way a critique of traditional view of Heer Waris that stems from the arcane roots of devotion rather than critical appraisal.

Critics aver that you cannot fully understand the Punjab’s culture without understanding Waris Shah. In the same way one may assert that you will find it hard to understand Waris Shah without the help of what Waris Nama offers. So if you are interested in the Punjab and its bard, Waris Nama is a must for your library. Remember a good book never turns into dead wood in the shelf. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2019