It is generally accepted that Damodar Das Gulati (16th century) was a pioneer in ‘Qissakaari’, the genre of storytelling in verse, as he was the first to have composed the immortal legend of Heer in Punjabi language.

The legend was already popular as is shown by its telling of Persian poets and especially by Shah Hosain, 16th century Punjabi poet, whose lyrics frequently employ the metaphors and images drawn from the legend. It’s a strange coincidence that these two poets remained in limbo for a long time and when they were rediscovered/reintroduced, one of them, namely Shah Hosain, became immediately popular again. Sadly, the other one, Damodar, still awaits the recognition that he amply deserves. A few

have read him and fewer have done critical evaluation of his work which is a unique literary tour de force in our cultural history.

People and literary mavens talking of the legend invariably talk of Waris Shah but fail to mention Damodar who not only composed the story in its entirety but also created characters imbuing them with symbolic meanings that have stood the test of time. Most of what he created in his narrative was employed by the poets including Waris Shah in the centuries to follow.

Why Damodar has remained at the margins of our literary world? First about the academic and literary efforts made to introduce the poet to the wider public and evaluate his oeuvre which is overwhelming.

In our part of Punjab two names stand out; Muhammad Asif Khan and Najam Husain Syed, a great poet, playwright and literary critic. The former, an ace research scholar, language historian, editor and fiction writer published ‘Heer Damodar’ in 1986 when was the secretary of Pakistan Punjabi Adbi Board, Lahore. The edition carries an exhaustive introduction dealing with many a fallacy. He specially focuses on the hazy origins of Damodar and the controversies his composition gave rise to.

Damodar claims right at the outset that he has been a witness to the story as it unfolded before his eyes. But in the concluding stanza he says that Heer and Ranjha were reunited in year ‘pandran sae unnatri Bikarmi’ which is equivalent to 1472 AD. It means that Damodar’s introduction of himself as a witness to the story is a literary device which has deceived so many scholars and critics.

According to Asif Khan, we have three manuscripts of Damodar’s Heer; two collected by Bawa Ganga Singh Bedi and one by Bawa Budh Singh. The former prepared an edition based on the two manuscripts and published it in 1927 which forms the basis of all subsequent editions.

There are only two lines about the poet in the tale; ‘Damodar is my name, Gulati is my caste and I came to the Siyal fief/ I thought it prudent to spend my years there’ and ‘I set-up a shop there.’

Editors and scholars, says Asif Khan, have made wild guesses about Dmodar’s place of birth. “His ancestral village was Sultanpur situated on Shah Jiwna Road about 10 miles from Jhang city. A sizable segment of Gulati Hindus lived there in the pre-Partition era. Bawa Bedi claims that Damodar might have been a Sikh during the times of second or third Guru.”

Investigating further Asif Khan writes; “Bhai Gurdas (1551-1629) in his eleventh Var (lay) points to some leading individuals who embraced Sikh faith in the era of earlier gurus. In the stanza 21st a person named Damodar is mentioned. ‘Damodar is a wise man, ready to make sacrifices / Sultanpur is a devotees’ storehouse’… We can also look at it from another angle. Poet Gurdas Guni writes; ‘I tell the tale as it was narrated by talented Damodar’. Gurdas Guni wrote his tale of Heer in Hindi in 1706.” Asif Khan further writes; “In Heer Damodar the Emperor Akbar has been mentioned 17 times. “I shall not part with him/ even if Akbar comes marching against me,” says Heer in the narrative.

Asif Khan writes that at the end of the tale Damodar tells us that both the protagonists “reunited in1529 Bikarmi which comes to 1472 AD while throughout the composition he talks of Akbar as he is his contemporary. Year 1472 AD and the time of Akbar’s reign are obviously incompatible…It’s clear that Heer existed much before Akbar’s times. Damodar’s guesswork unnecessarily linked him with Emperor Akbar.” This too, one may say, could be an artistic device to create impact as Akbar, the most powerful king in the history of India, has been juxtaposed with the protagonists of the tale.

Another point on which Asif Khan offers his views indulgently is tobacco. “Damodar uses word ‘Tamaku (tobacco) twice; at one place directly and at another indirectly. ‘Boiled vermicelli, a pitcher of lassi and a tobacco bowl were called for /… Water, jugs and two tobacco bowls, this is how the things were set-up.’ …Most of the writers have told us that England’s Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe presented tobacco to Emperor Jahangir for the first time. But we know that before it tobacco was presented in the Emperor Akbar’s court as Asad Baig told in his travelogue that he brought it from Bijapur and presented it to Akbar… I think that even if tobacco came from abroad during Akbar’s reign, it could not have become a thing of daily use for commoners in a village in Jhang district. It seems tobacco was already here.”

He then traces the history of tobacco in Latin America and how it reached Europe. “The Times, London, published an article on tobacco in 1902 which told us that in India tobacco was an indigenous plant... Some scholars have mentioned the local tobacco of Shiraz (Iran). Now the question is if it could grow in countries other than Americas, why it wouldn’t grow in our country?”

Asif Khan then gives multiple references that confirm that tobacco has a long indigenous history. Bhakta Kabir (born 1398) calls it ‘aurkut kurkut’ in one of his verses. Malik Muhammad Jaisi (died 1542) in his ‘Padmavat’ calls it ‘Kurkut’. Guru Gobind Singh Ji in his ‘Chandi di Var’ calls tobacco ‘Phull’ (phull is commonly used for tobacco bowl)…In old Sanskrit books the word ‘Tamarkot’ is frequently used for tobacco.” The list is long.

As to the Chhand (poetic meter) of the narrative, Asif Khan says: “Damodar has basically employed ‘Davviya Chhand…Our famous story tellers such as Hashim Shah, Mian Muhammad Baksh and Maulvi Ghulam Rasul later used this meter.” Asif Khan, to say the least, made a laudable effort to introduce Damodar to us as a pioneer in the art of storytelling. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2024