Essay: Folk-tales of the Punjab
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| Folk tales of Punjab |
1. Introduction.
2. Popular folk-tales.
3. The true love.
4. Major contribution to the cultural studies?
5. Conclusion.
Folk-tales of the Punjab, particularly its folk songs, is said to be the auto biography of its people. Folk-tales is the body of expressive culture, including music, oral history, proverbs, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, I or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared.
Most popular Punjabi folk-tales are basically comprised of love tragedies which show the extraordinary picture of true love. Young lovers were forced to give up their love for each other, in the wake of imitating social conventions and family values. Despite facing extreme opposition, the protagonists of these love tales were defiant enough to turn down every obstacle which came their way.
Though their love stories never resulted in “happy endings" yet their immense soul-to-soul love earned them the status of legends. The heroines of Punjabi folk-tales were daring enough to challenge the societal norms and conventions. They, unlike conventional women, sacrifice their all in. the way of true love.
There are many pure Punjabi folktales but most popular are Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punnun, Mirza Sahiba and Sohni Mahiwal.
Heer and Ranjha were bom to Jutt families in Jhang. Heer was a young girl of spectacular beauty. On the other side of spectrum, there lived Ranjha in a nearby town. Ranjha, being the youngest in the family, was immensely loved by his father. While living a life full of ease, he became a passionate flute driver.
He left his village after a clash with his brothers over land distribution. He then entered the Heer's village where he was hired by the father of Heer as a caretaker of cattle. Heer became spell-bound on listening to Ranjha’s mesmerizing flute and lost her heart to him. They kept on meeting each other secretly for several years and finally caught by Heer's uncle Kaido. Heer was forcefully engaged to another man and Ranjha became jogi for her.
After a long struggle, Heer's parents approved of their marriage. But Kaido poisoned Heer's food laddoo right on the wedding day. Ranjha upon seeing her dying rushed to Heer and ate from the poisoned laddoo. That is how he embraced death for the sake of true love. They are both resting in peace in Punjab’s village Jhang where people visit their mausoleum to pay them tribute.
Sassi was bom to the King of Bhambour. Upon her birth, ' astrologers predicted that Sassi would defame the Royal family's good name later in life. So she was thrown away in the Indus River. A washerman adopted her after finding her floating in a wooden box.
Punnun, who was bom to the King Mir Hoth Khan, Khan of Kicham (Kech) became desperate to meet Sassi after listening to the tales of her enchanting beauty. Punnun sent his dothes to Sassi's father to get them washed. That was tact to catch a sight of Sassi. They both fell in love with each other at a very first sight. Sassi's father approved of their marriage but Punnun’s father and brothers opposed the dedsion strictly. On their wedding night, Punnun’s family kidnapped him from Bhambhor and fetched him back to Kicham. Sassi headed barefoot to Kicham for the sake of her love. She was threatened by the shepherd, on the way, so she prayed God to hide her. Mountains opened up and swallowed her for good. Punnun heard of all this from the shepherd and uttered the same prayer. His wish was answered too and he got buried in the same mountain valley.
Mirza and Sahiban were both cousins. When Mirza stayed at Sahiban's place for study purpose, they fell in love with each other. Sahiban's parents disapproved of their match and arranged her marriage with Tahir Khan. Sahiban called upon Mirza when her wedding days were approaching. Mirza and Sahiban eloped on the wedding day. Sahiban's brothers started chasing them and Sahiban broke all the arrows of Mirza when he was resting under the tree. She was sure that her brothers will forgive them for the elopement when they happen to find them. Conversely, her brothers attacked Mirza and killed him. On seeing this, Sahiban took a sword and ended her life.
In Punjab, and among the circles of Punjabi academia, these folk-tales have been reviewed as a major contribution to the cultural studies of Punjab. The fascinating language of these folk-tales had a positive impact on contemporary Punjabi fiction and poetry. .
In conclusion, Punjabi folk-tale includes traditional customs, tales, sayings, and art forms either preserved among common Punjabi folk or passed onto generations by the word of mouth. These unsupported notions have a wide circulation throughout the Punjab region. In past, only administrators and scholars used to get formal education, whereas, folk-tales used to teach people about religious principles and moral values. In addition to that, folk-tales also preserved political history and provided entertainment.
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