He also wrote in Sariki (spoken in South Punjab) and in Sindhi. He wrote mostly in Punjabi because as opposed to Persian (which was the language of the Muslim Mughal court at the time), Punjabi was a 'common man’s language'.
Penned by the 18th century Sufi saint and poet, Bulleh Shah, for over 200 years, it has been used as a popular deterrent against the ‘orthodox’ ulema who have continued to be critical of the strands of Islam that have developed (over centuries) in cultures on both sides of the Indus.īulleh Shah was born in Southern Punjab in 1680 and largely preached there in the Punjabi language. One of the most well-known poems by a Sufi saint in the region is Bulleh Ki Jana Mein Kon (Bulleh, to me I am unknown). This is still the case, as we shall see while reviewing a series of songs related to the historical Sufi tradition along the Indus. The poetry and music that emerged from Sufi circles along the river is therefore largely a result of the theological, political and social tensions between Sufis and the orthodox ulema and clerics.
Historically, the strand of Sufism which emerged on the banks of Indus (especially in Punjab and all the way across Sindh), consciously eschewed religious orthodoxy and, at times, even rebelled against it. Rather those preaching Islam in the region - especially from the 12th century onward - absorbed existing cultural traditions that had evolved for thousands of years along the river, and, in turn, expressed them through the more esoteric strands of Islam (Sufism). A commonality was not attempted on the basis of a homogenous or monolithic idea of faith and culture here. Each of these religions were indigenised.Įven though Islam has become the major faith along the Indus in the last 500 years, the dynamic history of the region has kept cultures largely heterogeneous and varied. Over the centuries, a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions have sprung up on both sides of the Indus.įive thousand years from the moment the first major civilisation emerged along the Indus, till the creation of Pakistan in 1947, various religions and cultures have thrived here: Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam. Though it originated in the Tibetan Plateau in China, much of it flows across Pakistan.
The Indus is one of the oldest and longest rivers in Asia.
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