Daily Times

The Punjabi folklores travel from person to person and sometimes from generation to generation as these are part of oral history based on word of mouth, it was stated by speakers during one of the sessions on Punjabi folk songs and tales during the recently held at the 8th Lahore Literary Festival.

The session on Punjabi folklores was very unique of its kind as all the speakers were very young who discussed the Punjabi folk tales-a genre diminishing rapidly-through a prism of younger generation. The young panellists included Sardar Pawan Singh Arora, Rizwan Ali Awan, Abuzar Madhu and Fatima Qureshi who discussed the evolution of folk tales while highlighting their impact on the children as every folk tale carries a certain lesson in it.

Speaking on the occasion, Pawan Singh Arora, who is also the first ever Sikh Public Relations Officer (PRO) to Governor Punjab, said that we cannot find the originator or inventor of folklores but these tales remain alive in the hearts of people. These tales are not documented anywhere but they travel from generation to generation as they are based on oral history, Arora said. He told Daily Times that every tale gets advanced with the change of time and it keeps adding incidents of present time in it. He further added that it was really unfortunate that there were only two sessions on Punjabi language including one drama on Heer Waris Shah during the 8th LLF that had more than 60 sessions in three days.

Pawan Singh Arora further said that these folktales always carried wisdom of elders who used different characters in these stories in order to create awareness among the children regarding their cultural values and traditions. He was of the view that these folk songs were written as part of the tradition to glorify some celebrated characters of those times. “An iconic personality of Punjab Dulla Bhatti is still alive in these folklores even after the passage of more than four centuries as Bhatti is remembered wherever the festival of Lohri is celebrated,” Arora said. Dulla Bhatti, known as Son of Punjab, led a revolt against the powerful Mughal rule during the time of emperor Akbar and his story is recounted in these folklores. Bhatti is celebrated as a saviour of Punjabi girls every year during the annual festivities of Lohri in parts of Punjab. Lohri is a popular Punjabi folk festival of winters that is celebrated every year with a huge bonfire, powerful music and dhol performances with many other festivities part of it. A special song “Sundri-Mundri” is sung during these celebrations and it is a tribute to Dulla Bhatti. “The song of Dulla Bhatti is associated with the Lohri as this song is song wherever the Lohri is celebrated,” Arora said and added that Lohri is celebrated with great zeal in US, Canada, Norway, UK and Spain where Punjabis live in large numbers. He said that it was really unfortunate that the audience present there in the session of LLF was unaware of both Dulla Bhatti and the Lohri but they were aware of the Halloween festival despite the fact that they were sitting in Lahore which is the hub of Punjab. “I then sang the Lohri song of Dulla Bhatti while engaging the audience with me and it was very mesmerizing scene indeed as the session became very interactive then,” said Arora.

Pawan Singh Arora further said that these folktales always carried wisdom of elders who used different characters in these stories in order to create awareness among the children regarding their cultural values and traditions. He was of the opinion that these folk songs were written as part of the tradition to glorify some celebrated characters of those times

Here are some famous lines from the Lohri of Dulla Bhatti that are sung every year during the festival in many parts of world but unfortunately people of Lahore are unaware of it despite the fact that this great son of Punjab is buried in this very city of Lahore.

Sunder mundriye ho!

Tera kaun vicharaa ho!

Dullah Bhatti walla ho!

Dullhe di dhee vyayae ho!

According to Pawan Singh Arora, many things remained incomplete in the partition and the story of Dulla Bhatti is also one of them. “The grave of Dulla Bhatti is here with us in Lahore but his story is sung in other parts of the world,” he said and added that students are doing PHDs on Bhatti in East Punjab. He urged the parents to teach only the basics of Punjabi language to children and they will themselves be able to study the Punjabi literature that is very rich in the form of poetry of Bulhay Shah, Baba Farid, Shah Hussain and Waris Shah. “I can here remember the lines of a great intellectual Hanif Ramay which he wrote in his famous book ‘Punjab ka Muqadma’ as he said that he has presented the case of Punjab in the Urdu because our educated Punjabis have abandoned reading the Punjabi,” Arora said dejectedly.