Heer And Now

Though still listened to and participated in by a whole lot of people, the tradition of Heer Khawani seems to be dying now

By Sarwat Ali

The documented history of Heer is not more than five hundred years old. Heer like almost all tales and romances has primarily come down to us orally. On the urs of Waris Shah at Jandiala Sher Khan, the most important happening is the recitation of Heer. In our living folk tradition Heer is recited in all night sessions by professional bards. The beauty of the entire event lies in the fact that the audiences, just as familiar with the text of Heer as the performer, engage in a dramatic collective interaction where the emphasis shifts from mere contents to the style of rendition.

Somebody in the past must have made a conscious decision to sing Heer in bhairveen and then it caught on to become a standard practice This qissa or kahani has been written in a number of languages, and though located in Punjab the strength and the dynamics of the entire romance inspired other regional poets to write about it as well. Bhairveen on the other hand is a raag which has been mentioned in texts much more ancient than the poem Heer itself. Called sada suhagun, it can be sung at any time of the day and night and because of this universal character a musical performance usually is wound up by an item in bhairveen.

There have been many Punjabi versions, the most notable being of Damodar, Ahmed Gujjar and Mukbal. Heer has also been written in Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Haryani and Sindhi. It was first translated into English by Sardar Abdul Qadir Aafandi from the Persian version of Mir Qamruddin.

Waris Shah wrote his Heer at Jandiala Sher Khan in 1766. The original manuscript has been lost to history as the oldest goes back to only 1821. Its first printed version in the Persian script known as Hope Press edition came out in1865, though according to Mohan Singh Diwana it was first published in 1851 from the Chashma Noor Press, Amritsar. As the printing press became common the purpose behind the first printed version, the Hope Press edition, was to bring into print whatever was available in order to preserve it.

When the printed edition started to sell, the book traders with the help of some editors made massive interpolations to cater to popular taste. Two most notorious editors were Hidayatullah (1885) and Piran Ditta (1910). In the 1930s Mohan Singh Diwana pointed to the necessity of an authentic text of Heer Waris Shah. He himself edited Heer by going back to the manuscripts rather than the printed edition. Abdul Aziz Bar at Law continued with the effort and his edition was printed in 1960. He referred to have consulted 23 manuscripts. In the 1970s Sharif Sabir went to work on Aziz's edition with the advantage of having examined three more manuscripts -- one he found in Chunian, one in possession of Mian Anwar's family and one with the Punjab Public Library. Sharif Sabir's beautifully printed edition has been the outcome of the Waris Shah Memorial Committee established in 1975.

Heer is sung in bhairveen. Other than the seven flat notes it is permissible in bhairveen to engage all notes which makes its scope bigger than that of any particular raag. Not confined to a certain area or a region, bhairveen is sung with many variations in various parts of South Asia. From the tunes in Afghanistan to Sindh, to Bengal, bhairveen is a universal melodic mode that fits into whatever clothes that had been tailored according to the style and taste of the various regions of the country.

During the course of our long tortuous musical history various raags and surs have been named differently from how we identify them today. Nothing definitive can also be said about the basic scale and the positioning of the surs because the sound documentation of music was not possible. As it only became a reality by the end of the 19th century written music could not be corroborated by its musical example.

Bhairveen was also known as todi, kamod, hindol and bhopal in the past according to the classifications by the well-known musical authorities and it must have been employed in the singing of the forms which were prevalent then. Now kheyal is rarely sung in bhairveen though there are recorded examples of kheyal bandish in the raag. Certain ustads also make it a point to sing kheyal in bhairveen but in the last century or so it has been considered more suitable for light classical forms of music. Several thumris and dadras are composed in it and a whole lot of kaafis, ghazals and geets have germinated from this ever fertile raag. This too has been one of the favourite melodic grounds for film composers to hunt in and thousands of film compositions have been inspired by the basic melodic structure of this raag.

Over decades it must have been formalised and singing Heer in any other raag must have been considered to be sacrilegious. One wonders what were the reasons to choose bhairveen over all other raags. Probably because bhairveen was and is a very popular melodic mode in the Punjab or it could be the possibility of engaging all the surs or that the other popular raags were employed in the singing of other folk tales, or the mizaaj of the bhairveen was thought to be most appropriate to the folk tale.

Like melas and urs Heer Khawani, too, was an event of great cultural bonding and in Lahore on the weekend many Heer Khawans gathered in Hazoori Bagh outside the Fort for an afternoon session of Heer. Though still listened to and participated in by a whole lot of people, this tradition seems to be dying now as lesser and fewer people especially the younger ones gather for these weekly events.

Courtesy: The News Pakistan