The Legends of the Panjâb

m &/1 3o5 v.; BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OP X891 -R..'-t-<a-:r.g:.^ /Q^3-./.g3... CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 070 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924070625839 :: THE LEGENDS OF THE PANJAB. BY CAPTAIN R. C. TEMPLE, BENGAL STAFF CORPS, PKLLOW OV THE ROYAL &EOGRA.PHICAL SOCIETY, MEMBER OF THE BOYAL ABIATIO, PHILOLOOICAL, AND FOLKLORE SOCIETIES, THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITTriH, THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, ETC., COBRRSFONDINa MEMBER OF THE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, ASSOCIATE OF THE TICTOBIA INSTITVTB, ETC. ^ o Xj TJ nvc E I. BOMBAY Education Society's Peess. LONDON Teubnee & Co. BOMBAY : PE-INTED AT THE EDUCATION SOCIETY S PEESS, BYCTTLLA. —— CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. PAGE I. The Adventures op Eaja Rasal6 v 1 II. SakhJ Saewae and Dan! Jatti 66 III. Dhanna, the Bhagat 82 IV.^ Three Fragments about Saewae 91 V. The Marriage of Ghazi Salae 98 VI. The Legend of Guru Gugga 121 VII. The Ballad of Isa Baniya 210 VIII. The Ballad of Isa Bapaei 216 IX. Princess Adhik Anup Da! 225 X. The Legend of Sila Dai 243 XI. The Story of Eaja Mahi Parkash of Sarmor... 367 XII. The Story op Syama, Lord of Sohini 380 XIII.—The Song of NegJ Bahadur 400 XIV. Madana the BravEj Lord op Chaura 404 XV. The Legend of Sapidon 414 XVI. Princess Niwal Dai 418 XVII. The Genealogies op Lal Beg 529 PREFACE TO VOLUME I. It has been said that old wives' tales are but memories of the recitations of bards, and that in countries where the bardic element has died out, they contain in a form of simple narrative, suited to rustic ears, the poetic efiFusions of earlier times. If this idea be a correct one—as I believe it to be—then it follows that where the folktale and the bard's poem exist side by side, as in the PanjS,b, the latter is the older and the more valuable form of the same growth, though, of course, the influence of the folktale will react on the poem. It follows again that it is even more important, from the point of view of the folklorisfc—to use an Americanism which seems to be steadily gaining ground all the world over—to gather and record accurately the poems than the tales. Hence the task I have set myself in this work. There is another point about a folk-poem that renders it more valuable than a folktale as a true reflex of popular notions. Neither are ever recorded on pajjer by those who preserve them, and both the old wife and the bard almost invariably trust to me- mory, with the inevitable result that their individuality comes into play and no two reciters narrate alike. The rhythm of the verses—and where the poem is rhymed the rhyme more especially—limits the vagaries of the bards to a wholesome extent, whereas there is nothing but the poverty of the rustic imagination,—which is very much greater than is generally thought,—to limit the variations of the village story teller. It may be fairly stated that half a dozen bards singing the same story in the same metre to the same accompaniment will sing it in the same way, occasional verbal variations excepted; but any one who has experience of collecting folktales knows, that the only satisfactory way of getting down a story is from the mouths of manypersons and recording that form which is mostly in vogue. Now I hope to show here abundantly that the bardic poem and VI PREFACE. the folktale are constructed on precisely the same lines as far as the pure story goes, even where the former is fastened on to really historical characters and mixed up with the harrative of hona fide historical facts. The folktale is very often in fact a mere scene, or jumble of scenes, to be found in the poem, where only the marvellous story has been remembered, while the names and surroundings of the actors to whom it was attributed has been forgotten. Hence, again, I would urge the importance of accurately and comprehensively collecting popular poems wherever found. In some ways it is an easier matter to collect versified legends than folktales, for, having caught your bard, all you have to do is to take down what he says, whereas it is only from the lips of many witnesses, and after the exercise of infinite patience, that you get your folktale. But it is not nearly such interesting work, and hence, perhaps, the reason that the latter has found so many more votaries. The folktale is always quaint, interesting and pretty, for that is why it has been remembered, and did it not possess these qualities, children and rustics would rapidly cease to retain it, whereas the bard's poem is remembered and appreciated for quite other reasons. He sings at stated festivals, on great occasions of conventional enjoyment, and for remuneration, being often paid according to the amount he knows and the time it takes him to get through his repertory. Consequently his recitations are prosy, long drawn out and full of irritating and uninteresting repeti- tions, but they are valuable in so far as the inflexible nature of their matrix, as it were, has obliged generation after generation to reiterate the same stories in much the same words. How closely the modern legend repeats in form, that of the classics on the same subject may be seen by a comparison of the stories of Nala and Damayanti (Raja Nal) and of Bhatrihari (Raja Gopi Chand) and of the Holocaust of Snakes (Princess Niwal Dai) as found in these volumes and in the classical authorities. In a country like the Panj4b the process of the bardic legend breaking down into the ordinary folktale is constantly : PEEFAOE. Vll met witli. The first story of all in tliis collection is a case in point. The ' Adventures of Eajfi, RasaW is a discursive aggre- gate of tales fastened on to that great legendary hero and told in prose interspersed with frequent verses. Later on in the work are given at length versified legends relating the details of these stories, and there can be little doubt to the careful reader of both that the story in prose arose out of the story in verse. ' Again, in these Adventures ' it is to be observed that many of the verses are unnecessary as it were, not being introduced, as is usual, to point a moral or to raise a laugh, or for reasons of style and much that is in verse might just as well have been in prose —in fact ought to have been in prose, unless we concede that the narrator recorded as many of the verses of the original poem as he could remember, and told the rest of the story in everyday language. By far the best parts of the story are the portions recorded in verse, and it is to be observed that the couplets are all in the same metre and in the same language, viz., the rough local dialect, which is always that of your true bard, whereas the prose is the ordinary current Urdii of the day. In the Panjab the folktale is abundant everywhere. It lives in every village and hamlet, in every nursery and zenana, and wherever the women and children congregate. At the same time the folk-poem is still very far from dead, but that the wandering bard is beginning to ' die out is becoming clear in many ways. Already he has begun to leave the towns, and con- fine his peregrinations to the villages. In Patiala, the head- quarters of the Native State of that name, I could find no bards at all, although they were specially searched for. In former days they were honoured visitors and often pensioners of the native chiefs and nobles, and now I find that these people are rather ashamed td own that they have any about them. But if you only know how to recognize them when ^ou see them, and to catch them when you have lighted On them, you will find the bards still wandering over the country by the score, so the harvest still to be gathered is a very large one. ) Tin PEEFACE. There are several kinds of bards. There is the bard proper, kept at the courts of native grandees who sings, inter alia, national legends and warlike feats, and is the depositary of the genea- logy and family history of the local chief, which alas ! he shifts and changes to suit the exigencies of the hour, till a mushroom family develops a linfeage adequate to its present position. He is not always a very reputable personage, and is a fair repre- sentative of the lower classes that hang about an Indian chief's palace. Then there is the priestly depositary of the sacred legends of the Hindus, who with his company sings swangs, those curious semi-religious metrical plays that are partly acted and partly recited, and are of such unconscionable length. He is called in—on payment always—to performat the various stated festivals—at the Holi (in Spring) and at the Dasahra (in Autumn especially. Of the same description is the wandering devotee who attaches himself to some saint—Hindii or Musalman—and sings laudatory legends at the festivals peculiar to his hero.

Load more