108-year-old version of Saiful Muluk
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza


SAIFUL MULUK…the published version of 1902 in the lifetime of Mian Muhammad Bakhsh…photo-copy; forward by Prof Muhammad Arif Khan, director of Mian Muhammad Bakhsh Public Library, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir; pp 452+16 (hb), Price Rs600; published from Mian Muhammad Bakhsh Public Library, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir.
The very first thing to be presented to the readers and admirers of the poetry of Mian Muhammad is that the manuscript being presented was not available so far to the researchers. It was considered the most authentic text because it was published by a close follower of Mian Sahib, Faqir Muhammad of Jhelum, who himself was a publisher. Furthermore, it was claimed that Mian Sahib probably first time in his life vested all his rights under the relevant laws to Faqir Muhammad.
The third claim is that Mian Sahib after completing this great work allowed every publisher to get it published and circulate it.
No particular publisher was nominated, therefore, many texts appeared from Jhelum and Lahore since the last decade of the 19th century. But none could match the standard as conceived by the poet. Consequently, the first thing he had done was to get the rights of the publication of the book registered in the name of Faqir Muhammad who also wrote footnotes in Persian.
Faqir Muhammad got it re-calligraphed and all the proofs were shown and got corrected by Mian Sahib; this is the claim made in the last note of the publisher and is in Urdu and part of the original version. Owing to unavailability of this rare text, it was pointed out by every editor and compiler of this book that though the text was being thoroughly checked, Faqir Muhammad’s version was not available.
To satisfy that need this text in original has been produced by Prof Arif and all the expenditure incurred on the publication has been borne by Dr G.M. Hanif, medical director of the Ladies and Children Hospital, Mirpur, who himself has sent this book to some men of letters as a gift.
Faqir’s point of view was that this version of 1902 is perfect in all respects but the lettering is in a very old style which causes confusion. If this manuscript was vetted by the author then which was that calligraphed version for which Mian Muhammad came to Lahore and stayed inside Lohari Gate for three months.
Mian Muhammad asserted everywhere in all his books that he was writing poetry in Punjabi (he did not mention any other language or dialect) and in this text published in his lifetime the date of publication was verified by one of his admirers in 1322 (1901) and the admirer says in Persian, “Ba Punjabi zabanash intizam ast”. If Mian Muhammad himself says he is writing this story in Punjabi, why every Lahori publisher and calligrapher Arif almost blame for miscalligraphing Saiful Muluk. That is baseless and does not behoove a scholar.
Like Arif, Sharif Sabir has also gone through a difficult exercise and brought out his version. Prof Arif needs to reconsider his biased remarks that Mian Sahib is a poet of Pahari, not Punjabi. If that is the case it was better to censor the whole chapter Mian Muhammad had written on Punjabi poets (poets of Punjab zameen…not the Persian poets like Ghaneemat Kunjahi and Dilshad Pasruri).Prof Arif has done a good job by digging out this moth-eaten published version and making it public. That was enough. But he is not satisfied with that and should better conduct research on all the previous versions and whereabouts of their publishers and calligraphers/and prepare a new version which should be about Pahari poetry of Mian Muhammad Bakhsh.
It further needs research from the same point of view about the language of the other books of Mian Sahib. Can Arif confirm that the following lines are really written and approved by Mian Sahib?


KANAK VANNAYAN DI KAVITA by Dr Naveed Shahzad; pp 112; Price Rs150 (hb); Publishers, Faculty of Oriental Learning, University of the Punjab, Lahore.
This is the eighth collection of poetry by Dr Naveed Shahzad, a teacher at the Punjabi Department of the university. He is certainly lucky one whose four books including this poetry book have been published by the university which has for a long time ignored the Punjabi publications. Only one quarterly magazine is being produced by it and that too very irregularly.
Naveed Shahzad belongs to the area closer to deserts like Cholistan which was once the most prosperous area of the subcontinent. It had one of the richest civilisations within the triangle of three historical cities -- Moenjodero, Harappa and Ganveriwala. He refers to Cholistan, Satnad, Punjnad and some cities like Jhang and Multan. Naveed has some novel titles of his small poems like Bnstapana, A Jurrtoon, Sufniaee, Sakavat, Multanta, Gandhelva and these titles must have their own peculiar meanings to be sought in the texts.
What Naveed wants to say about the life of the Cholistani people who have their own way of living is;
The first river which left the area in vast wilderness was Ghagra and now it is Sutlej which has also been dried…leaving a question mark with reference to the far away past.
Curtsey:DAWN.COM, — PUBLISHED OCT 28,2010
An evening with Mian Mohammad Bakhsh
By Tahir Mirza
I HAVE never seen Hall II of the Alhamra Cultural Complex as full as it was last Tuesday. It was not a special occasion, just an evening with Mian Mohammad Bakhsh which the Lahore Arts Forum (LEAF) had arranged but the response it received from the public was tremendous. Looking back from the seat where I was, I could not see any vacant space in any of the rows. And as I left half way through the programme, people were still walking in.
Mian Mohammad Bakhsh did not live long years ago. In fact he died early in the last century. Despite that, there was no one who could give me the correct date of his birth. Shafqat Tanvir Mirza puts it at 1843 while others contend he was born in 1826 or 1830. But since his magnum opus, Saiful Maluk, appeared in 1870 when he was 33 years old, his date of birth, works out to be about 1837.
Scion of a zamindar family of present-day Azad Kashmir, Mian Mohammad spent his life as a faqir. Renouncing the world at the age of 19, he led a life of austerity and never got married. His total concentration was on meditation and literature. But like other faqirs, he did not believe in living in seclusion nor was he oblivious of the downtrodden around him. He was ever ready to help his fellow beings. He was a sufi first and then a poet.
Mian Mohammad was the author of many stories, including Laila-Majnu, Sohni-Mahinwal, Shirin-Farhad, etc., but the first edition of Saiful Maluk appeared in 1870. It had been completed in 1863. Written in the style of a masnawi, it received a warm welcome and became popular not only in Potohar and Azad Kashmir but all over the Punjab. It ran into dozens of editions some of which were published in the Gurmukhi script from Jammu and Patiala.
Going through Saiful Maluk one finds that love and beauty, the hallmarks of Sufi philosophy, are at their peak in the epic. The poet contends that beauty should not only be admired but also loved. He goes on to say that a person devoid of love is worse than a dog. Says he:
Jis dil andar ishq na rachda kuttey us tin changey
Mian Mohammad’s epic is replete with universal truths. The poet has referred to them repeatedly:
Sada na bagin bulbul boley sada na bagh baharan
Sada na husn jawani rehndi sada na sohbat yaran Sada na lat charaganwali sada na soz patangan
Sada na hathin mehndi ratti sada na chankan wangan
Mian Mohammad has made full use of his pastoral background and picked up similies and imageries from rustic life. Some of these are not only appropriate but also thought provoking:
Neechan di ashnayi kolon kisey nahin phal paya
Kikar tey angur charaya har guccha zakhmaya
The path of meditation has never been a walkover for a devotee and Mian Mohammad also had to face many ordeals:
Pani bharan panhariyan vano van gharey
Bharya usda janiye jida tor charey
Apart from talking about the beauties of Mian Mohammad’s poetry, speakers that evening paid tribute to Sharif Sabir for his effort in discovering the original copy of Saiful Maluk published in 1870. He not only corrected its mistakes but also got it published. In addition, he gave the meaning of the difficult Gojri words at the end of each page. A demand was also made that cheaper editions of Saiful Maluk be published for wider circulation.
Curtsey:DAWN.COM, — PUBLISHED JUN 28, 2003 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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