Mammoth Work

By Dr Amjad Parvez, *BOOK REVIEW: A mammoth venture* - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan
Thursday, June 24, 2010

Heer Damodar (4 volumes)
By Muzaffar A Ghaffar
Ferozesons (Pvt) Ltd;
Pp 427 (each volume); Rs 3,995

The publishers of the four volume-set, Heer Damodar, written by Muzaffar A Ghaffar, claim that the Within Reach series of the master works of Punjabi Sufi poetry is an attempt to bring the outstanding verses of major Punjabi Sufi poets to an English reading public.

The latest in this series is based on the story of Heer Ranjha. Muzaffar says that the origin of this tale is uncertain. Though references to Heer are found in Persian literature from the 13th century, it caught the imagination of the Punjabi public and Sufis from Shah Hussain (1538-1599) to Khawaja Ghulam Farid (1839-1901).

This fascination exists even today. Even filmmakers from the subcontinent have made many lovely movies based on this story. The best was a movie produced by Khawaja Khurshid Anwar.

Sufi saints have used the love of Heer and Ranjha symbolically or as a metaphor of love between man and God.

Muzaffar says that due to the lack of media in the past, this story had limited reach, relying on the oral tradition of transmission only, but with the present day improvement in literacy and media modes of transmission available at large, it has become the subject of an excellent research project and it was Muzaffar A Ghaffar who took it upon himself to carry out this magnanimous work; hence this voluminous and detailed magnum opus.

This work has appeared in four volumes, wherein the story of Heer Damodar has been written in different scripts by Muzaffar A Ghaffar.

It is not an easy task to document the oral tradition into Punjabi, written in the Arabic alphabet, and then translate it into the English and Gurmukhi languages. He must have spent many sleepless nights carrying out this work single-handedly.

It is amazing to look at the glossary provided at the end of each chapter, as it says a lot about this dedicated work. For example, the first word in the glossary is for stanza 1, line 1, Zaat: (drawn from jaat); suffix: tribe, caste, genus, species, breed (Page 28).

Notes add additional knowledge about the story. For example, about Stanza 70, it is said, “The scene now moves to the zeal and ardour of Noora’s forces. In a great rage they are psyching themselves with slogans of ‘Ali, Ali’. As the scene sinks in, the poet slips in comment: see how they come, see their carriage, see their procedure, their manner. Then he brings in a shipload of irony with an underlayer of an analogy: the speed of the legion is compared with the speeding of Noora’s boat going away from him. The legion ‘eats’ the journey, as was Noora’s boat gobbled by the Syaals. The legion of Noora is impetuous and spoiling for a clash. No one can water down or cool their resolve, their fervency. Six leagues pass and the legion are thirsty for blood.”

Muzaffar’s research also explores the time when the tale was said. He refers to Damodar’s clues such as chillum — water pipe — and says that tobacco was brought by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Another reference is that of Gurdas Guni’s reference of Heer in 1706. Damodar’s date of 1529 in the Bikrami Calendar, when Heer and Ranjha were united, works out to 1472 AD, which is long before the Mughals ruled.

Muzaffar questions whether Damodar deliberately doctored the date to remind us that this tale is make-believe. Or maybe the timing of this tale could be irrelevant.

This story is valid for all times to come Taking this opportunity, while going through the gigantic task of presenting Heer Damodar in various languages, Muzaffar has also gone into expressing his opinion on various domains of various genres of Sufi music and poetry.

For example, he says that most poets of the Punjabi Sufi tradition play with the sounds and meanings of the words simultaneously, using various tones and pitches of meaning. He adds that sometimes they purposefully build in paradoxes to enlarge their meaning or to reflect the psychological complexity of relationships.

Also “old” words sometimes deviate considerably in impact, connotation and denotation from their ‘original’ or etymological meaning.

As far as the kafi genre of verse is concerned, Muzaffar says that kafi is a song supposed to be sung. This reviewer would like to add here that most of the kafi sayers have also suggested a raag in which a particular kafi needed to be sung. Perhaps the reason was that the desired impact that a particular kafi needed to proffer was enhanced by the suggested raag in which that particular piece was to be crooned.

Regarding the works of Sufi saints, Muzaffar says that a Sufi is esoteric and aspires for and preserves to rid his adherents of egotism, greed, anger, lust and delusion, including self-delusion.

Often the Sufi way to do this is to singularly make one subservient to the order of nature or to the will of God.

The concept of wahdat ul wujood (unity of being) also took root in the minds of people as a reaction against the vertically rigid Hindu caste system that was negated by the Sufis.

They affirmed that acts of persistent piety by any individual would lead to spiritual fulfilment and salvation in this life (not the future one). This was one aspect of the path.

Coming back to the works being reviewed, Muzaffar says that he received encouragement to present the fast-paced screenplay of Heer Damodar due to his regular attendance of Najam Hussain Syed’s Sangat since 1989.

Muzaffar says that the editing of the texts, exploration of meanings and discussions in the Sangat are the foundation of his efforts made towards the Within Reach series of masterpieces of Sufi poetry; the latest among it being presenting the text in Nastaliq, Gurmukhi and Roman with an extensive glossary, poetic translation and line-by-line discourse.

This mammoth work must be commended.

The reviewer is based in Lahore and can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com