Trio of Sindhi Literature
Shah - Sachal – Sami
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This might be influence of versatility of the Sindhi language originated on the banks of river Sindhu during the dawn of human civilization that non-Sindhi people like Shah Abdul Latif [1669- 1752] and Abdul Wahab Farouqi (Sachal Sarmast) (1739–1829) both along with Sami Chain Rai Bachomal [1743-1850] become famous as the most effective trio of the Sindhi literature and eventually hold the position which can be compared with Hindu religious trio of Brahma Vishnu and Mahesh. Though this is fact that Shah Saheb and Sachal Sarmast were born in Muslim families but still their contribution to Sindhi literature is unparallel and unmatched rather we can say that of such high calibre that it appears to be silly to compare any literary contributor with these three.
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Shah Abdul Latif
Shah Saheb’s Shah Jo Risalo holds the same position in Sindhi literature which Geetanjali of Guruvar Rabindranath Tagore has in the Bengali Literature. Shah Jo Risalo is most beautifully crafted collection of poems written by Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai and expresses not just the effective side of Sindhi poetry but also narrated an era of Sindhi history. All the seven legendry Sindhi folk tales which are also famous as Seven Tragic Romance of Sindh are also part of Shah Jo Risalo.
Shah Abdul Latif was born on 18 November 1669 at village Hala Haveli as the son of Shah Habib who belongs to family of Shah Abdul Karim Bulriwaro one of the famous mystic Sufi poet of Sindh. Though this is common perception that Shah Sahib was a self-leaner and got very little formal education but still name of his first teacher was Akhund Noor Muhammad Bhatt. Shah Jo Risalo gives enough evidences that Shah Sahib was not just a Sindhi language poet but also master of Arabic and Persian. He died on 1 January 1752 and still at Bulri his anniversary is celebrated in the form of Urs which is uncommon to Sindhi traditions.
Sachal Sarmast
During the Kalhoro/Talpur era Sindhi literature saw rise of yet another extra ordinary literary personality namely Abdul Wahab Farouqi who had used “Sachal” as his pen name and become famous as the pioneer of Sindhi poetry. This is proven fact that Sachal Sarmast has expressed his poetic views in seven languages but Sindhi was the most prominent among these languages and hence he still considered as the greatest Sindhi poet. Abdul Wahab was born at Daraza, Khairpur Mirs and lost his father during early childhood so he was brought up by his uncle Pir Khawaja Abdul Haq who also guided him on the path of spirituality.
This is said that Sachal Sarmat was enthusiastic follower of principle of Wahdat-ul-Wujood [unity of existence] and Islamic Philosophy of living. He had married with daughter of his Uncle but unfortunately as she died at early age and this has affected life of Abdul Wahab in multiple ways, he not only married again in his entire life but also started concentrating more and more on his poetic expressions. Like his birth in 1739 date of his death in 1829 is disputed however his Urs is still celebrated on 14 day of Ramzan month of Islamic calendar.
Chain Rai Lund "Sami"
Sami Chain Rai Bachomal, the only Sindhi of this famous trio who had credit for bringing the Vedic wisdom in the form of Sindhi poetry was born in businessmen family of Shikarpur Sindh in the year 1731. His complete name was Bhai Chainrai Dataramani Lund as per the history he has created many thousands of Sloks though according to Kaouromal Chandanmal Khilnani, the first editor of Sami’s slokas, the number is 1743 but this is disputed as Mulchand Giani, has published Sami’s 2100 slokas in two volumes.
Till of age 30 years Chainrai was living a normal life being married with a common house hold work restricted wife and working as sales agent when he meets with Vedanta expert Swami Meghraj. This meeting proved inspirational and brought a huge change in Sami’s life as he started learning Sanskrit and Vedanta. He was well verse with Gurmukhi and Devnagiri Script which was in use by Sindhi community at that time so this new learning process becomes easy.
In neat ten years he has developed power of poetic expressions and become famous with his pen name Sami. This might be interesting to know that Sami Sahib has habit of writing his verse on piece of paper and store them in safety of earthen pot. During the life of Chainrai ruling powers of Sindh have changed Kalhoras to the Talpurs, and from the Talpurs to the British but as he was busy in his poetic world hence remains unaffected from this change. He was strong believer of relation of Artha [Money] and Karma [Duty] and real close relationship between religion and philosophy. According to him which is religion have an inspirational presence of philosophy and what is philosophy is influenced by religion.
I am concluding this article on most popular most famous trio of Sindhi literature reflecting genuine golden era of Sindhi literature with a slok of Sami, who was the strong believer and supporter of Hinduism.
Satgur purkh sujan, rakhyo hath-u mathe te ;
Ve-ee nikri man moon, Sami khincha tan.
Vasya mengh mahir ja, bhariya mena nihan,
Achi beetha pan, sanamukh muhinja supree
Famous and popular Sindhi folk singer Bhagwanti Navani is eventually immortal as she even after losing the physical existence still alive at hearts of thousands and thousands of Sindhi music lovers. Often called as Sindhi Koyel Bhagwanti was born on 01 Feb 1940 at Nasarpur. Undisputed queen of Singing Sindhi Lada (marriage ritual songs) Bhagwanti will always be remembered for singing Sukhamani Sahib (Guru Bani) in Sindhi. She also acted in Sindhi film Sindhua Je Kinare. On 22 Oct 1986 she left for heavenly abode.
Posted On 30 December 2016