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Preface to the Second Edition
This Book Was
first Published in 1951 When las Bela was a
princely State of Baluchistan. In 1956, its
status as a'state' was terminated and it was
designated as a 'District' and attached to the
newly created 'Karachi Division' of the
integrated 'Province of West Pakistan'.
Currently, when the former Provinces which were
integrated into the 'Province of West Pakistan'
are being revived, las Bela Will become one of
the 'Dictricts' of the Baluchistan. Province.
Though placed within the pilitical boun daries
of Baluchistan since the middle of the 18th
century. in its hictorical background, ethnology
and language the las Bela country has been
essentially Sindhian in character. Its language
represents one of the oldest dialects of Sindhi
folklore.
the first edition
of this work has been thoroughly revised and
enlarged by adding fresh materials collected
during the course of the last two decades.
Beside the mansucript records used, three field
trips were undertaken in 1961, 1962 and 1963 to
the wifferent parts of las Bola and a
substantial amount of oral tradition was
recorded. As a result' the scope of the ten
chapters (IV-XIII) in the first edition has been
enlarged and some seven chapters (II, VII &
XVI-XX) Based on fresh materials have been added.
To make the
contents of the poetic lore more meaningful, the
first tree chapters in this edition-on the
history, ethnolgy and language-have been made
more comprehencive by using the hitherto
unpublished material. In particular, the land
Grant Documents preserved with wadero Alimurad,
the headman of the burra community (in Uthal),
which have ben used in this edition(pp.15-22)
throw a fresh light on the Goonga dynasty and
the early rulers of the jam Dynasty. that a
'Land grant Document' of the year 1107h (1695)
has remained preserved to this day, underlines
the need for a more thorough search community
heads and the private families. the official
record of the las bela state, which could not be
availadel to the pre sent writer, also needs to
be looked into carefully for earlier documents
which may help in reconstructing the past
history of las bela.
N.A Baloch
Sind University
Hyderabad sind.
may 18,1970
Preface to the Second Edition
This book was first published in 1951 When las
bela was a princely State of Baluchistan. In
1956. its status as a 'State' was terminated and
it was designated as a 'District' and attached
to the newly created 'Krache Wivision' of the
integrated 'Province of west Pakistan'.
Currently when the former Provinces which were
integrated into the 'Province of west Pakistan'
are which were integrated into the 'Province of
west Pakistan' are being revived, Las Bela will
become one of the 'Districts' of the daries of
Baluchistan since the middle of the 18th
century, in its historical background, ethnology
and language the Las beal country bas been
essentially Sinchian in character. Ias bela
country has been essentially Sindhian in
character. Its language represents one of the
oldest dialects of sindhi, and its poetical lore
is intimately related to the sinchi folklore.
the first edition of this work has been
thoroughly revised and enlarged by adding fresh
materials collected during the course of the
last two decades. Beside the mansucript records
used, three field trips were undertaken in 1961,
1962 and 1963 to the different parts of Las bela
and a substantial amount of oral tradition was
recorded. As a result, the scope of the ten
chapters (IV-XIII) in the first edition has been
enlarged and some seven chapters (II, VII &
XVI-XX) based on fresh materials have been added.
To make the contents of the poetic lore more
meaningful, the first three chapters in this
edition-on the history, ethnology and languge-
have been made more comrehensive by using Grant
Documents preserved with wadero Alimurad, the
headman of the Burra community (in Uthal), which
have been used in this edition (pp. 15-22) throw
a fresh light on the Goonga Dynasty and the
early rulers of the jam dynasty. that a 'Land
Grant met some of the tomost sughhars and rawis
of the State and had markas (socio-cyltural and
literrary discussions) with them. They recited
verses and related anecdotes which ther had
learnt from their predecessors (sughhars and
rawis) and I performed the pleasant taks of
reducing them to writing for the first time.
This collection became the basis for this book.
Later, in August 1946, further investigations
led me to the discovery of a Sindhi manuscript
in a suburd of Karachi, in which a well known
sughhar, Shaikh Saindad, had written down all
the poms that he had learnt by heart. I collated
my collection from Uthal with shaikh saindad's
version and also abbed to it a large number of
poems from has manuscript.
Furher inquiry into the subject came to an end
as I had to leave for higher studies abroad and
sailed for the U.S.A in august, 1946. A Long
journey by boat, from bombay to san francisco,
provided a most useful leisure time during which
i was able to scrutinize the material which had
been hurriedly collected, prepared the basic
plan of the book, and completed the intro
duction and the first three chapters. Two more
chapters, IV and v, were written at the
Columbia University praticularly due to the
interest of a gook friend, murial, my class-mate
at the tea chers Clloegh, a person of catholic
taste who showed a great deal of interest in the
history and literature of pakistan. It was agrin
after returning from the U.S.A. in May, 1949
that a pretty long period of unemploment (May
1950) remaining seven chapters sooner than i had
expecte.
But much still remained to be done by way of
filling in the gaps in the biographical accounts
of the poets and providing glosses and comments
wherever necessary. for, in some cases, the
rawis had simpay recited the poems without
knowing anything about their contexts. Not less
difficult was the task of comprehending the
correct meaning and significance of many words
of the indigenous sindhi dialect of Las beal in
which the poems were composed. while the rawis
at Uthal recited the poems, each one of them
with his own peculiar pronunciation subjected
the various words to complicating colloquial
deflections. It was a delicate task to catch up
with their peculiar phonetics and reduce their
verbal versions corretly to writing The
difficulties of correct recoring were partly
solved when on a tour of the South-West Sind
dudhi rawis who recited to me, in a clearer
intonation, a large number of poms which I had
already collected. Subsequently, I was able to
contact a few more rawis of las bela proper in
Karachi who gave their own versions of rnany of
the poems and also recited a few fresh ones.
Thus, meore than one version of most of the
popular poems became available, and through
their collation a fairly correct text was
established, the important variations in the
readings being indicated in the footnotes where-
ever necessary.
An ateempt has also been made to make this book,
as far as possible, comprehensive in scope to
cover the compositions of all the known poest of
Las bela. The introduction and the firs four
chapters, covering nearly half of the book,
provede a general discussion and critical survey
of the various aspects of the Sindhi folk poetry
in general and the poetry of Las bela in
particular. In the remaining eight chapters, the
biogra phical details of most of the poets
followed by a text of their available poems have
been recorded. In all, thirty one poets of the
las bela state have been laid under
contribution. Of them, safar manganhar is the
ealiest one, who possibly flourished befor the
18th century, while yusuf moondaro
is the latest having died about 8 to 10 yeaars
ago. Beside these poets of las bela, about half
a bozen poets of sind proper have also been
cited by way of comparison and contrast. It will
be erroneous to suppose, however, that in all
thirty one poets foourished in the entire las
bela country; these are the only ones whose
poems could be collected through the partial
efforts of the author. The names of many earlier
poets have surely been lost to us, because none
in this backward ain barren land perhaps ever
thought of writing down their poems.
The poets who have been mentioned in this book
mostly belong to the rule of the present dynasty
of the jame of las bela, founded by jam ali khan
khathurua in 1742 A.D. sheikh hummar the first
great poet lived during that period. Sub
sequenty, his son sheikh ibrahim and kabirshah,
the two great contemporaries, flourished
approximately during the second half of the 18th
century and enjoyed the patronage of jam mir
khan II (1776-1818 A.D.). next, during the reign
of jam mir khan II (1830-1888 A.D.). and his son
jam ali khan (1888- 1896 A.D.), poet nim
engjoyed their patronage and became truly the
poet laureate’ of las bela. It was mainly due to
the patronage of the jam rulers, that all these
poets made a mark by their poetic genius and
also inspired the yonger generations with a true
love and appreciation for poetry, with the
result that the poetical tradition fo the 18th
century was kept alive by the poets of the
succeeding generations- a process that has
continued on to this day.
An attempt has been made in this book to
analyse, explain and follow up in detaii the
poetical tradition of las bela from the later
half of the 18th century to the
present day. Being a preliminary work in this
hitherto unexplored field, the present volume
may have more than a few shortcominge, but it
merits attention because it bringe to light for
the first time an immense body fo sindhi verse
hitherto unknown and unpublished. Inci
dentially, the historical context of some of the
poems, the family background of the poets, and
their values of, and attitudes to wards, life as
expressed through their verses reveal the social
and culiural setting of the society to which
they belonged. Their poetry, therefore, provides
an interesting data which may be useful to those
assiduous students of sociology and cultural
anthropology who may become interested in the
study of the las bela state, rather a distinct
part of balushistan.
N.A. baloch
Karachi, Ma 28, 1951 |
