HISTORY OF SHAH ABDUL LATIF BHITTAI

HISTORY OF SHAH ABDUL LATIF BHITTAI

SHAH ABDUL LATIF of Bhit, called simply' Shah' or 'Monarch’ is a unique figure in literature. He is not only the greatest of Sindhi writers, but he has been equated with the literature of his land, as if he were co-terminous with Sindhi literature. The first foreigners who explored the civilization and culture of Sind thought that Shah was the only Poet and Philosopher Sind had produced, and the universal vogue of Shah-Jo-Risalo, or Shah's Poetical Works, in the land of the Sindhu, inclined them to believe that the Risalo was the only literary work in the Sindhi language.

There is a legend that when they asked Shah whether he was a Sunni Muslim or a Shia, he said he was neither, he was in ¬between. And when someone said:  There is nothing in¬ between', he said, Then I am Nothing.' Muslim writers have shed quite needless ink to discuss what kind of Sufi he was: did he belong to the Qadiri order, or the Chishti order? He had something which neither of the Orders had, and no preceptor of either of these Orders could claim to have initiated him into Sufism. So someone asks, was he then of the Uwesi type of Sufi, a man who has not had a preceptor or Murshid? No defi¬nite reply is possible.

A man who could don the garb of Hindu Jogis, wander with them for years, make pilgrimages to Hingla, Dwarka and other sacred places of the Hindus, a man who broke, without the slightest compunction, the Islamic injunction against Samaa or Dance-music, and died tasting the pleasure of that Dance-music, a man who went out of his way, in that era of Kalhora bigotry, to pull out from a crowd of fanatic Muslims a poor Hindu whom they were proceeding to convert forcibly to Islam, could hardly be regarded as a Muslim, pure and simple. It is noteworthy that one of the constant and dear friends of Shah was Madan, a Hindu, and the two musicians who comforted his soul, Atal and Chanchal, were also Hindus.

If, in Sur Kalyan he referred to Prohpet Mahomed as the Karni or the' Cause' of creation, or elsewhere he imagined the rain cloud wafting across Islamic lands and she Iding grateful showers over the Tomb of the Prophet, or if he quoted or referred to the verses of the Koran in more than a hundred places in the Risalo, it only shows his faith and poetic fervour and his understanding of the audi¬ence to whom he was addressing his poetry.

It does not show propagandist zeal or dogmatism. Were everything that he wrote to perish and only one or two Surs like Sur Ramkali to survive, there would be no difficulty in demonstrating that Shah had affinity with Hindus and their religion. G. M. Syed, in his thoughtful book, Paigham-e-Latif or Message of Latif, has drawn a comparison between a poet of Pan-Islamism, or an essentially Islamic poet like Iqbal, and a patriotic and nationalist poet like Shah. When Shah was praying to God to shower plenty and prosperity upon Sind, in lines dear to every Sindhi, he was doubtless visualising Sind as an integral part of Hind.

No reader of Shah can forget that the entire poetry of Shah is cast in the traditional ragas and raginis of Indian poetry, his heroes and heroines are Indians, every inch, and that the con¬tent of his poetry is Indian, medieval no doubt, but medieval Indian, and not Central Asiatic, .or West Asiatic. The shrewd readers of Shah have noted that in all his story-poems the woman is the lover and the male person the one sought after-in the fashion peculiar to Indian poets alone.

After the Partition of India, the Pakistani Sindhis have done more systematic work on Shah and his Risalo than their Hindu counterparts in India. As long as Sind was a separate Province, in Pakistan, the Government of Sind did much to finance research and scholarship on Shah, and endowed a cultural centre at Bhit, the place of Shah. The Muslim scholar who deserves praise for editing the Surs of Shah left unedited by Dr. Gurbaxani was GhulamMd. Shahwani, who brought out a complete edition of the Risalo with Introduction and Notes in 1950, following strictly in the footsteps of Dr. Gurbaxani. Muslim scholars, whose names deserve mention for work done on Shah. are those of Md. Ibrahim Joyo, editor Mihran, Nabibux Baloch, Head of Sindhi Studies in Sind University, Pir Hasarnuddin Rashdi (writer of a brochure in Urdu on Sindhi Adab or literature), Lutfullah Badvi (author of a History of Sindhi Poetry in three volumes), and Taj Md. Agha (writer of Aks-e-Latif 1951, Shah's life in Urdu).

Special mention must be made of Ayaz, most eminent of living Sindhi poets and translator in Urdu of the Risa!o, Din Mohamed Wafai, author of Luti-ai-Lau] (1951) perhaps the most readable book produced in Pakistan (in Sindhi) on Shah. Ghulam Murtaza Syed, author of a brilliant analysis of Shah's Thought and Mentality (Paigham-e-Latif), and above all of that gracious couple, Imdad Kazi (most recent editor of the Risaloi, and Mrs.

Elsa Kazi, poet and translator of Shah's lyrics. The number of Muslims writing on Yadgar-e-Latif or Tributes and Homage to Shah in pamphlets and magazines is simply legion: the Mihran as well Nai Sind, and Goth Sudhar, with their annual special Shah issues, cannot be ignored by anyone who loves Shah.

In Bharat, that is India, there are three post-Partition writers on Shah whose names deserve special mention. Kalyan Advani has done solid work on Shah by annotating all the Surs of Shah in a sumptuous one-volume publication which it is a pleasure to read and handle. His book on Shah is a  must' for every student of Shah. Fatehchand Vaswani's Selections from Shah, with scholarly chapters of} various aspects of Shah's personality and poetry, are interesting and instructive. Ram Ranjwani, in his (Sindhi) Seven Stories from Shah, has dramatised some of the best Surs in Shah with chapters on folklore, to which the present writer has furnished an Introduction on Shah's role as the voice or interpreter of Sind.

Shah Latif's father was according to tradition, a holy man, but his great-grandfather, Shah Karim of Bulri, was a much more renowned and revered personage. Shah Karim's holiness was such as has eclipsed his very genuine claim to being a Poet and let some admirers think of him only as a holy man. Actually, Shah Karim is the greatest poet in Sindhi before his great¬grandson came on the scene, and the framework (Hindi doha) of his hundred or so verses, and their content (Sindhi folklore and Sufism), have been adopted in Shah's poetry, and Karim's corn¬positions intermingled with those of Shah. Shah Latif had not to undergo that discipline of extreme poverty which his great-¬grandfather had to, nor to face the ordeals which his ancestor did. Shah Karim was from the first inclined to a life of monas¬ticism and celibacy, and he had to contract a marriage because he could not very well say  nay' to his elders. There was nothing of that other-worldliness in Shah Latif who was through", out life a normal, healthy man, free from sensuality and greed. but as willing and able to enjoy friendship, love, and social intercourse as any other man.

And Shah Latif had not to hold the plough and face starvation as his distinguished forbear had to. There is nothing to show that Shah Karim undertook long journeys, and sojourned into distant lands, like Shah Latif. Shah Karim's life was secluded. Shah Latif's life was open and a centre of attraction for kindred spirits. Shah Karim knew not princes nor their courts, but Shah Latif. if he did not become a high judicial officer like Qazi Qazan, the first authentic Sindhi poet, enjoyed the esteem and regard of the Kalhora rulers of the land and bigwigs like Makhdurns, even though he might first have awakened their jealousy and ire. The most famous of the Kalhora rulers, Ghulam Shah Kalhora, was born to Kalhora Noor Mahomed because of the blessing of Shah Latif. And this Kalhora Noor Mahomed actually tested Shah's strength of mind and self restraint by leaving him alone with a bevy of maidens, good to. look at but not very particular in their morals, And when Shah disdained their charms and wiles, the Kalhora ruler twitted him about his puritanism, to meet with a reply; the last line of which has become current in the Sindhi language:

Shah is never a townsman or a courtier; his poetry is not of the market-place of the church cloisters, nor of the learned Pandits and lawgivers. So, some critics have mistaken him for a rustic poet. If rustic means that he was of the countryside it is alright to call him rustle-but if 'rustic' denotes ignorance of culture, boorishness or narrowness of mind and sympathies, Shah was anything but a rustic. Any man or woman, however, highly trained or polished, will find something in Shah's Risalo to teach him gentleness of manners, catholicity of sympathies, and breadth of vision. Sorely, otherwise a devoted admirer of Shah, lays too much stress upon the rusticity of Shah and brings him down a peg lower than Rurni, Jami, and Hafiz, famous

Persian poets :

No might is here of Roumi's verse

No Jami's soul-wrapt music swings.

No high-tuned note of Hafiz wit

Within your humble minstrel rings.

Dr. Sorley condescends to distribute some praise to Shah, too, but as the poet of Islam:

And yet-strange paradox it be,

That not less searching is the calm,

The simple magic of his lays

Than wise, deep utterance of Islam.'

The first place to which Shah repaired for pilgrimage was Ganja Takar near modern Hyderabad (a city which came into existence a short while after Shah's death). Shah had a darshan of Goddess Kali's image in the temple of the goddess at Ganja Takar. Then he proceeded with Hindu Jogis to the famous Hindu pilgrimage centre of Hinglaj in Las Bela State, Baluchis¬tan, following the route along the modern route to Karachi (then a small fishing-place). In conformity with the usage of Hindu pilgrims, Shah donned the ochre-coloured garments of Hindu Sanyasis. On the way from Ganja Takar to Hinglaj Shah pass¬ed by Hilaya Hill, and Keenjhar Lake. He saw the place where Jam Tarnachi had had his dalliance with the fisher-girl Nuri or Gandr i, and referred to it, afterwards, in Sur Kamal. Near Karachi on the side of present Manora port, he saw Kalachi whirlpool, where a big crocodile lay hidden which had taken the toll of sixbrothers of Mari the fisherman. Shah has referred to Kalachi in his poetry. On the way to Karachi, Shah saw Bambhor, the place of the most famous heroine in Sindhi legends and song, Sasui. It was not easy to make way through the wilderness after crossing the Hab river. Shah had a firsthand experience of the desolate spots, hills and sand-dunes through which Sasui had to make her way in frantic search of Pun hun, her lover. Then Shah reached the fabled Hara mountain and Hingol riverlet. It was after an arduous journey that Shah and his fellow-pilgrims reached Hinglaj.