Chapter Seven The Period of Shah Latif

 Chapter Seven

The Period of Shah Latif

(1690-1782 AD)

1- Politically, this era consisted of the last decade of the Mughal Nawabs (Aristocracy) and of the period of reign by the Kalhora rulers (1700-1782 AD). Shah Latif was born in 1690 AD during the era of the Mughal rule (1), 10 years before the beginning of the rule by the indigenous Kalhora dynasty (1700 AD to 1782 AD). The progress made by the Sindhi language by that time will be discussed in detail in this chapter.

The basis of analysis of the progress of Sindhi language in the times of Shah Latif depends on the material including sufistic literature during this period, in addition to the religious, creative and folk literature. The material on Sindhi phonetics, linguistics and lexicography can also be considered. In addition to this, the influence of Arabic and Persian languages on Sindhi vocabulary and grammar will also be analyzed in this chapter. There are two ways to get such materials for the study and analysis of this kind; one that is written in the form of literary manuscripts (that may be published some time in future), and the other material can be acquired from what is generally called Oral or Folk literature. A part of this oral or folk literature has been published by the Sindhi Adabi Board and other institutions, but a significant part of such literature is still hidden in the hearts of the sughars. This material (oral or folk literature) has been passed on by one generation to the other. One can add to this, the matter available in the libraries or hidden treasures not yet seen by the scholars of the Sindhi language, just as the poetry revealed through research of Dr. Muhammad Hassan, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Dr. Murlidhar Jetli.

It is because of these materials that we understand how Sindhi language has been in the process of its evolution in every era. The main reason for this is that the political, social and economic conditions have been changing in every era and secondly the changes of circumstances and society also had their role in influencing the language. Social and political events affecting the society also had a direct effect on Sindhi literature and language. Hence with the passage of time, newer ways and trends have been witnessed in the literature and language. Mr. Karim Bux Channa is absolutely right when he says:

“Language can never be invented by an individual and just like the human civilization and culture, language too is formed as a result of numerous conscious and subconscious acts enacted by the effects of historic events, cultural relationships and societal changes. Sindhi language also cannot deviate from this common principle.” (2)

Sindhi language is an ancient language, so is its educational and literary status. One can say that every language is learnt in its very own indigenous atmosphere. It has been proven from the seals found from Mohen-jo-Daro that there existed some form of a language in that civilization, which was not only spoken but written as well. This means that there must have been some system and arrangement for learning and teaching the language. There must have been some pathshaalas (schools) or similar institutions where the art of reading and writing was taught. In this regard, the letters found written on the shards retrieved from Bhambore and Brahamanabad, and after that period in the Arab and the Soomra period, till 1017 to 1031 AD i.e. for 15 years, were analyzed by researchers like Al-Beruni and other scholars as mentioned in the earlier chapters.

2- (a) A detailed discussion and suggestions have been given in the book “Sindhi Boli-a jo Abhiaas” (A Study of Sindhi language) in the chapter titled “The Present Status of Sindhi Language, Its Future and Progress”. The teaching of Sindhi in the Soomra period, as a medium of religious education, training of writing and communication skills for trade and commerce and other subjects and their arrangements are mentioned in detail in that chapter. (3) In this context the possible curriculum for such education has been mentioned; and it has been explained at length that the Sindhi language in addition to being the commonly spoken language, was also used for education, religious preaching and commercial communication. Different cities had separate scripts even before the Soomra period. The crux of this entire narrative is that in the Soomra period, Sindhi language was present in religious literature, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, social and various other sciences, along with poetry and lyrical prose.

(b) From the Soomra to the Kalhora periods, numerous schools, seminaries and centers of education were established in many cities of Sindh like Thatta, Lahri Bander, Joon, Fateh Bagh, Sehwan, Nasarpur, Aghamani, Darbeli, Baberlo, Hala Kandi, Bakhar, Khuhra etc, where great scholars of Hadith and other subjects used to teach. Thatta had acquired the status of a Educational Gateway in the Islamic world and Sindh had become famous in the Muslim world for its proficiency in religious education, knowledge of the Holy Quran, Islamic jurisprudence and Hadith.

In the period of Shah Latif, Sindhi language had been established with a sound base in the fields of education and literature. It contained a large treasure of words in the poetry and prose as has been discussed in the earlier chapters.

Before analyzing the evolution of Sindhi language in Shah Latif’s period, wemust have a look at the scholars, poets, writers, historians, religious clerics, lexicographers and masters of prose and folk literature present in that period who served the Sindhi language by contributing to its folk, religious and common literature. One has also to look as to how the creative work and translations done by these scholars, poets and writers can be divided into various subjects?

Following is a brief account of the literary persons, poets and religious scholars etc who represent the era of Shah Latif:

(a) Religious scholars:

Makhdoom Abul- Hassan, Makhdoom Ziauddin, Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, Moulvi Abdul Khalique, Moulvi Muhammad Hussain, Makhdoom Muhammad Ibrahim Bhatti, Makhdoom Ghulam Muhammad Bugaai, Qazi Abdul Karim, Makhdoom Abdullah Waiz of Narya, Muhammad Shareef Ranipuri, Makhdoom Muhammad Moeen Thattvi (1682-1748 AD/1093-1161 AH), Shaikh Muhammad Hayat Muhadis Sindhi (1163 AH/1749 AD) (4), Haji Faqirullah Alvi (1195 AH/1780 AD), Mir Abdur Rasheed Thattvi, Haji Muhammad Qaim Sindhi (RIP 1157 AH/1744 AD) (5), Makhdoom Roohullah Bakhri, Makhdoom Abdul Wahid Sehwani (1150-1224 AH/1737-1889 AD)

Some of these scholars shall be introduced in detail here (6):

(i) Shaikh Muhammad Hayat Muhadis Sindhi: This scholar was a resident of the ancient city called Adil Pur. Some famous scholars who were his students are: Shaikh Ahmad Bin Abdur Rehman, Shaikh Muhammad Saeed Sagheer, Syed Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami, Shaikh Ghulam Hussain Thattvi Madni who was a contemporary of Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi and who held numerous educational and literary meetings with Makhdoom Thattvi. He had authored numerous books and died in Madina and was buried in Jannatul Baqee.

(ii) Shaikh Muhammad Abid Sindhi: He was a great religious scholar and a master of Islamic jurisprudence of his time. He was born in the ancient city of Sehwan in Sindh. The Emperor of Madina had appointed him as a chief scholar of the time. He wrote numerous books and after his death he was buried in Jannatul Baqee.

(iii) Haji Muhammad Qaim Sindhi: He was also a great scholar and had remained a student of Makhdoom Rehmatullah Sindhi. He was a scholar of the stature of Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi and was held in immense esteem by his contemporary scholars. He produced some famous scholars like Muhammad Baqar Waiz and Makhdoom Noor Muhammad Nasarpuri who were also famous scholars of their times.

(iv) Makhdoom Roohullah Bakhri : This famous scholar was born in the city of Bakhar which was famous for its education and history. He was also a good poet. He had a poetic exchange of ideas with Mir Qane over the succession and death of Nadir Shah Irani.

(v) Makhdoom Abdul Wahid Sehwani: He was a scholar quite famous as an Islamic jurist and cleric. His father lived in Paat from where they relocated and came to settle in Sehwan where he was born.

His grandfather Abdul Wahid had also been a famous scholar and mufti. He was a good poet of Persian language and his poetic name was Wahidi.

• Poets and Mystics:

Shah Inayat Sufi Shaheed, Shah Inat Rizvi, Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari Shareef, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sahibdino Faqeer Farooqui, Sachal Sarmast, Rohal Faqeer, Sabit Ali Shah, Ghulam Ali Madaah, Syed Muhammad Baqa, Makhddom Abdur Raheem Girhoree, Inayat Dero, Madan Bhagat, Tamar Faqeer, Mian Sarfaraz Khan Abassi, Muhammad Qaim Sindhi (1157 AH/1744 AD), Abul Qasim Sindhi Naqshbandi (1130 Ah/1717 AD), Shewak Ram Atarad, Muhammad Panah Ruja, Najamuddin Izlat, and Ghulam Ali Momin were famous literary personalities of Sindhi and Persian languages.

(c) Historians:  Mir Ali Sher Qane (1727-1779 AD/1140-1203AH).

(d) Poets (sughars) of folk literature: Jalal Khatti, Shaikh Hamar, Juman Charan and Mian Sarfaraz Khan Abbassi.

3- The educational and literary material created or translated during the period of Shah Latif (Kalhora period) is discussed at length according to the subjects later in the chapter, but their subject-wise categorization can be done as under:

• Religious literature (and tafseer): This consists of the biography of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), religious principles and beliefs, explanation of prayers (Salat) and ablution (Wudoo), edicts of Shariah, and translations of Holy Quran and other religious literature.
• Poetry: consisting of chhand, Salok, dohra, bait, doha, soratha and
• Poetry based on lyricism: kafi, vaee and
• Uroozi (Persian meters) poetry: like ghazal, rubaee, qaseeda, musadas, munaqaba, marsia, noha, salam
• Folk literature: sutra, bole, chawnioon, pahaka, gujhaaratoon, seengar bait, dhahsnama, hunar, dith, dore, maulood, madahoon and nar bait.
• Prose: muqafa, musaja based phrases, bole, pahaka, chawanhioon, sooter and

Dr. Abdul Jabbar Junejo writes in his book named Sindhioon:

“Even though there was a trend of using Arabic and Persian in the Kalhora period, yet the scholars gave a lot of attention to the mother-tongue. The work of writing and publishing in Sindhi started in the period of Persian supremacy (Parsi Ghoṛe Chaṛhsee). The writing of poetic literature was due to two reasons; one, the scholars and writers had started realizing the importance of Sindhi, after a continuous period of education and writing in Persian. The second reason was meant for preaching method. Hazrat Shaikh Yousufuddin Baghdadi, a descendant of Hazrat Pir Abdul Qadit Jilani came to Sindh for the purpose of preaching and scores of people embraced Islam. In order to preach and explain the problems and edicts of religion and Shariah, it was essential that they be taught in their mother-tongue (Sindhi), as understanding of these principles was easier in their own mother-tongue. This was very similar to the way of the Ismaili pirs and preachers of the Soomra period, who spread their message through native languages in a better and effective way.” (7)

Dr. Junejo continues:

“Makhdoom Abul Hassan laid the foundation of Sindhi poetry of Alif Ashbaá that became common in the Kalhora period. This type of Sindhi poem was in effect a movement for the progress of Sindhi language.” (8)

The poem, Dr. Junejo is referring to, has subjects of religious nature. These subjects throw light clearly on the Islamic principles, Shariah and related issues, some of which are as under:

Salat (Prayers), Wudoo (ablution), Hajj, heredity, Islamic principles, jurisprudence, life of Holy Prophet (pbuh), ways and manners, Zakat, fasting, charity, haraam, halal, moral values, the qualities of faith, going to tombs and shrines of pious men to pray, visiting cemeteries, raising holy structures, magic, superstitious threads, dressing, education and skills etc. This poem also contains the explanation of the Holy Quran, all written in Sindhi language.

Besides the spiritual and religious literature, that era was one of the zeniths of folk literature. In addition to dohiro, bait, vaee and poetic prose. Uroozi (Persian meters) poetry was founded in this era. Makhdoom Abdul Rauf Bhatti (1682-1752 AD) composed mauloods based on the Persian meters (urooz) and compiled madahoon and moajza on the pattern of long poems like Makhdoom Abul Hassan. In addition to this scholar, Mian Sarfaraz Khan Kalhoro compiled his famous madah on the Persian meter (urooz). A couple of verses from that are presented here as an example:

ڀلا ڄام، هن غلام، سندو سوال سڻج تون،

آهيان ڏڏ، غمن گڏ، سچا سڏ سڻج تون

پسي پاڻ، ڪرم ساڻ، ڏکين ڏاڻ، ڏئين تون.

bhāla jāma, hina ghulam, sando sawāl suṇij tūn,

āhiyān dad ġaman gad, sachā sada suṇij tūn

pase pān, karam sāṇ, dukhin dāṇ, diyeen tūn.

The important thing about this era has been mentioned by Dr. Baloch in his book on page 351, he writes:

“The wise scholars of Sindh worked on developing educational ideas and produced a lot of educational material for learning and teaching in Sindhi, which was of a very high literary standard. In order to attract the students, all the teachers and scholars provided this material in the compiled format. All the 49 subjects present in this collection are poetic in nature, which for the sake of ease may be called manzoomia. These 15 known compilers were not poets but knew how to compose a poem and had the knowledge of baits and kafis. These compilations are an important educational treasure, being academic as well as a literary collection.” (9)

Dr. Baloch has also given references of the language of these compilations and writes on page 368 as:

“It is clear that the language used in these compilations is very old and the subjects compiled are also very old. Even though the scribe ‘Izzat Bin Suleman’ copied this material in 1067-1069 AD, but certainly most of this material had existed even before that.” (10)

In this era, a poet named Syed Sabit Ali Shah Karbalai wrote war poetry razmia, and marsia in the meters of ghazal and  rubaee. Other poets and scholars of this era include Makhdoom Abul Hassan, Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, Makhdoom Ziauddin and numerous others who explained the Islamic principles and described and praised the qualities of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). (11)

A list of names of the poets and scholars of Shah Latif’s era has been given earlier in this chapter who wrote books in poetic prose, or in the form of kabat as Dr. Junejo calls them. He has named these compositions as Abul Hassan’s Sindhi, Makhdoom Ziauddin’s Sindhi etc. and on this ground he has collectively called them as Sindhioon. (12) This book will not deal with the subjects of these Sindhioon but with the language used in them and will try and analyze that.

4- (a) The book “Makhdoom Abul Hassan ji Sindhi” was written by the author in long poetic prose in 1700 AD, named as “Muqadmatul Salat”, but the book is commonly known by the former name. This book has been written in Arabic-Sindhi script in the Naskh style. It is considered as the second such book in the Sindhi language as the first book (according to Dr. Nabi Bukhsh Khan Baloch) is the Sindhi Risalo (poetic works) of Shah Lutfullah Qadri. It was Shah Qadri’s first such endeavour as mentioned in the chapter 5; but after having known about the books copied by Izzat Bin Suleman, we will have to reconsider such an opinion.

Makhdoom Abul Hassan had written the “Muqadmatul Salat” for the newly converted Muslims of that time and the students of his own seminary who had problems in understanding the Islamic principles and Shariah related issues in Arabic and Persian languages. The subjects pertaining to Islamic teachings that he explained using long poetic prose in Sindhi were: the need to pray, the way of ablution, bathing, washing the corpses before burial, the various types of praying modalities like farz, wajib, sunnat etc. Khanbahadur Memon opines about this book as under:

“Makhdoom Abul Hassan was the first to start this type of work in Sindhi.” (13)

In view of Dr. Baloch’s opinion, one needs to modify Khanabahadur Memon’s point of view and should infer/say that this type of work in the Arabic-Sindhi script had started long before even Shah Lutfullah Qadri. A sample of the language used by Makhdoom Abul Hassan in Muqadmatul Salat is reproduced below: (14)

 (1) ڪارڻ طلب طالبين، رسالو لکيوم

مقدمة الصلواة سنڌي، نالو تنهن رکيوم.

kāraṇ talab tāliben, risālo likhyom

muqadma tul salāt sindhi, nālo tanhan rakhyom

(2) صورت سجدي سَهوَ جي، هن پر پروڙيج،

جيئن سلام سڄي پار ڏانهن، ڏيئي ٻه سجدا ڪريج،

تهان پوءِ تحيات سين، دعا درود پڙهيج

تانپو ٻنهي پارن ڏانهن، سلام سنئون واريج.

sūrat sajde sahav jī, hina par parūṛej,

jīyan salām saje pāra dānh, deyī ba sajdā karej

tihān poye tahyāt sīn, duā durūd paṛhej,

tanpo binhee paran danh, salam sanon wareej

(3) ابول عبدالعزيز پٽ، پڇي پڙهين کان،

هي مسئلا نماز جا، ساري سنڌي واءُ،

ته مانَ مومن تن کي، سکن سهج منجھان،

هن ڪمينيءَ کي ڪن ڪا، ڪارڻ ڌڻيءَ دعا،

سبب تنهن شال ڇٽي، هي عاضي عذابا،

سين مڙئي مومنين، جي اُمتي نبيءَ جا،

الاهي ابوالحسن ٿو، منگي تو مُلا،

موليٰ مهربان تون، سائين سٻاجھا.

abol abdulaziz put, puchhe paṛhyen khan,

he masala namaz ja, sare sindhi wau,

ta maan momin tin khe, sikhan sahaj manjhan

hina kameene khe kan ka, karaṇ dhaṇi-a dua,

sabab tenh shaal chhute, hee aazee azaaba,

seen miṛayee momninan, je umati nabi-a ja,

ilahi abual hassan tho, mange to mula,

maula meharban toon, sayeen sabajha

            Khanbahadur Memon has written on page 165 of his book “Sindhi Adab ji Tareekh” (History of Sindhi Language):

“The poem about the Islamic principles is very simple, and is just like poetic prose.” (15)

It is clear from the above quoted examples from the poem by Makhdoom Abul Hassan that he has used the commonly used language of his times in his aforementioned book. It does not contain difficult and complicated speech and he has used the Larri dialect. The words from the Larri dialect are abundantly found in his poems, some of which are not in use now. For example:

He has also used pronominal suffixes in his language and there is no difference except that the dialect is Larri.

Most of the scholars of that period, especially those from the Larr region followed his way of using long poems in his book “Makhdoom Abul Hassan ji Sindhi”, but it certainly appears that the “Sindhi Risalo” by Shah Lutfullah Qadri (1611-1679 AD/1020-1090 AH) is perhaps a quarter of a century or more older than Makhdoom Abul Hassan. There are significant differences in the poems of both the manuscripts although both the books were written for teaching a similar subject.

Dr. Baloch writes in this regard:

“The magnificent text book “Abul Hassan ji Sindhi” and the academic book on the subject of tareeqat, “Shah Lutfullah Qadri jo Risalo”, are both the first books of a very high standard and they clearly show that the movement for teaching and training in one’s own mother tongue achieved its desired goal in this era, so much so that the great teachers of the educational institutions and the foreign scholars and researchers paid full attention to use the medium of Sindhi language; so that the students and others could learn with ease and interest in their own language.” (16)

Several books about religious education and other textbooks were written or translated one after the other in Sindhi language. They were known as Sindhi. The books were as follows:

b- Makhdoom Ziauddin Ji Sindhi:

This book by Makhdoom Ziauddin (1677-1757 AD/1088-1171 AH)  was a text book for religious training and its subjects were: How to pray, Islamic principles and edicts, the seven pillars of faith, cleanliness of body and soul, method of ablution, narratives about the ghusl, wajib, sunnat and mustahab, zakat, hajj and fasting etc. A sample of his poem and the language used in it is reproduced below.

ست ادب موچارا، وضُوءَ جا سڻيج،

دستار لاهي مٿي اُتان، گوڏي تي رکيج،

پهريائين پاڻي ڪرِئان، هٿ جيڻي هاريج،

پوءِ تون ڏائي هٿ کي، اُن پر پاڪ ڪريج،

ڌوئي هٿ ڪرائيءَ سين، ٻئي ڦُٽرا ڪريج،

پاڻي نڪ ۽ وات کي، ساري سڦرو ڏيج،

ڏندڻ هر ئي ڪ سڪي سين، وات کي سوئيج،

جي نه لڀي ڏندڻ ڪي، ته آڱُر هلائيج،

غرغرا ۽ گرڙيون، موچاريون ڪريج.
Sata adaba mochara, wudu-a ja suṇej

dastaar laahe mathe utan, dode te rakhej

pahryaeen paṇi kariyan, hatha jeṇi harej,

poye toon dayee hatha khe, un par paak karej

dhoyee hatha karai-a seen, bayi phutra karej,

paaṇi naka & wata khe, sare saphro dej,

dandaṇ harie ki suke seen, waat khe soyej,

je na labhe dandaṇ ki, ta aanguru halayej

ġharġhara ayin guriṛyoon, mocharyoon karej

Dr. Junejo writes about the language used by Makhdoom Ziauddin:

“His vocabulary, pronunciation and use of pronominal suffixes belong to the Larri dialect. The language used in the poems of Makhdoom Ziauddin is not different from that of Abul Hassan.” (17)

Dr. Junejo has reproduced some words from the language used by Makhdoom Ziauddin on page 54 in his book; they are as under (18):

“bharko (turn),  harṇe (slow), wato (part), watarran (boil), soodho (straight), akardo (independent), kheto (misbehave), giraṇ (buy) and  kijah (do).”

”ڀرڪو (ڀيرو)، هَرڻي (آهستي)، واٽو (ڀاڱو)، وَٽارڻ (اوٻارڻ)، سوُڌو (سنئون)، آڪردو (آجو)، کيٽو (اَنگلَ) ۽ ڳِرَڻ (ڳنهڻ) ۽ وٺڻ ۽ ڪجاه = ڪجو.“

Makhdoom Ziauddin has used typical and difficult words of Arabic and Persian languages as well, some of which are as under:

muhakum (محڪم), qayam (قيام), qaul (قول), aajiz (عاجز), aasi (عاصي), fazal (فضل), karam (ڪرم), zalalat (ضلالت), balaġhat (بلاغت), ġhusul (غسل), sidq (صدق), qatro (قطرو), ġhaleez (غليظ), kamil (ڪامل), qaza (قضا), zawal (زوال), fajr (فجر), saġheer (صغير) and ġhaafil (غافل)

As an example, please observe the words used in this poem:

قادر ڏهه بخشيين، وڏي سين ڪرما،

توبہ ڪري تائب ٿيس، ڪر تون قبولا،

qadir daha bakhsheen, wade seen karma,

tobah kare taib thiyas, kar toon qaboola,

(C) Faraiz-ul-Islam:

This book was written by Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi (1690 – 1761 AD/1104 – 1175 AH) originally in the Arabic language which he later translated to Sindhi. This book contains explanation about the tenets of Islam, and has been written in the format of long poems and rhyming of Alif Ashba. As an example, a sample of the Sindhi language used is presented here:

جيڪي فرض سنڌيءَ ۾، عاجز سڻايا

سي ٻارهن سو ٻاهٺ ٿيا، ليکي شمارا،

پر ڪَنهين عالمن هيڪڙو، سو ٽيهه فرض چيا،

لکيائون تن ۾ اَمر سي جي، فرض نه چئبا،

ڇڏيائون فرض ڪيترا، قطعي يج ٿيا،

سَهوَ ٿي اُن کان، بخشين مون موليٰ. (19)

jeke farza sindhi-a men, aajiz suṇaya

se baranh sau bahaṭh thiya, lekhe shumara

par kanheen aaliman hekṛo, so teeha farza chaya,

likhyaoon tin men amar se je, farza na chayeba

chhadyaoon farza ketra, qatayee je thya,

sahav thee una khan, bakhsheen moon maula (19)

Similarly, Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi wrote many other books in the Sindhi language, some of which are:

 Zibah Shikaar urf Rahatul Momineen, Tafseer Hashmi, Zaadul Faqeer Tafseer Tabarak Sindhi etc.

Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi belonged to Larr district Thatta. He has used the Larri dialect of Sindhi language in his books. The grammatical forms in his language are similar to those of the Larri dialect. Khan Bahadur Memon writes in this regard:

“The above quoted example not only shows an example of the Larri dialect but it also proves that the poetic diction does not conform to the syntactical diction of today.” (20)

Some examples of language used in Faraiz-ul-Islam are as under:

 (1) سنت ادب موچارا، وضوءَ جا سڻيج، جي مڙيو هوءِ ڪنهن ماڳ ۾، پاڻي پاڪيزو،

جي هوءِ سو ڏهه ڏهن ۾، سوڌو عذيرو،

اونهائي تنهن پاڻيءَ جي نريءَ جئنِ ڀريو،

غسل اُن ۾، توکي رهيندو (الخ)

sant adab mochara, wudoo-a ja suṇej je

miṛyo hoye kenh maaga meṇ, paaṇi pakeezo,

je hoye so daha dahan men, sodho azeero,

oonhayi tenh paaṇi-a jee niree-a jian bharyo,

ġhusul una men, to khe raheendo

A list of such words used in the book Faraizul-Islam has also been given by Khan Bahadur Memon: (21)

Except for few words in this list, the study of the remaining words of Sindhi language is indeed interesting.

5- (a) Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi was a great scholar of Arabic language and because of his indulgence in Arabic, it was quite usual for him to use Arabic words during speech or writing in Sindhi language. He has used innumerable Arabic words in his books, some of which are as under:

Similarly we analyze the Sindhi language used in other books, it will make this chapter too lengthy, although a list of these books has been given for further reading.

The movement for mother-tongue as medium of education became so effective that every scholar of those times started writing books about religious education in Sindhi language. In this regard, Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi and his students played a very important role.

About the Kalhora period, Dr. Junejo writes:

“The language used by Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi is very scholastic. The words used are nearly the same as used by Makhdoom Abul Hassan, most of which are not in use anymore. The feature that gives Mian Abul Hassan a special place above the other poets is that his vocabulary is much larger than the others except that of Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim.

The language of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai used in this poetry was commonly spoken in the day to day life of that era.” (22)

Dr. Junejo continues:

“The dialect of all these scholars is Larri. From Abul Hassan to Girhoree, none of the scholars are free from the influence of Larr. The accent, pronunciation and the syntactical structure of the language of this period is deeply related to the Larri dialect.” (23)

The form used in the above mentioned books has been termed as kabat by Khanbahadur Memon, he has written:

“The trend of writing kabat in Sindhi language started in the Kalhora period. According to the rules of music (ilm-moseeqi) a verse is called kabat when there are about 15-20 rhyming lines in a meter that is assigned for dohiraa. Sometimes the entire story or play may be written in kabat style. Some indigenous Sindhi stories have been written in this type of poetry by the “Bhat Faqirs” to sing with their special organ called Tanbooro. The poetic Sindhi Noornamo by Maulvi Abdul Rehman consists entirely of verses of this kind, keeping the sound “aa” as the qafia (rhyming word) in the first line and thereafter the entire book ends on the same note.” (24)

This type of poetry has been called poetic prose by Khanbahadur Memon. (25)

Dr. Junejo writes about the poetic structure of kabat as:

“The kabat in Sindhi is related with Chhand (prosody). This view proves that in ancient times, the poetry of Sindhi language benefited from the Chhand.” (26)

A similar opinion was quoted in the early Soomra period (1017 to 1031 AD) by the famous researcher Al-Beruni. He had written that:

“Sindhi scholars and poets possessed the knowledge about Chhand, long before the advent of Islam in Sindh.” (27)

Professor Jhamatmal Bhavnani writes:

“The number of lines in a bait are limited, but there is no such binding for this type of long poem. The number varies from 20-25 to thousands. At places the rhyming word (qafia) changes after every 5-6 lines but at others hundreds of lines contain the same rhyming theme. Like the dohīro (dohra-doha), these are also based on Chhand, where the tunes and musical notes have a major role to play.” (28)

(b) By using this opinion an attempt has been made to prove that Sindhi language had, since ancient times, progressed in Chhand Prosody and the knowledge of music,and a lot of genres of this prosody had come into Sindhi language. Among them, the following genres can be quoted as examples:

Doha-chhand, soratha-chhand, salook, ginan, mat, doha-soratha joined, soratha-doha joined and dahar.

Dr. Junejo writes:

“According to the meter and structure, the said Sindhi poem is related to chanderain, at burva and dakpal chhand. These are chhands of kabat. There is a difference between them and the doha chhand.” (29)

It will be appropriate to mention the opinion of Alberuni, because this type of prosody has a close relation with phonology, a branch of linguistics whereby one can learn about the sonant and silent consonants. According to the principles of phonetics, some consonants are heavy while others are soft; just like some vowels are long and some short, similarly the vowels of Chhand prosody are also long and short but here they are called maatra. The words used by Al-Beruni about Chhand in his days (1017-1031 AD) have been mentioned in earlier chapters but are reproduced here:

“Chhand is based on maatras. Maatras can be long or short. The long maatras are called Drigha and the short ones are called Laghu. The sign for long maatra is (d) د while for the short ones is ا (a). The count of the maatras is called ‘ganachand” i.e. the prosody that depends on count. Light maatra is called Lagho and heavy maatra is called Gurvu. Gurvu is twice the size of Laghu i.e. one Gurvu is equal to 2 Laghus, whereas Drighu and Gurvu are equal to each other. Drighu contains a long vowel and Laghu has a short vowel. I have not yet been able to completely understand Laghu and Gurvu therefore I cannot quote their examples in Arabic. But in as much as I have understood Laghu does not mean that it is a consonant i.e. it is a silent consonant, neither Gurvu should be interpreted as a consonant that is sonant and which also has a vowel attached to it; on the contrary Laghu is that consonant which has a short vowel attached to it in an occult manner, like क ڪ (k), स س (s) have occult or hidden vowels.” (30)

This proves that the people of Sindh were well versed with the phonetics and linguistic principles of Sindhi language and that the language had progressed in this branch of knowledge.

The lines of kabat and the qualities of their structure and meaning, show etymological peculiarities. According to Khanbahadur Memon:

“The poem of Zaadul Faqeer contains the delicacy, sweetness and structure that satisfy the soul like the poetry of Shah Latif. Makhdoom Sahib has not forgotten the alliterations in any line.” (31)

He has mentioned other poetic figures as well, used by Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi in his poetry. They are as under:

Sanat Ishtiqaq , sanat tazaad (opposites) etc.

In this regard, Dr. Junejo writes with reference to the books Muajza and Munaqba compiled by Dr. Baloch:

“The books written by Makhdoom Ghulam Muhammad Bugai and Maulvi Muhammad Salah are of a very high standard in their format and variety of subjects. The poetry of Makhdoom Bugai follows the meters according to principles. The formation of words, correct usage of alliterations makes it fantastic type of poetry. The language of the poems of Makhdoom Bugai and Maulvi Muhammad Salah is literary Sindhi. They have decorated the Sindhi language with effective metaphors and beautiful similes.” (32)

7-  After this introduction of the scholars, writers and poets of the period of Shah Latif (Kalhora period) and services rendered by them, it would be appropriate to provide a list of different subjects of books with names of their authors, years of writing or translating and their role in the progress of Sindhi language.

In addition to these books, Tuhfatul Ikraam, Maklinama, Maqalaatul Shuara, Takamal Makalatul Shuara and many other Persian books were also written in this era, as mentioned before. Mir Ali Sher Qane (1727-1789 AD/1140-1203 AH) was a great scholar and historian of this period who wrote many splendid books and histories in Persian.

Allama Makhdoom Muhammad Moeen (1682-1748 AD/1093-1261 AH) was also a famous scholar and poet of Hindi and Persian in addition to Sindhi; his pen-name was Bairagi.

8- It has been mentioned earlier that by the times of the Mughal rulers, Arabic-Sindhi script (naskh and nastaaleeq) had been established for Sindhi language. In this (Kalhora) period, it was consolidated and fixed by Makhdoom Abul Hassan who wrote his first text book called Muqadmatul Salat in this script which was approved for teaching in all the seminaries of Sindh and later was used all over Sindh. Before this, different scripts like naskh, nastaleeq and ardhnagri were in use for Sindhi. Bayanul Arifeen, Shah Lutfullah Qadri’s Risalo and other such compilations were written in Arabic-Sindhi script but the script used in Muqadmatul Salat addressed most of the issues and in later years nearly all the scholars started using this (Abul Hassan’s) script.

Even though the problem of script for Sindhi language was sorted for some time but it must be mentioned here that this script was not invented by Makhdoom Abul Hassan; As mentioned earlier this script was not only used by Al-Beruni 700 years before Abul Hassan but even 150 years before Al-Beruni in 864 AD by the Arab tourist Jahiz who gave this shape to the script. In fact Makhdoom Abul Hassan used it in his book Muqadmatul Salat by modifying that script. In this context, an article published in the quarterly Mehran (1994/volume 4) by the name of “Arabi-Sindhi Rasmulkhat ji Ibtida lae Weechar” (Thoughts about the beginning of Arabic-Sindhi script) helps a lot; but the first complete books of Sindhi language were the compilations of Izat Bin Suleman, Shah Lutfullah Qadri’s Risalo and Muqaadmatul Salat written in the naskh script. Abul Hassan had written his book in 1700 AD, so he must have used this script in the period of the Mughal rulers because this book was launched in 1700 AD. Dr. Baloch writes in this regard:

“Owing to the lack of knowledge about the history of the script of Sindhi alphabet, it was commonly believed that it was formed with the efforts of the British in the period of their rule. On the other hand the author of the book ‘Literary History of Sindh’ (Sindh ji Adabi Tareekh) assumed from the book called ‘Abul Hassan ji Sindhi’ that a scholar from Thatta i.e. Mian Abul Hassan after modifying the Persian and Arabic letters invented the Sindhi alphabet. But this opinion is flawed that he was the one who Abul Hassan formed a special script, or that he designed some particular shapes for pure Sindhi letters, previously not available.

The history of the beginning and evolution of present day Sindhi-Arabic script started around 864 AD, some 900 years before the time of Abul Hassan.” (33)

The Sindhi language not only progressed in its religious literature in the Kalhora period, but examples and references of the language used in other genres of Sindhi literature prove that it was the richness and the vastness that supported the progress of the various genres of Sindhi literature. And the presence of a large treasure of words helped the prose writers to express their views effectively; their literary acumen sharpened and they were able to use imagery and realism in their writings. Study of this literature also proves that in the Kalhora period various sections of Sindhi society expressed all their human feelings and psychological needs in their own language.

9- The first complete works (Risalo) consisting of bait and vaee in Sindhi language was compiled by Shah Inayat Rizvi (1025-1053 AH) in the Kalhora period. And it is incorrect to say that Shah Latif invented the genre of Vaee. In this regard, Mehar Khadim has written about vaee in the July 1995 edition of the periodical Nain Zindagi:

“Vaee is considered as a classical genre of Sindhi poetry. The beginning of vaee is found in the Sama period by a poet called Dadu Diyal. An Indian scholar Mr. Hiro Thakur has found 11 vaees of Dadu Diyal.

During the Arghun, Tarkhan and Mughal rule Shah Inayat Rizvi composed splendid collection of 42 vaees which are very rich in their subjects and meanings and have two types of formats; 33 of them contain the qafia (rhyming word) in the center of the first line in the verse; e.g.:

ساريان موڪ ملير، پيرون کيرون جيڏيون!

saaryaan moka maleer, pairoon khairoon jedyoon

(Remembering the fruits and riches of Malir, my sisters!)

In the rest of the 9 vaees the qafia appears at the end of the first line of the verse; for example:

دوس قريشي، عرب ديسي، توکي رب سنڀالي، ميان سائين!

dos qureshi, arab desi, to khay rab sambhalay, mian saeen!

Shah Inayat’s son Shah Sharif and his grandson Shah Bilal were also poets of vaee. (34)

And indeed Shah Latif gave vaee the real importance and depth as a genre. (35)

Shah Inayat Rizvi’s poetry has artistic maturity and very colorful language. His poetry gives a glimpse of the prevailing conditions of Sindh and Sindhi society of those times, just like Ishaq Ahangar, Kazi Kadan, Shah Karim Bulrai, Makhdoom Nooh Sarwar, Pir Lakho Lutfullah and other contemporaries.

Before Shah Inayat Rizvi, these poets had written hundreds of verses on the romantic stories of Sindh but Shah Inayat’s works (Risalo) contains complete stories and Surs (musical themes) of the romantic stories like Sasui Punhoon, Umar Marui, Leela Chanesar, Moomal Rano, Noori Jam Tamachee using commonly spoken language of the people. He dealt with subjects of Sufism, mysticism and spirituality using similes, metaphors and symbolism in simple language. He has mentioned Malir, chastity of Marui, beauty and of Moomal, the pain of Rano’s departure and a lovely metaphorical expression of the wait for the beloved. The following verses help in studying the language of Shah Inayat:

بيت: (1) اڌر نڌر اَڀَري، ڪوجھي ڪميڻي،

تنهن سان  ٻاروچل ٻاجھون ڪيون، هوت ڏسي هيڻي،

اگھائي شاهه عنايت چوي، تنهنجي ٽڪر سان ٽيڻي،

جا هيءَ وَرَ جي وهيڻي، تنهن کي محب مليو مهاڙ ۾!

adhar nidhar abhari, kojhi kameeṇi,

tenh san barochal bajhoon kayoon, hota disee heeṇi,

aghayee shah inayat chawe, tunhji takar saan teeṇi,

ja hee-a wara je waheeṇee, tenh khe muhib milyo mahaaṛa men!

 (2) اَڻَ چُوندَن ڪيمَ چئو، چُوندن چِيو وسار،

اَٺئي پهر عِناتُ چئي، پَرِ اهائي پار،

پايو مُنهن مُونن ۾، غربت ساڻ گذار،

مفتي منجھه وهارِ، ته قاضيءَ ڪاڻيارو نه ٿئين!

aṇa choondan keema chao, choondan chayo wisaar

aṭhayee pahar inaat chaye, par ihaaee paar,

payo munh moonan men, ġhurbata saaṇ guzaar

mufti manjh wihaar, ta qazee-a kaaṇyaro na thiyen!

وائيون: (1) ڪاجا ڳالهه ڪيائون، يا الا! مون مَنُ تهين موهيو!

حال حقيقت، مُنهن معرفت، ڏسي ڏات ڏنائون-

يـــــــــــا الا! مــــــــــــــون مَـــــــنُ تَهِين مـــــــوهيـــــــو!

زرخريـــــــــد جهـــــــان ۾، اُنـــــــي جـــــــي آئـــــــون-

يـــــــــــا الا! مــــــــــــــون مَـــــــنُ تَهِين مـــــــوهيـــــــو!

kaja gaalh kayaoon, ya alaa! moon manu taheen mohyo!

haal haqeeqat, munh maarfat, disee dat dinaaoon

ya alaa! moon manu taheen mohyo!

zarkhareed jahan men, une je aaoon

ya alaa! moon man taheen mohyo!

(2)  چُونديس حالُ پهنوار، جي ٿر وڃــان، پــــائُــــر وڃــــان، آءٌ اڃــــان!

شالَ مَ ٿيان ڪڏهن، ويڙهيچنئا ڌارَ-

چــــــــوُنديـــــــــس حــــــالُ پــــــهــــــنــوار!

مَنان مورُ نه وسرِين، ساڻِهَه جا سنگھارَ!

چــــــــوُنديـــــــــس حــــــالُ پــــــهــــــنــوار!

وڃي آءٌ وطن ۾، واسيان پنهنجا وارَ

چــــــــوُنديـــــــــس حــــــالُ پــــــهــــــنــوار!

الاهي عنات سين، سيل لهندم سارَ-

چــــــــوُنديـــــــــس حــــــالُ پــــــهــــــنــوار!

10- After Shah Inayat, this period had two great personalities and poets: Shah Latif and Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari Shareef. Shah Latif took Sindhi language to new heights, therefore he is called the “architect” and “flag bearer of Sindhi culture”. He paved the way for the progress and promotion of Sindhi language. He brought a new façade to the language and coined new words, phrases and riddles and new formations. It was his greatness that he visited every nook and corner of Sindh and depicted the culture and traditions of different areas in his poetry. He used the words, phrases, riddles, proverbs and sayings of every region in his verses thereby preserving forever the huge vocabulary of Sindhi language in his Risalo. He utilized the Larri, Kachhi, Thari, Kharyji, Kohistani, Laasi, Jadgali, Jatki and other dialects and the phrases, proverbs and quotes commonly used in those dialects in various surs of his works. The rivers banks, the lakes and ponds, lands and harbours, jungles and forests, watercourses, culverts and canals, crops and orchards, the mountains of Kohistan, the peaks and troughs, tortuous paths and ways were his subjects used in his splendid language. It would have taken a huge toll on the poets, writers and scholars to collect such an immeasurable and priceless treasure of words and phrases and would have required but Shah Latif collected this magnificent treasure all by himself thereby adding to the vocabulary of this language and taking it to heights of splendour.

Not only did Shah Latif use words prevalent in various regions for his poetry but he used them to narrate the social conditions also. He used the commonly spoken language of the specific groups of people of every region to explain his views. For example he used the words and language of goldsmiths, blacksmiths, dyers, weavers, washermen, fishermen, physicians, writers, seamen, jogis, camel-carers etc.

Similarly many words related to jogis and wanderers can be seen in Sur Ramkali and Sur Khahoree in the Risalo of Shah Latif, e.g.:

jogi, jogiara, veragi, beragi, sanyasi, saami, kapdi, kanpati, kapata, kanotya, kana wadhya, kan cheer, kana phata, kana phaar, aadesi, langootia, godrya, sabri, dorya, adhotia, bhabhoti, samiara, lal, lahoti & kunar.

Shah Latif has used various words in separate Surs that have now been abandoned; for example:

toe for tadanh bi, aman for amar, chuki for thakal, ahanji for awhanji, meezala for manzil, apato for aophato, tounkar for khang jo awaz, bera for tukar tukar, chhuchhat for soosaat, aganhjo for zyada agato, chunkan for huran/uthan, jima for matan, jekas for shayad, jelah for chakan jo, jorano for azab, rao for wari, ghor for gol, kuh for chha?, kujaro for chha?, bahoon for ghano, chaka for taqat, purkana for laphoon, chounha for chaanha/chahat, phan for peran ja paba, kulhe ji phani, daha for danh, dhuni for choondi, bakhar for abahr, tani for chaka/sika, monhan for moon khan, garahi for ore, upri for khaji, bera for zaal/joe, thahar, araam, wange for badhi, hera for heenyar, daapha for gol mol, chaturan for reban, non for hethan zameen, chamar for kakar, batari for batal, anooro for ghabrat, tapi for ta bi, tai for tanh kare, keen for kedanh.

And similarly there are thousands of words for human psychology, culture and traditions, superstitions etc, a study of which is a major subject for understanding Latif’s works.

11- Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai is a sun that has been shining on the Indus valley, who enlightened many literary moons while many poets disappeared due to the influence of Shah Latif’s poetry. Just like the earth that revolves around the sun, all the scholars, poets and writers of Sindhi literati started revolving around this literary sun (Shah Latif) and will continue doing so in future as well. Shah Latif holds a position similar to the great River Indus; the way the fountains, lakes, rivulets and canals from Ladaakh to Keti Bander come to fall into this mighty river and lose their existence, similarly Shah Latif has encompassed the poetry of the sughars and poets of Sindhi literature into his works and have made them redundant. The poetry of Shah Karim, Lutfullah lakho, Shah Inayat Rizvi, Shah Lutfullah Qadri and numerous poets, writers and sughars has enriched the poetry of Shah Latif. Today it feels as if Shah Latif is like the Abbaseen; he is the father of all the literary rivers, from which emanate many branches, canals and rivulets that waters not only Sindh and the south Punjab (Seraiki belt) but also Balochistan and some parts of KPK Province.

Therefore Latif is considered at a higher position amongst the poets and sufis of the entire country including names like Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, Madhu Lal Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu, Pir Shams, Pir Sadruddin, Baba Bulhay Shah, Shah Inayat Rizvi, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Fareed.

Shah Latif not only preserved the basic literature but by bringing about changes in the classical literature and adding newer trends he converted it into modern literature of his times. He paved new ways for the literature of that period and gave it new dimensions. In addition to the subjects of poetry of his predecessors, he made invaluable addition to the vocabulary of the Sindhi language. Shah Latif described and portrayed all the points of mysticism, spirituality and Sufism in very basic and commonly understood language. He described the facts and problems of daily life by using similes, metaphors and symbolism. With the help of allegories, metaphors of stories and epics like Sohni Mehar, Sasui Punhoon, Umer Marvi, Leela Chanesar, Noori Jam Tamachee, Lakho Rebaran and other stories, Shah Latif gave a new look to Sindhi language; gave it a new shape. He explained through these metaphors and symbols the issues pertaining to daily life. In a way his subjects include, union with the creator and his manifestation in the forms of man and other creations.

While Shah Latif has narrated the points about mysticism and spirituality, he has also explained the matters regarding Shariah, prayers and various moods of human mind, in addition to the social issues and economic classes in his poetry. And it was Sindhi language that fulfilled all his needs for explaining things in his poetry.

Writing in the special issue of Sohni magazine on Shaikh Ayaz, the great critic, famous Sindhi scholar of India Mr. A.G. Utam says:

“Every artistic person has his own literary heritage. Shah Latif’s poetry is one such heritage for us that we have to preserve, and take it forward; and by using his language, characters and circumstances in accordance with the present age, Shaikh Ayaz has augmented the traditions of Shah Latif. Shah Latif has influenced not only Ayaz but also another great poet Narain Shyam. He too has used Shah’s language and characters. Other poets have also accepted Shah’s influence.” (36)

Mr. Utam’s opinion proves that Shah Latif is that spiritual sun around which all the literary stars and satellites continue to revolve and during the process imbibe the light and literary wisdom, and thereby continue to survive.

It has been mentioned earlier that by bringing about new trends and experiments in Sindhi literature, Shah Latif added to the vastness and expanse in it. He also started new ideas in vaee. He initiated the singing of his vaees in his different ragas. He depicted various human feelings like meeting and the pain of being separated from the beloved, through his heroines in his poetry. For example the following verses should be examined:

(1) مَٿَن ٽُٻڪ ٽُٻڪڙا، چڪندڙا اچن،

کُڙيون کِہ ڀُڪليون، پگھر سِر پيرن،

اي وڙ ويڙهيچن، مون لوڏان ئي لکيا

mathan tubak tubkiṛa, chikandṛa achan,

khuṛyoon kiha bhuklyoon, paghara sir pairan,

aye vaṛa veṛhechan, moon lodan ee likhya

(2) کاري وِيرَ کرَن، ونگ سڀوئي وِهه ٿيا،

پر سُونهڻ جيئن سيڻن، هَنجَ هَريوئي پيرُ،

khari veera kharan, wing sabhoyee viha thya,

para soonhaṇ jiyen saiṇan, hanja haryoee pairu,

(3) سَرَ سُڪي سال ٿيا، هَنجَ هَريوئي پيرُ،

ڪنگ ويچارو ڪيرُ، جو رَسي ان رمز کي!

sara suki sala thya, hanja haryoee pairu,

kung waicharo kairu, jo rase una ramza khe!
(4) وکر وهائين لُوڻ، رُنگُ کٿوري گھريين،

ڀُنگو تنهنجو ڀرتي، ڪوهه ڳالهيين ڪوڙ،

جِمَ وڃايين مُور، کٽيو تنهنجو گھوريو!

vakhar wahain looṇ, rungu khathoori ghuryeen,

bhungo tunhjo bharti, koh galheen kooṛ,

jima vinjayeen moor, khatyo tunhjo ghoryo!

By studying the Risalo of Shah Latif, one can surely say that before Shah Latif, Sindhi language had acquired such an expanse that it could describe all aspects of human feelings and additionally economic, cultural, historic, traditional and geographical conditions It had a great treasure of words for describing these subjects. Shah Latif had studied each region of Sindh and its issues very deeply and writing upon each of these subjects would be beyond the scope of this book.

Shah Latif has depicted the scenes of the ebbs and troughs of the tides on the sea shores of Sindh; and the description of the soonhaṇ weeds at the shore is such that it should draw the attention of the botanists. After the high tide in these areas, everything becomes salty, but it is miraculous that this soonhan weed is not affected despite living in the salty waters, it continues to have its sweetness. Shah Latif has used this quality of soonhan weeds to metaphorically explain the qualities of mankind. So one can infer that all the subjects of the poetry in the works of Shah Latif augmented the vastness of this language.

12- Shah Latif brought about revolutionary changes in Sindhi language through his poetry as has been mentioned earlier. And he took Sindhi out from the limited quagmire of sootr, salook, doha, soratha and kabat and brought it to the open fields of vaee and bait.  From a linguistic point of view, Shah Latif enriched the language with all the qualities through his poetry; for example he used words carrying multiple meanings which is called its semantic quality. In the following verses by Shah Latif, such words have been used which by slight change of diacritical marks have a differing meaning. The words that appear in bold font in these verse deserve our attention:

(1) جَتن ڪر جَتن جو آيا ڪي اينداءِ

jatan kar jatan jo aya ke eendaye

(2) وَرَ ۾ ڪونهي وَرُ، ڏيرن وَرُ وڏو ڪيو.

vara men konhe varu, deran varu vado kayo.

(3) جاهَڙَ اندر جيءَ، ساهِڙَ ڏني ساهه کي،

ساهَڙَ ڇُڙي نه ساهه جي، ساهَڙَ، ساهِڙَ ريءَ،

ساهِڙُ ميڙ سميع، ته ساهَڙَ ڇُڙي ساهه جي.

jahaṛa andar jee-a, sahiṛa dini saha khe,

sahaṛa chhuṛe na saha ji, sahaṛa, sahiṛa ree-a

sahiṛu meṛ samee, ta sahaṛa chhuṛe saha ji.

(4) هلندي هاڙو مڻي، گَسان ڪين گُسان.

halande haṛo maṇe, gasan keen gusan.

(5) پاڻُ مَ کڻجُ پاڻَ سين، ري وسيلي وانءُ،

paṇu ma khaniju paṇa seen, re vaseele wan-u

The words in these verses like jatan, var, sahar, gussan and paan vouch for the expertise of Shah Latif from a linguistic aspect of Sindhi language. Slight phonetic change gives the words new meaning, thereby indicating the expanse of Sindhi language.

Shah Latif has used another peculiar grammatical quality of Sindhi language i.e. dual words, or words with contradicting forms or repetitions of the words. Such kind of repetition is abundantly present in his poetry. A few verses are quotes here as examples:

(1) اچي آريءَ ڄامَ جو، وَڻَ وَڻَ منجھان واس.

ache aar-a jama jo, vaṇa vaṇa manjhan vaas.

(2) مُٺِ مُٺِ سورن سڀڪنهين، مون وٽ وٿاڻانِ.

muṭhi muṭhi sooran sabhkenhen, moon wat wathaṇa.

(3) چوڏس چنيسر ڄام جو، ڏيهه ڏيهه منجھه ڏهڪاءُ.

chaudas chanesar jam jo, deh deh manjh dehka-u

(4) ٻارهن ڪُن، ٻٽيهه تڙ، تڙ تڙ مٿي تانگ،

جن عشق جي اُتانگ، ٻُجھان سي نه ٻُڏنديون

baranh kun, bateeha taṛa, taṛ taṛ mathe tang,

jin ishq je utang, bbujhan se na budandyoon

This quality has also been observed in the poetry of other Sindhi poets.

13- An in-depth study of Shah Latif’s poetry shows that he possessed the knowledge of the phonology of Sindhi language. He also knew that changing the phonemes in the words changes their meanings. For example:

(1) ڪِي ڪَڙيان پير، ڪ ڪَڙهان ڪيچ ڌڻين لَءِ؟

ڏاڍو ڏنءُ ڏئي ڏيرَ، پاڻ پراها ويا.

kee kaṛyan pair, ka kaṛhan kaich dhaṇi lae?

daḍho dan-u dayi daira, paṇa paraha waya.

(2) ڪَڙِ پڻ پير سندانِ، ڪَڙهه پڻ ڪيچ ڌڻين لَءِ.

انهيءَ پر اُتانِ، پوندينءَ مُنڌ پهاڙ ۾.

kaṛi piṇ pair sandani, kaṛha piṇ kaich dhaṇi lae.

inhai-a par utan, pavanden-a mundh pahaṛa men.

(3) پَرَ ۾ پير پُنهوءَ جو، ڪڙي ۽ ڪڙهي

سڪ سدائين سندرو، جانب لَءِ جڙي،

لَڪن سِر لطيف چئي، مُنڌ جھيڙي ۽ جھَڙي،

پڻيءَ تان نه پڙي، جي عمر سڀ ايهين ڪري.

para men pair punho-a jo, kaṛe aen kaṛhe

sik sadain sandoro, janib lae jaṛe,

lakan sir lateef chaye, mundh jheṛe aen jhaṛe,

paṇi-a tan na pare, je umr sabh aehin kare.

Words like kariaan/karhaan, karru/karry, karre/karhee, and jehairy/jehree show change in their meaning due to a change in their phonemes. Such an occurrence is only seen in the poetry of Shah Latif.

14- (a) Shah Latif used many words to explain the meaning of one word. For example he has used the following words/phrases for rain:

wada phuṛo meenh wasaṇ (وڏڦڙو مينهن وسڻ), saarang saara lahaṇ (سارنگ سار لهڻ), jhuṛan jo jhoongaraṇ (جھڙن جو جھونگارڻ), badal wasaṇ (بادل وسڻ), surahyoon paltaṇ (صراحيون پلٽڻ), agoondro aab wasaṇ (اَگوندرو آب وسڻ) & jhuṛphuṛ jhaat diyaṇ (جھُڙڦڙ جھاٽ ڏيڻ) etc.

(b)  Some of the words used for camel are:

chaango,( چانگو)  leeṛo (ليڙو), mayo (مَيو), karaho (ڪَرهو), todo (توڏو), dagho (ڏاگھو), kanwaat (ڪنواٽ), naaqo (ناقو), gaoonro (گؤنرو), bodo (بودو), mehree (مهري) etc.

(c)  Names according to the age of the camel:

dauk (دؤڪَ), paanchar (پانچار), naish (نيش)

(d)  Words for a dog:

janboor (جنبور), kalaab (ڪلاب), sag (سگ), motiaṛo (موتيئڙو)

Shah Jo Risalo is a documentary evidence of the magnificence of Sindhi language which contains representations of the various aspects of cultures and traditions of various regions of Sindh. Mr. Allah Buksh Uquaili writes in this regard:

“If one were to count the different words of Sindhi language used in the Risalo, apart from Shakespeare and Goethe there will be very few poets from around the world who can be compared with Shah Latif, but only the word count will be insufficient for such a comparison.” (37)

15- After drawing the necessary conclusion from the analysis of the poetry of Shah Latif, one can say that new aspects about the grammatical principles, phonetics, structural format and syntax of the language can be learnt from the Risalo. Some of these unique grammatical forms have been pointed out in the book “Sindhi Boli jo Abhiaas” (A study of Sindhi Language), and a few examples given there are reproduced here for further understanding. They are:

(1) پِيتي جہ پاسي ٿئي، منجھان رڳن روح.

peete jih pase thiye, manjhan ragun rooh.

(2) سِرَ ڏِني سِٽَ جڙي، ته عاشق ايءَ اچن.

sira dini sita juṛe, ta ashiq ee-a achan.

The forms like peeti and dini seen in these lines seek our attention. Similarly look at the following lies:

(1) ڪُلَنَئون ڪورينِ، عاشق عبداللطيف چئي.

kulanaon korin, ashiq abdul latif chaye.

(2) پِريَمَ تنهنجا پارَ، ڪهڙا چئي ڪهڙا چُئان!

prema tunhja para, kehṛa chayi kehṛa chuan!

(3) اَڏِيءَ سِرُ ڌري، مانَ ڪُهَنئوُن سپرين.

adi-a siru dhare, mana kuhanaoon supreen.

In these lines from among the word kulanaoon, piriam, chuan, and kuhanaoon, the ‘m’ seen in piriam and ‘aoon’ in kuhanaoon are in fact pronominal suffixes. The Study of the pronominal suffixes in the poetry of Shah Latif is very interesting; for example have a look at these lines:

16- (a) Examples of usage of transformational case (Ablative case):

In the standard Sindhi dialect, for declension of noun, the postpositions saan, khan and maan are added before the pronoun and adverb, and in the dialect of the Upper Sindh maoon instead of maan and khaoon instead of khan are used. In the Larri (lower Sindh) dialect, the nasalization of the last nasalized (Guna) vowel aan is reduced from the postpositions maan and khan. The dialect used for the transformational/ablative case in Shah Latif’s poetry is that of the Larri style. For example:

(b)  In the Larri dialect, the postposition saan is also used as seen while in nouns and adjectives, this saan (سان) is deleted; indeed the phonetic ‘s’ (س) is deleted and the vowel aan changes to ain. In pronouns, the preposition saan changes to seen. There are some places where even this happens while using postposition with nouns. For example:

(c) In Sur Bilawal, Shah Latif has used postposition, with prominent suffix aaṇ (آڻ); like (آڻ) in the word lādaṇ (لاڏڻ) which means ‘with’; the meaning of this word is ‘with love’ or with affection. This form in Sindhi grammar is worth paying attention; for example:

17- (a) Oblique case:  Some of the examples of oblique case in Shah Latif’s poetry have drawn the attention of the experts. The declensions of oblique case in Sindhi language are formed by the usage of postpositions khay, tay, saan, main. And the declensions of nouns, pronouns and adjectives are formed by these postpositions. But in the examples in Shah’s poetry, postpositions like  khay, tay, main, maan, and saan have disappeared, in the event of inflection or declensions and instead short vowels ‘a’ and ‘i’ are used as diacritical marks. For example:

(b) Although in the period of Shah Latif, there was quite an influence of Persian on Sindhi language and as a result the use of zair izaafat (diacritical mark for i, denoting Genitive) had started in Sindhi grammar, but despite that the indigenous grammatical forms of Sindhi were also frequently used. One of such form is zabar izaafat (diacritical mark denoting Genitive), which is frequently seen in Shah’s poetry. For example:

(c)   Similarly numerous words and forms have been used in Shah Latif’s poetry which are no more in use. Like:

(1) سُک نه سُتا ڪَڏِهم، ويهي نه ووڙين.

sukha na suta kadhim, vehi na wooṛin

(2) عاشق عبداللطيف چئي، اُنهِم پہ پئا.

ashiq abdul latif chaye, unhim pah piya.

(3) بي بها بالم، آگي ڪئا اَڳهِم.

be baha balam, aage kiya aghim.

(4) ڄُل وڃائي ڄاڻ، عاشق اَجل سامُهَمِ.

jul vinjaye jaṇa, ashiq ajal samuhami.

The words kadehim, inahim, saamahim and hitahim seen in these lines are not used in Sindhi now and such forms of words have become obsolete. Instead of them the words are written differently like kadehim = kadenh, inahim=inahee, agahim= agaheen, saamahim = samhoon. These grammatical compositions of Shah Latif are the main subjects of “Sindhi Boli ji Tareekh” and “Historic Evolution”.

18- (a) Study of the poetry of Shah Latif, shows that he not only used the commonly used language but formed thousands of new words, phrases and proverbs and a collection of these is an important element of the history of evolution of Sindhi language. This material has added a lot to the history and vocabulary of our language. The entire material has been divided by scholars into compound and complex words, like:

(b)  Dr. Murlidhar Jetly has given such words in the following manner:

(c)  Similarly numerous examples of compound verbs are found in Shah Latif’s poetry. Like:

piken na parchan (پِڪين نه پرچن), doonaa door gaya (دوُنئا دوُر گيا), buki-a banoon thye (ٻُڪيءَ ٻنئون ٿئي), pachaṇa khe pachaiṇu (پچڻ کي پچائڻ), watyoon wah gadiyoon hujaṇu (وٽيون وهه گاڏيون هجڻ),  and biyaee-a khe bakha vijhaṇu (ٻيائيءَ کي ٻک وجھڻ)

(d) Shah Latif added prefixes and suffixes to many uncompounded words to form numerous formed complex words; for example:

Similarly the following line is also worth paying attention:

(1) ڪلمو تہ ڪريم تي، چِٽو چايائين!

kalmo ta kareem te, chito chayaeen!

The shape of تہ has been changing and by progressing with time has now become تنهن. Similarly the word chayain is also interesting syntactically. According to the grammatical principles, it has changed over time and has now become chavayaeen; and to analyze this word one will have to scrutinize the intransitive and transitive form of verbs in addition to the casual and dual casual verbs.

One should not think that Shah Latif would have formed these and other grammatical forms of Sindhi language. Indeed all these grammatical shapes would have gradually come about to be present in the everyday life of those times.Shah has only used the various forms already customary in dialects of regions. He has through his verses, preserved the region-wise pronunciations of these words and provided the material for a study of the evolution of Sindhi language.

(e) The use of the active and passive voice of verbs in his poetry is also a point worth paying attention; for example:

(1) جان وڍين تان ويهُه، ناته وٺيو واٽ وانءُ تون

jaan waḍheen taan wehu, nata vaṭhyo waata waan-u toon

The word vadheen in this line means ‘if you were injured/cut’; this verb has been used in its passive form in this line. Similarly, let us see another example:

سُواَ سنڌيندُم سپرين، ڪَيَس جہ ڪباب

sooa sandhindum supreen, kayas jih kabab

In this line the word kayass is a passive form of the verb kayo which means ‘that made me’. This is also a passive form of the verb.

(f) Shah Latif has also used ‘subject’ (Ism-faail) in his poetry that were in common use in his times. Some forms of ‘subject’ from Sur Pirbhati are reproduced here as examples:

19- Use of Pronominal Suffixes:

(a) Pronominal suffixes are considered as an important and remarkable quality of Sindhi language. Every poet and writer has in his time made use of them and especially Shah Latif’s poetry is enriched with this type of syntactical formations. For example:

(b) Another form of pronominal suffixes seen in Shah Latif’s poetry is in accordance with the Larri dialect. In this dialect, the pronominal suffix iyein is used instead of ain in the second person pronoun (singular), declension of aorist and inflexion of the verb. This pronominal suffix has been found abundantly in his poetry. For example:

(c) One can find examples of imperative future (amar istaqbaal) in Shah Latif’s poetry because of the influence of Kachhi dialect; like:

20- a- Study of proverbs and phrases:

By the times of Shah Latif, thousands of proverbs, idioms and technical statements had started being used in Sindhi language, which he and his contemporaries like Tamar Faqir, Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari, Mian Shah Inayat and other poets used in their poetry. Similarly numerous types of idioms are used in this period. Some of the idioms used in Shah Latif’s poetry are reproduced here as examples:

aarooṛji achaṇ (آروڙجي اچڻ), aado phiraṇ (آڏو ڦرڻ), aaraṇ badhaṇ (آرڻ ٻڌڻ), baanhan aachhaṇ (ٻانهن آڇڻ), chat chaṛhaṇ (چت چڙهڻ), ḍhaka ḍhakaṇ (ڍڪ ڍڪڻ), daan lahaṇ (ڏاڻ لهڻ), unjoon relaṇ (اُڃون ريلڻ), seeno sahaṇ (سينو ساهڻ), kara lahaṇ (ڪَرَ لهڻ), kasa lahaṇ (ڪَس لاهڻ) etc.

(b) Some of the proverbs used by Shah Latif in his poetry are reproduced here as a sample:

1. لکيو منجهه نراڙ، قلم ڪياڙيءَ نه وهي

likhyo manjh niraṛ, qalam kiyaṛi-a na vahe

2. وَکرَ سو وهاءِ، جو پئي پراڻو نه ٿئي.

vakhar so wahaye, jo paye puraṇo na thiye

3. تتيءَ ٿڌيءَ ڪاهه، ڪانهي ويل ويهڻ جي.

tati-a thadhi-a kaah, kanhe wail wehaṇa ji.

4. ڪڏهن ڳاڙهو گھوٽ، ڪڏهن مڙهه مقام ۾.

kadahan gaṛho ghot, kadenh maṛhu muqam men.

5. ڪنهن ڪنهن ماڻهوءَ منجهه، اچي بُوءِ بهار جي.

kenh kenh maṇhoon-a manjh, ache boo-e bahar ji.

6. ديسي سيڻ ڪجن، پرديسي ڪهڙا پرين.

desi saiṇa kajan, pardesi kehṛa preen.

7. گھوڙن ۽ گھوٽن، جيئڻ ٿورا ڏينهڙا.

ghoṛan aen ghotan, jiyaṇ thora deenhaṛa.

8. الله ڏاهي مَ ٿيان، ڏاهيون ڏک ڏسن.

allah dahi ma thiyan, dahyoon dukha disan.

9. هُنهين هوند مئي، پر ٻڏيءَ جا ٻيڻا ٿيا.

hunhen hoond muye, par budi-a ja beeṇa thiya.

10. اُڻندو اُهائي، جا ڪوريءَ مَنَ ۾.

uṇando uhaee, ja kori-a mana men.

11. ڏات نه آهي ذات تي، جو وَهي سو لهي.

dat na aahe zaat te, jo vahe so lahe.

21- The Diminutive Forms of Words:

Numerous examples of use of diminutive words can be seen in Shah Latif’s poetry. In this regard, the preface written for the dictionary of contractions named “Lughaat Sindhi Mukhafifaat” by Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talibul Maula is worth reading, where this linguistic quality of Sindhi language has been discussed in detail.

Abbreviating words in any language is related with a study of the day to day pronunciation of a language. Numerous examples of this quality of Sindhi language can be found in the language used by Shah Latif, for example:

22- The use of Persian and Arabic words:

Shah Latif has used Persian and Arabic words in addition to hundreds of verses from the Holy Quran and the Hadith of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) as references and allusions in his poetry. Khanbahadur Muhammad Siddique Memon writes in this regard:

“The way he has used Arabic verses and quotations at numerous occasions in his poetry, it appears as if Arabic was his mother-tongue. This has to be called a surprising quality, that he has amalgamated the verses of Holy Quran, Hadith and Arabic sayings with his Sindhi subjects in such a way as if he is defining these verses and Hadith.” (39)

The poetry of Shah Latif proves that in those times the use of poetical figures (sanaya badaya) was common in Sindhi language. Khanbahadur Memon writes in this regard:

“This means that eloquence (fasahat) is based on lexicography and etymology while conciseness (balaghat) depends upon art of expression (ilm bayan) and art of eloquence (ilm badeeu).” (40)

All of these linguistic qualities like eloquence, conciseness, etymology, ilm bayan, ilm badey and ilm maani shows that Sindhi language had acquired a very high standard and status in the Kalhora period.

Shah Latif has used all the poetical figures in his poetry and with his art; he took the language to newer heights and stature. The poetical figures used in his poetry are as under:

tashbeeh (تشبيہ), ista’aro (استعارو), majaze mursal (مجاز مرسل), tajnees e harafi (تجنيس حرفي), tajnees e khati (تجنيس خطي), tajnees e taam (تجنيس تام), sanat e tazaad (صنعت تضاد), sanat e aehaam (صنعت ايهام), tajahil e aarifana (تجاهل عارفانه), sanat e qadar ul baireen (صنعت قطارالبعرين), sanat e tarseei (صنعت ترصيح), sanat e masjaa (صنعت مسجع), sanat e tazmeen (صنعت تضمين), sanat e talmeeh (صنعت تلميح) & sanat e husnul taaleel (صنعت حسن التعليل).

23- Another quality of Sindhi poetry is in its humility, modesty, lovely words, softness and lyricism. Present in old and new poetry alike. For example, look at a line from a ginan by Pir Sadruddin who was a poet from the Soomra and Sama period:

جاڳو جاڳو ڀايڙا، رَيَن ويهاڻي

jago jago bhayaṛa, rayan wehaaṇi

Meaning: wake up dear brother, the night has ended.

The Ismaili Pirs used the words like momin, momin bhai, veer, veeraan, bhai, veeraan bhai, bhairha, yaara, O saeen, saeen etc. to show humbleness. The same pattern has been followed by Shah Karim, Shah Latif, Lakho Lutfullah, Mian Shah Inayat and Sachal Sarmast because humility, modesty and humbleness is a hallmark of Sindhi culture. As an example, this vaee of Shah Latif is reproduced here:

مان ٻانهڙي آهيان، گولڙي آهيان،

اديون آءٌ اڻڄاڻ!                                        

maan banhṛi aahyan, golṛi aahyan

adyoon aaun aṇjaaṇ!

(ii)  Another example:

ڪيچين ڪونهي ڏوهه،

ڪنهن ڏُکيءَ ڏاوڻ ڏائيو

kechain konhe doh

kenh dukhi-a danwaṇ daiyo

The same quality can be seen in the poetry of Sachal Sarmast as under”

آءٌ ٻانهي تون سائين،

پاتم پاند ڳچيءَ ۾ ڪپڙو

aaun banhi toon sayeen,

patam panda gichi-a men kapṛo

24-  Writing about the vastness of Sindhi language in the poetry of Shah Latif, Professor Mir Muhammad Bhayyo has raised a question in his article titled “Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sindhi Boli jo Maimaar” (Shah Latif, an Architect of Sindhi Language); he writes:

“As a result, in the 18^th Century AD, could the Sindhi language have more capacity than this? Why cannot we say that this period saw the highest standard and perfect structure of the Sindhi language.” (41)

25- National Passion:

The experts on Shah Latif have quoted numerous examples of the presence of nationalistic passion in poetry, in their books and articles. Sur Marvi is especially enriched with this passion and Shah Latif has used Sindhi language as a symbol of Sindhi nationalism. For example, the mention of motherland from a nationalistic perspective in the following verse:

سڄڻ ۽ ساڻيهه، ڪنهن اڻاسيءَ وسري.

sajaṇ ain saaṇeeh, kenh aṇasee-a visre.

(Only some shameless person can forget his motherland).

Some other verses contain unmatchable examples of nationalism and love for the motherland such as:

(1)  سائينيم سدائين ڪرين، مٿي سنڌ سڪار

دوست مٺا دلدار، عالم سڀ آباد ڪرين.

saineem sadayeen kareen, mathe sindh sukar

dost mitha dildar, aalam sabh abad kareen.

(2) بوند برهه جي بهار لڳي، درد ونديءَ جو ديس وسي پيو.

boond birah ji bahar lagi, dardvandi-a jo des vasi payo

(3) سارنگ سار لهيج، الله لڳ اُڃيين جي،

پاڻي پوڄ پٽن ۾، ارزان اَن ڪريج،

وطن وسائيج، ته سنگھارن سک ٿئي.

sarag sar laheej, allah lag unjeen je,

paṇi poj patan men, arzan an kareej,

watan wasaej, ta sangharan such thiye.

(4) واجھائي وطن کي، آءٌ جي هت مياس،

گور منهنجي سومرا، ڪج پنهوارن پاس،

ڏج ڏاڏاڻي ڏيهه جي، منجھان ولڙين واس،

ميائي جياس، جي وڃي مڙهه ملير ڏي.

wajhaye watan khe, aaun je hit mayas,

gor munhji soomra, kaj panhwaran pas,

dij dadaṇe deh je, manjhan walṛen waas,

miyae jiyas, je wanje maṛh maleer de.

(5) آءُ ڪانگا، وڻ ويهه، سڌيون ڏي ساڻيهه جون،

چڱا ڀلا سپرين، ڪي سک وسي ساڻيهه،

پرينِ لئي پرڏيهه، مون تان گھڻو نهاريو.

aau kanga, waṇ veh, sudhyoon de saṇeeha joon,

changa bhala supreen, ke such vase saṇeeh.

preen laye pardeh, moon taan ghaṇo niharyo.

Persian was in vogue in his times and it was emphatically taught in the mosques and seminaries. It was the language for official communication as well. Some verses with this subject are found in his poetry; for example:

(1) پِيَم پٺاڻن سين، ٻولي جي نه ٻجھِن،

آءٌ سنڌيءَ جو سعيو ڪريان، هو پارسيون پڇن،

مون پڻ مُلا تن، سرتيون سُور پرايا.

piyam paṭhaṇan seen, boli je na bujhin,

aaun sindhi-a jo saiyo karyan, ho parsyoon puchhan,

moon pin mula tin, sartyoon soora piraya.

(2) برو بگيرد بي، ڏين پارسيون پاڻ ۾،

مون لوڏان ئي لکيا، ته هاڃو ڪندا هي،

ماريندا مون کي، پنهون نيندا پاڻ سين.

buro bageerad be, deen parsyoon paṇa men.

moon lodan ee likhya, ta hanjo kanda he,

mareenda moon khe, punhon niyanda paṇa seen.

(3) جي فارسي سکيو، گولو توءِ غلام،

اُڃيو تان آب گھري، بکيو تان طعام،

جو ٻڌو ٻن ڳالهيين، سو ڪئن ڄاڻي ڄام؟

اي عامن سندو عام، خاصن منجھان نه ٿيي

je farsi sikhyo, golo toe ġhulam,

unjyo taan aab ghure, bukhyo taa taam,

jo budho bin galhin, so kiyan jaṇe jam?

aye aman sando aam, khasan manjhan na thiy

Shah Latif has composed hundreds of verses to express his feelings of unmatched love for the motherland.

26- After Shah Latif and Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari, Sachal Sarmast can also be considered as a representative contemporary poet of that period i.e. the Kalhora period. Sachal Sarmast was born in 1739 AD and had spent 44 years of his life in this period. He saw numerous poets, writers and scholars in that period. He wrote poetry in Sindhi, Seraiki, Hindi, Punjabi, Persian and Urdu and compiled kaafi, bait, jhoolana and ghazals. He expressed his thoughts through his poetry but since he is identified with the Talpur period (1783-1843 AD), therefore the language of Sachal Sarmast will be discussed in the next chapter.

As mentioned earlier, the official language in the Kalhora period was Persian. Despite that, numerous famous and matchless poets, writers and scholars of Sindhi language were born in this period. Shah Latif ruled the minds and hearts of the people. Similarly the fame of the knowledge and wisdom of poets and historians like Myon Shah Inayat, Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari, Makhdoom Addul Raheem Girhoree, Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi and other poets of Persian language had reached outside the boundaries of Sindh.

Kalhora rulers were great supporters of literature. Mian Noor Muhammad Kalhora was a famous scholar and historian. Prince Mian Sarfaraz Khan was a splendid poet of Sindhi and Persian languages; some verses from one of his famous madah are presented here as an example:

ڀلا +ام، هن غلام، سندو سوال سڻج تون،

آهيان ڏڏ، غمن گڏ، سچا سَڏ سڻج تون،

پسي پاڻ، ڪرم ساڻ، ڏکين ڏاڻ، ڏئين تون

ڀلا ڄام.......................................................................

هدايت، حمايت، عنايت، ڪرين تون،

ڀلا ڄام......................................................................

bhala jama, hina ġhulam, sando sawal suṇij toon,

ahiyan dad, ġhaman gad, sacha sad suṇij toon,

pase paaṇa, karam saaṇ, dukhin daaṇ, diyen toon,

bhala jama…………..

hidayat, himayat, inayat, kareen toon,

bhala jam…………...

After reading this madah (eulogy), one can claim that in the last part of the Kalhora rule, Sindhi language had progressed through the process of evolution and had achieved high standard which could compete with Persian. This eulogy is an excellent and unmatchable example of the poetical figures (sanat tarsee) in Sindhi poetry.

27- (a) The Progress of prose in the Kalhora period:

Many samples of prose have been found from the Soomra period and quite a few of them have been given in my book: The History of Sindhi Prose.

Earlier, in Chapter 4, the lyrical compositions in prose by Ismaili Pirs in the Soomra period have already been mentioned, where in addition to (muqfa and musaja) lyrical prose, samples of proverbs, idioms and quotations have also been given.

Samples of the commercial handouts and ledgers given by the son of Syed Jamial Shah Dataar Girnari named Syed Shahabuddin Shah a.k.a Shah Loqa in Sindhi proverbs, a saying in lyrical prose by Pir Putho, the adages in prose by Shah Karim Bulrai and later from the book “Haliul uqood fi Talaqul Sunood” by Makhdoom Jafar Boobakai (RIP 998 AH/1589 AD) contain sentences of Sindhi prose before the Kalhora period. These can be considered as the foundation of the history of Sindhi prose.

(b) A copy of a commercial agreement in Sindhi prose has been given in Chapter 6 which was written 50 years before the Kalhora period i.e. in 1650 AD. This agreement (kabaro) is written in Khwajki Sindhi letters. The pictures of this kabaro were published in an article by Mr. Sirajul Haque Memon in Nain Zindagi magazine in January 1971 on page 23. (42) This agreement can be seen word by word in the Chapter 6.

28- (a) The practice of prose writing continued without any change in the Kalhora period except addition of new words, and improvement of the commercial language. In this regard, Dr. Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch has given a reference in his book (43) which is reproduced verbatim; but one cannot agree with Dr. Baloch’s opinion that prose writing in Sindhi had started in the 18^th Century AD. Dr. Baloch has said:

“The system of writing statements in Sindhi prose had started in the first 50 years of the 12^th Century AH (18^th Century AD). In this context, a statement written in 1152 AH/1739 AD is given here as an example:

”ويهه ڳوڻيون سيد صاحبڏني واريون ايڪيهين جا پئسا (ڏنا ويا) سورهن ڳوڻيون ساهوء جي هٽ تان آڻي ڏنيون آهن. ڪِڪا (ڪڪي) کي ڇهه ڳوڻيون صالح ڪنا حسن کڻي ويو آه ڇهه ڳوڻيون بازار ۾ ڇوڙي ڳٺ منجھان مون ڏنيون اي (اِهي) سڀئي باب (ڀاڱا) ٿئا ڳوڻيون اوڻونجاهه سي سڀ ڏنيون آهين ڪڪا کي منجهه وَرَ ڏي جي اَڏپا جيڪين کڻايون ٿي ڪڪا ڪنا اڏئي ڏيوڻا (44) (يا ڏيوي راءِ(“ (45).

“(veeha gūṇyoon sahibdine varyoon aikeehen ja paisa (dina vaya) sorahn guṇyoon saho-a je hata taan aṇe dinyoon ahin. Kika (kike) khe chaha guṇyoon salah kinan hassan khaṇi wayo aah. Chhaha guṇyoon bazaar men chhoṛe gaṭh manjhan moon dinyon ae (ihe) sabhayee bab (bhanga) thiya guṇyoon uṇvanjah se sabh dinyoon ahin kika khe manjh vara de je adpa jeken khaṇayoon the kaka kina adaye devaṇa (44) (ya devi raye)” (45)

{Meaning: 20 sacks belonging to Syed Sahib Dino 21st was paid for, 16 sacks were brought from the shop of Sahu. 6 sacks are taken by Hassan from Kaka through Saleh, 6 sacks were opened and given by me in the bazaar, all these parts, 49 sacks were all given finally to Kaka from whom Adya Devna (44) (or Devi Rai) took them} (45)

(b) In fact the above quoted statement is a “daily diary” (roznamcha), where the goods received by the trader had been recorded. This kind of entry is called roznamcha in trading language. The following points in this statement point to the progress and development of Sindhi language; for example:

(i) This statement contains numbers used in day to day life; like chhah (6), soranh (16), veeha (20), aikeeha (21), oonvanjah (59) and sabhaee (all).

(ii) The phrases and formations used in commercial handling: like”سيد صاحب ڏني واريون، ايڪيهين جا پئسا، صالح ڪنا، حسن کڻي ويو آهي، ڳٺ منجھان“ (of Syed Sahib Dino, the money paid for 21st sack, Saleh took the goods from the sack) are examples.

(iii) The words used in trading: like hut (shop), goonioon (sacks), bazaar, chhoray (opened), baab (fractions), devna (has to give), paysa (money).

(iv) Use of postpositions: like taan (from), khay (to) and kana (from).

(iv) Oblique case: hat taan (from the shop)

(v) Ablative case: manjhaan (from)

(vi) Compound verbs: khani vio ahay (has taken away), aanay dinyoon (brought and submitted), diyan lae badhal (bound to give) etc.

(vii) Names of people: like Syed Shaib Dino, Sahu, Kaka, Saleh and Hassan.

29- (a) The poetic prose took a new shape in the form of kabat in the Kalhora period. This form of poetic prose was used not only by the scholars of Thatta, but in oral literature also where many types like bahaguṇan ja bol (sayings of virtuous men), riddles, sutras, salooks, sayings, proverbs, and hunars have been found. The scholars and poets of Thatta paved the way forward for such type of poetic prose. In this context, Khanbahadur Memon writes:

“The poem from Faraizul Islam, an Arabic book by Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim (translated in Sindhi) is a very simple poem, almost like poetic prose.” (46)

(b) The best work of prose in the Kalhora period is the translation of the Holy Quran in Sindhi prose by Akhund Azizullah. Since he has done the translation in sub-titles, therefore the sentences of the translation are in the Arabic syntax; for example:

”اي مؤمنا همراهي وٺو منجھه مشڪلين ساڻ صبر ۽ نماز. تحقيق خدا ساڻ صبر ڪندڙ آهه، ۽ مَ چؤ واسطي تن جي، جي ڪسن ٿا منجھه واٽ خدا جي، اوءِ مُئل نه آهين، بلڪ جيئرا آهين، پر نٿا ڄاڻو آئين، ۽ آزمايون ٿا آن (اوهان) کي ساڻ ٽولن ڪنان خوف ۽ ڏکن ۽ بکن ۽ ٿورو ٿئڻ مالن جي ۽ مرڻ مڙسن جي، نه ٿئڻ ميون جي (ته ڪي صبر ڪريو ٿا ڪ نٿا ڪريو) ۽ بشارت ڏي تن صابرن کي؛ او صابر سي آهين، جڏهن رسي اُن کي سختي، چوُن اسين خدا جا آهيون ۽ خدا ڏانہ موٽهون ٿا. اُوءِ صابر، تن تي آهين رحمتون ڪنان رب اُن جي ۽ رحمت خاص، اوءِ هدايت وارا آهين. (47)

“aye momina hamraahi waṭho manjh mushklin saaṇ sabar ayin namaz. Tahqeeq khuda saaṇ sabar kandaṛ aah, ayin ma chau waste tin je, je kusan tha manjh waat khuda je, uye mual na aahin, balke jiyara aahin, para natha jaaṇo aain, ain aazmayoon tha aan (awhan) khe saaṇ tolan kinan khof ain dukhan ain bukhun ain thoro thiyaṇ maalan je ain maraṇ muṛsan je, na thiyaṇ mewan je (ta ka sabar karyo tha ka natha karyo) ain bisharat de tin sabiran khe; o sabir se aahin, dadenh rasi una khe sakhti, choon aseen khuda ja aahyoon ain khuda danh mothoon tha. uye sabir, tin te aahin rehmatoon kinan raba un je ain rehat e khaas, oye hidayat wara aahin.” (47)

According to Khanbahadur Memon’s opinion:

“Mr. Akhund has translated the Holy Quran in sub-titles and written the timing/schedule of its alightment in Sindhi prose.

This is the first book which provides evidence in Sindhi language, and its format is that of prose in Arabic syntax, translated in sub-titles.” (48)

The grammatical form of this translation By Mr. Akhund is that of Arabic language but after studying this example we can draw the following conclusions:

• One finds the idioms prevalent in those days; like همراهي وٺڻ (being together), خدا جي واٽ ۾ ڪسڻ (taking God’s ways), بشارت ڏيڻ (give good news)
• Postpositions: manjh (inside), kanan (from), khay (to), saaṇ (with)
• Verbs: chao (say), vatho (take), ahay (is), kusan tha (are killed/slaughtered), aheen (are), natha jaano (do not know), aazmayoon tha (test someone), day (give), ahioon (are), choon (say), motahoon tha (we return).
• Adverb: jadenh (then), danh (towards), main (in), na (no)
• Vocative: ay (O!!)
• Pronoun: aa and aan (you), tin (they), un (that), ooe (those), say (them)

The dialect of Mr. Makhdoom is Larri, but in any case, this translation is a remarkable treasure of Sindhi prose and its progress.

30- (a) The sayings: “gufta” in Sindhi prose by Makhdoom Abdul Raheem Girhoree (1778 AD) have been found from this period. These sayings are examples of beautified prose. The language used in them is easy and simple. These are sayings full of philosophical points in Sindhi prose. They have an advisory tone and since they are in beautified prose, they are easy to remember. These sentences are splendid examples of metaphor and simile. For example

(i) taki dangṛi hale, khaṛa pasṇi jhale (ٽَڪِ ڏنگڙي هلي، کڙا پاسڻي جھلي)

(ii) raaṇi rao saan rache, abo bhaun re ache (راڻي راوَ سان رچي، ابو ڀائن ري اچي)

(iii) kaafir kufr khan ukaar, karo gadah dhoi ujaar (ڪاف ڪفر کان اُڪار، ڪارو گڏهه ڌوئي اُجار)

(iv) mulon bihisht de halaye, chatoon paṛhe paro jaye (ملون بهشت ڏي هلاءِ، چتون پاڙهي پروجاءِ)

(v) mulon kiyan bihisht men ache, koyi ser sona seen nache (ملون ڪيئن بهشت ۾ اچي، ڪوئي سير سونَ سين نچي)

(vi) ba pahya joon parchaye, thulho muhurlo ghaṛaye, wado khūhaṛo khaṇaye (ٻه پهيان ڄون پرچاءِ، ٿلهو مهرلو گھڙاءِ، وڏو کوهڙو کڻاءِ

(vii) rizq kenh par ache, jian meenhaṛo wase (رزق ڪنهن پر اچي، جيئن مينهنڙو وسي) (49)

   (b) After studying these sentences of prose by Girhoree Sahib, one can claim that such prose had been in practice in Sindhi language since ancient times. In this regard, the views of the famous researcher of the Muslim world, Al-Beruni, (who lived in Sindh from 1017 - 1031 AD) were quoted by me in a separate article (The Educational, Social, Cultural, Linguistic and Literary Identity of Sindh in Al-Beruni’s Time) which you will find repeated below; because Al-Beruni’s opinion supports my views. Al-Beruni writes:

“Wise men and scholars preferred writing in poetic or lyrical prose. Some books of those times were written in the poetic genre of Salook i.e. lyrically, because it was easier to remember them. Therefore from ancient times, scientific and difficult subjects like geometry (aqleedas and astronomy and their narration was done either in Salook or in the rhyming prose i.e. they were written in muqfa or musaja prose style to make remembering and repeating them was easier.” (50)

1. This opinion has been further supported by Mr. Bherumal, who writes in “Sindhi Boli Ji Tareekh”:

“The Sanskrit, after the Vedas mostly contains Sūtr and therefore it is called the Sanskrit of the time of Sūtras. ‘Sūtra’ is pronounced in Sindhi as ‘Sutu’. In the middle period, major issues were described in limited words, as if beads were put onto a thread. The main quality of sūtras is being short and ‘less worded’. Most of the proverbs in Sindhi are formed on the pattern of Sūtras for example: juria khay juss, kando so paeendo, jehree karnee tehree bharnee. These proverbs contain very few words but they carry a great wisdom. 

Sūtras usually explain principles. Dharmi (religious) sūtras are related to religion and graih sutras are for domestic rules. So the meaning of sūtras is principles, rules or points that contains fewer words but a larger meaning.” (51)

(d) This trend of prose in Sindhi language was prevalent in Sindh before the advent of Islam.  The Ismaili Pirs wrote, in the Soomra period, their prayers in Khwajki Sindhi (Lohanki) script and other virtuous men of those times preferred writing in poetic or lyrical prose, or in muqfa or musja type of language. The sayings (gufta) by Makhdoom Girhoree are examples of rhyming.

These types of sayings, quotes, proverbs and gufta are best examples of the Sindhi language of the Kalhora period which proves that it was fully progressed and rich language in prose as much in poetry. Following are a few examples of rhyming prose and sūras:

(i) katyoon aayoon kaapar, moorakha meenhin ghuran (ڪتيون آيون ڪاپار، مورک مينهن گھُرن)

(ii) aya kungaaṇi, wiyo pinyari-a maan paṇi (آيا ڪنگاڻي، ويو پڃاريءَ مان پاڻي)

(iii) dakhaṇ meenhin na wasiṇo, wase taan boṛe (ڏکڻ مينهن نه وسڻو، وسي تان ٻوڙي)

(iv) kanyar dhak na haṇiṇo, haṇe taan toṛe (ڪانئر ڌڪ نه هڻڻو، هڻي تان ٽوڙي)             

Similarly the proverbs:

(i) anban boor, akhyun soor (انبن ٻور، اکين سُور)

(ii) eeman mizmaan aahe (ايمان مزمان آهي)

(iii) pokhi waḍhje, raahi na waḍhje (پوکي وڍجي، راهي نه وڍجي)

(iv) sanwaṇa jo suto, kati-a jo kuto  (سانوڻ جو سُتو، ڪتيءَ جو ڪتو)

Bahagananh ja bol (sayings of virtuous men):

            panja ee na thya, panja ee na thya (پنج ئي نه ٿيا، پنج ئي نه ٿيا)

dachar ghoṛi, suchar zaala, chhidi kaṇka, ghata tira, udharo vihanu ihe panja ee na thya (ڏچر گھوڙي، سُچر زال، ڇڊي ڪڻڪ، گھاٽا تِر، اُڌارو وهانءُ اهي پنج ئي نه ٿيا)

Another example

chora khe paadar bhalo (چور کي پادر ڀلو)

sache khe aadar bhalo (سچي کي آڌر ڀلو)

aasan laye qadir bhalo (آسن لَءِ قادر ڀلو)

jaye khe sar dar bhalo (جاءِ کي سر در ڀلو)

(e) These and other examples prove that in the evolutionary period of prose, it was on the pattern of sūtras or Salooks, in the form of beautiful prose and this claim is strengthened by the opinion of honourable Makhdoom  Talibul Maula, who says:

“Gujharat (riddle) is a paramount component of Sindhi Salook.” (52)

This means that Salook was a common name but the forms were: gujharat, sūtras, doha and soratha.

31- (a) It has been said earlier that the parameters of teaching the mother-tongue and grammar were based on Sindhi phonetics. In this context, the books written by Thanwar Das and Baabnamo and new books of other writers may be referred to, which were also based on the old principles.

Al-Beruni writes:

“Grammar, linguistics, poetry and Chhand prosody were very common in ancient Sindh. He believes that the art of Chhand and grammar was taught as subsidiary subjects. And among these two, grammar was given more importance.” (53)

Al-Beruni further writes about how the Sindhi scholars had defined grammar; he says:

“Grammar means the rules pertaining to correct use of words for speaking a language, and that can assist in teaching, reading and acquiring a classical form.” (54)

(b) Sindhi language had become a standard language from every angle by the times of Kalhora rulers in which there was a system of linguistics. Teaching of word formation by joining two, three and four-syllabls and preparation of bilingual dictionaries, grammars and phonetics was established. And the structure of language: letters for particular sounds, additional formations, declension of nouns, inflexion of verbs, teaching through mother-tongue, reading and teaching to read and write had begun.

(c) The trend of folk literature in Sindhi language is also very old, as has been said in the chapter relating with the language of the Soomra period. The references of Sindhi Seengar (adornment) poetry have been found even from around the 7^th Century AD, but the dahas and seengar made a significant addition to the vocabulary of Sindhi language. Due to local influence, Jalal Khatti and Sabir Mochi were famous poets of these genres. Some verses of this genre have been found in the works of Shah Inayat and Shah Latif as well. Although this type of poetry usually entails praising and admiring the beauty of the beloved, but the poets and sughars have done a remarkable work in choosing the words for it. This genre of poetry usually contains verses with poetical figures like simile and metaphor in addition to majaz mursil. Even though verses of this genre have been found in the works of poets like Shah Latif and Shah Inayat, but Jalal Khatti and Sabir Mochi are more famous and representative poets of this genre. The verses composed by them are linguistically a work of art.

(d) Dr. Abdul Karim Sandeelo and Dr. Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch consider the Seengar (adornment) poetry to be an imitation from Hindi Shingar Rass, for example they discuss as to ‘what is Rass and seengar’, ‘what are the subjects of this kind of poetry’, ‘what is soranh seengar’, how and when did this kind of poetry reach Sindh; and discussing these subjects Dr. Baloch has written:

“As an ‘art’, Seengar poetry is comparatively a difficult subject, therefore it was hard for every poet or sughar to get into it. That is perhaps the main reason why well-known poets of this genre are rather limited; even though this poetry seems to have been in continuous use from the beginning of the Kalhora period to about 50 years back i.e. for approximately 175 years.” (55)

Dr. Sandeelo writes on this subject as:

“The Seengar verses sung by Sindhi poets are in fact imitation of Hindi verses. Having been inspired by Hindi dohas, the Sindhi poets have sung praises of the beloved’s adornments in their own circumstances very nicely. Although they have used almost analogous similes, but their verses clearly show the influence of their circumstances.” (56)

In this regard, Dr. Sandeelo continues further:

“Sindhi poets followed the trend of their Hindi counterparts. Hindi dohas also tell us that there are 16 adornments of the beloved.” (57)

Based on research done in the present times, the experts have suggested to modify the opinions of Dr. Baloch and Dr. Sandeelo. Mr. Param Abechandani has formed new opinions that appear more authentic. He has written:

“The Seengar poetry first reached the Tharparkar region of Sindh, as it joins the territories of Rajasthan and the folk singers and poets of this region had close relations with Rajasthani poets; moreover the poets of his region in general were well versed in the Thari-Dhatki idiom, therefore it was not difficult for them to understand the Hindi poems. This is also the reason that these subjects keep appearing in the poetry of the Sindhi sughars.” (58)

Dr. Fahmida Hussain does not agree with the views of Dr. Baloch, Dr. Sandeelo and Deewan Param Abechandani. She does not consider the Sindhi Seengar poetry to be an imitation of its Hindi counterpart. Dr. Fahmida claims that the Sindhi Seengar poetry is an indigenous genre of Sindhi poetry. She writes:

“With due apologies to Dr. Sandeelo, I believe that the verses of Seengar are infact an indigenous Sindhi genre, that later reached other regions of India and was carried on to Hindi. The Sindhi language is older than Hindi, therefore the Hindi poets would have imitated and copied it rather than Sindhis doing that.” (59)

The views of Param Abechandani regarding the historic evolution of the Seengar poetry in Hindi support the claim made by Dr. Fahmida because his opinion proves that such poetry in Sindhi appeared much before that of Hindi language. Mr. Abechandani writes:

“In Hindi, it was Kirpa Ram who made a move in this regard, but the vanguard of all of them was a great poet called Bihari Lal. He was born in village Gobindpur of district Gwaliar in 1660 AD. ” (60)

Mr. Abechandani’s opinion confirms that Jalal Khatti had lived long before Bihari Lal, who was born in 1660 AD, while Jalal Khatti was at the peak of his art at that time. He lived through the last years of Mughal rule to the days of rule by of Mian Noor Muhammad Kalhoro i.e. in the period between 1718-1755 AD, and that he was older than Shah Latif (1690-1752 AD); he was among the predecessors of Shah Latif. Therefore the magnificence and maturity of the Seengar poetry of Jalal Khatti proves that the tradition of this type of poetry in Sindh is much older, that had influenced Jalal Khatti and other poets.

Following are some examples of Seengar poetry by Jalal Khatti and Sabir Mochi:

تَمهَرَ رُوپ تَرَنگَ، هن ڪنوَلَ ڪيسَ قريبَ جا،

سِههَ ڳِچي، قَدُ سَروي، ڪَونتَرَ نيفَ نسنگَ،

ٻوُنگَرَ سِر ٻُراءَ جي، مزگان ڪيش خدَنگَ،

لڪ ليشي، ڏَهَرَ ڪپوُرَ، ڀرون ڀونرَ ڀَوَنگَ،

تنِهن سسايا سارنگ، جلوي ساڻُ ”جلال“ چئي.

tamhara roop taranga, hin kanwala qaisa qareeba ja,

siha gichi, qadu sarve, kontara naifa nisanga

boongara sir bura-a je, mazgan kaish khadanga,

lakh leshi, dahara kapoora, bhiroon bhonra bhavanga,

tinh sasaya sarang, jalwe saaṇu “Jalal” chaye.

Second example:

جيئن سي اَبَر بهار، تيئن ڪنوَلَ ڪيسَ قريب جا،

سي اَليهَرَ وانگي اليا، بَدَن ڍريا ٿي ڍارَ،

سَروَ ڪنان سوُڌا پرين، منهن موتين موچار،

هنج ڏسي لوڏَ لڪي ويا، گَنيَرَ ڪيئي گفتار،

سڻي ٻولي ٻاجهه ڀري، ڪي ڪوئل نا ڪُوڪارَ،

ڇڏي شمس شعاع ويو، گڏجي منجھه غبار،

آهن چينَ چڪور جان، پي پپيَلَ پارَ،

سينو موڪرو سڄڻين، گلبدن گلزار،

ڀنڀا ڀرون ڀؤنرن جان، اکيون مِرگھهَ آچارَ

عارف جي ته اچڻ جا، ٿيا آگَمَ ۾ اظهار،

ساجن ۾ سنسار، جانب وَڌِ جلال چئي.

jiyan se abar bahar, tiyen kanawal qaisa qareeb ja,

se alehara wange alya, badan ḍharya thi ḍhara,

sarva kana soodha preen, munh motin mochar,

hanj dise loda likee vaya, ganyara kayayee guftaar,

suṇi boli baajha bhari, ki koyel na kookara,

chhade shams shuaa wayo, gadji manjh ġhubar,

seeno mokro sajṇen, gulbadan gulzar,

bhinbha bhiroon bhaunran jaan, akhyoon mirgha aachar

aarif jet a achaṇa ja, thiya aagama men izhar,

sajan men sansar, janib wadhi jalal chaye.

One of the pieces from Sabir Mochi’s verses is:

جھڙا گل گلابَ، اُنهيءَ اعليٰ پرين،

پسي مينَ دَهَنُ دوستَ جو، مُجرو ڪيو مهتابَ،

ڪيسَنِ ساڻُ قريبَ جي، ڇا ڪارنَهنَ پڄندي قاف!

ڪَن پيا ويسَ وڏاندرا، ”صابر“ چئي سر صاف،

ظاهر اڳتون زاف، اچي ڪو نه عجيب جي.

jehṛa gula gulaba, unhai-a aala preen,

pase mena dahanu dosta jo, mujro kayo mehtaba,

kaisan saṇu qareeba je, chha karanh pujande qaaf!

kan paya waisa wadandara, “Sabir” chaye sir saaf,

zahir agton zaaf, ache ko na ajeeb je.

32- (a)   Folk poets and sughars had a matchless treasure of language. Dr. Baloch in his book “Belayan ja Bol” (words of the poets of Bela) writes:

“Folk poetry is a never ending mine of words. A folk poet is brought up in every region of Sindh. He has knowledge of the idioms and commonly spoken language in addition to the special words and idioms of his region, that he uses in his poetry. It is natural that he uses the literal as well as idiomatic meaning in them.” (61)

Dr. Baloch writes further:

“Folk poets are the fathers of the real and pure Sindhi language. Their surroundings contain the formations and deformation of words and idioms; new idioms and words sprout from their hearts and get consolidated in their social gatherings and meetings. The ancient treasure of real words is sound and secure in the rural areas not adulterated by the urban winds. And it is preserved in the oral form in the minds of the elders and is transferred from one generation to the next.” (62)

(b) Writing the introduction of the book “Sindh jo Seengar”, Mr. Ali Muhammad Sial says:

“Among the artistic treasure of sughars are included dorr ja bait, gorha or hunr ja bait, compiled quotations and sayings, riddles, allegories or narratives about kings, literary puzzles, moral taunts, feminine remarks, metaphorical riddles of pain, secretive messaging etc.” (63)

(c) In the series of folk literature, verses from “Dahas nama” from the Kalhora period are also available. Mr. Allah Buksh Tunio writes in the preface of this book:

“Dahas and seengar stand at the same mantle, but the pearls present in dahas are far more valuable than those of seengar, therefore if dahas are termed a priceless literary treasure of folk literature, this will not be an exaggeration.” (64)

In this regard Mr. Sandeelo has written:

“By finding similar ten words for nang (snake), raat (night), bhaunr (moth), kakar (clouds), haran (deer), sij (sun), chand (moon), khivan (lightning), son (gold) and other nouns from other languages, poets have shown the depth of their wisdom in dahas poetry.” (65)

(d) Dahas is a special, pure and selected genre of folk poetry. It is a complex and strong machine that has been digging and tilling the literary land of various languages, with the result that numerous priceless words from there entered the Sindhi vocabulary, thereby enriching its reserves; for example:

سونَ ورني سوهڻي، آڌر عجب گل رنگَ،

ڪيسر لنڪي ڪامڻي، ڪوُمل نيڻ ڪُرنگ،

ناسَڪَ ڪيلو، ڪوئل بيني، ڀروُن ڀؤنر ڀونگَ

sona warni sohṇi, aadhar ajab gul ranga,

kaisar lanke kamiṇi, koomal naiṇa kurang,

nasaka kailo, koyal bene, bhiroon bhaunr bhonga

لَب، چَپ، اوشٺ، رَک، هُونٺ

آڌر، شفت، اوٺِ، جوڙ، اونٺ

lab, chapa, oshaṭh, rakh, hoonth

adhar, shaft, authi, joṛ, aonth

ماهه، هِلالِ نوخ، مهتاب، قمر

چاند، ڌڄراج، پوُنم، سيس، بدر (66)

maah,hilal nokh, mahtab qamar

chand, dhajraj, poonam, ses, badar (66)

33- Truly the Kalhora period was the great and perfect period of progress of Sindhi language. It was this period when the structure of Sindhi language was complete in all aspects. The progress of language in this period can now be summed up as under:

• Different cities, towns, villages and dwellings of Sindh had big seminaries and institutions of religious education, where teachers, scholars and preachers of a very high caliber were involved in the process of education and teaching.
• Thatta had acquired a status of Darul Uloom (the house of learning) for the Muslim world.
• The country of Sindh was famous in the Islamic world for its teaching and learning of Quran, Hadith, Islamic jurisprudence and religious knowledge.
• In the Kalhora period, Persian, Arabic and Sindhi were in use, but the attention of scholars was especially drawn towards teaching through mother-tongue. It was an era of parsi ghoṛay chaṛhsee (Persian helps ride on the horse) but writing and compilation in Sindhi progressed a lot.
• The tradition of reading and writing in Arabic and Persian changed in this period because the scholars and poets realized the importance of Sindhi language. This was why they thought it was necessary to teach religion to the Muslims, especially the young students, in their mother-tongue. This is to say that the scholars supported the movement of “teaching through the medium of mother-tongue.”
• Muqadmatul Salaat was the first great textbook of Sindhi language, written on the pattern of long poems in 1700 AD (in this period).
• Different genres of literature were composed for teaching various topics and subjects of religious education, for example, poetry related with Chhand, poetic genres like maulood, madah, munaqba, marsia, ghazal, rubaaee, noha, salaam and musadas
• The genres of folk literature of this era include narr bait, dahassnama, Seengar bait, hunr, dithoon, pirolioon, dorr, gujharatoon, bol, gufta, muqfa and musaja (beautiful) prose, proverbs, sayings, Salooks and sūtras.
• The foundation of long poem in Sindhi on the pattern of alif ashbaa was laid that became common in the Kalhora period. This new genre played the role of a movement for progress of Sindhi language. Religious subjects were preached in this type of poetry whereby light was thrown on the principles of Shariah, faith and the tenets of Islam.
• Many books were written in this era on the life of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), the holy wars, stories of the messengers (of God), mysticism and morality.
• Books were written in prose and on vaee and bait and the trend of translations in Sindhi language started. Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi translated his own book Faraizul Islam with the same name. Sirajul Muneer was the second book of this series translated in Sindhi by Makhdoom Abdullah of Narya and he named it Sairbustan in Sindhi.
• The poetry of Shah Latif and Shah Inayat in the form of their Risalo (collection) and those of Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari and Faqir Sahib Dino Faruqi vouch for the greatness of Sindhi language.
• The vaee of Shah Inayat cleared the way for musical recitation in Sindhi language. He used the commonly spoken language prevalent in the society for his verses.
• Shah Latif wrote verses on the farmers, fishermen, seamen, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, weavers, cloth merchants, potters, boatmen, washer men, physicians, jogis, wanderers and used the words spoken in these vocations in his poetry. He did a remarkable job of preserving and serving the culture, traditions on the one hand and Sindhi language and vocabulary on the other had.
• The Risalo of Shah Latif played a guiding role in Sindhi phonetics, linguistics and grammar.
• Shah Latif invented and coined numerous new words, idioms, phrases and proverbs that he used in his poetry. They were also used in his times in the society.
• Shah Latif used a colorful language and all the types of poetical figures in his poetry thereby providing a proof of the eloquence, conciseness and beauty of the Sindhi language.
• Shah Latif used multiple words with similar meanings, and vice versa which is a proof of the vastness of Sindhi language.
• Shah Latif used a single word with many meanings showing the eloquence of the language.
• Shah Latif used numerous words and phrases for description of the psyche and feelings of the people of Sindh providing substance for guidance to the experts of psychology.
• Shah Latif composed verses based on patriotism and love for the motherland, for people of Sindh.
• Mian Sarfaraz Khan Abbassi was also a good poet of this period. He wrote madah based on the meters of uroozi (Persian) poetry and used the poetical figures (sanat mursa/tarseeh) in it. Tarseeh means threading the beads; he has used rhyming in almost every word. This figure is also seen in Sachal Sarmast’s poetry. Mian Sarfaraz Abbassi has used sanat tarseeh abundantly in his poetry. Tarseeh is defined as under:

“A genre in which each line of a verse has separate rhyming words i.e. the first line would consist of words rhyming with each other with the same arrangement for the second line as well. Such a formation is called tarseeh and it also means decorating separately.

• The first complete Risalo (collection) of bait and vaee was written by Shah Inayat Rizvi, and later on other poets and Shah Latif’s works were compiled on the same pattern.
• Sindhi poetry was arranged according to musical themes by Shah Inayat Rizvi, and in this way metaphorical and symbolic poetry got to its peak.
• Shah Latif and other poets of this era, not only preserved the already available literature but brought changes to it and paved the way for modernization of literature. Shah Latif encouraged the poets and writers to bring modernity to literature.
• Critical books on the history and literature of Sindh were written in Persian in this period, like: Maklinama, Tuhfatul Ikram, Maqalatul Shuaraa, Takamla Maqalatul Shuaraa and Fatehnama Sindh etc.
• The Naskh script for Sindhi language was completely established in this era.
• Sindhi poetry of this era depicted the language and various psychological and social issues pertaining to different regions and represented them.
• The profound secrets of mysticism and spirituality were explained in an easy language through the use of metaphors and similes in folk stories.
• Shah Latif used the Larri, Kachhi, Kohistani, Laasi, Jadgali, Tharri and Dhatki dialects and the words, phrases, sayings and proverbs used in them in his Surs in such a way that his Risalo became a great treasure for research on different dialects of Sindhi language, the social and cultural history and socio linguistic.
• A variety of new subjects were introduced in the grammar of language through the poetic works of Shah Latif, Shah Inayat, Khwaja Muhammad Zaman of Lunwari and Makhdoom Abdul Rahim Girhoree.
• Shah Latif also helped understand the phonemes, that is an important subject of Sindhi linguistics, such as the words kaṛ and kaṛh, and in kaṛian and kaṛhian where by using the phonemes like ṛ and ṛh he has shown a difference in their meanings.
• The use of pronominal suffixes in the poetry of Shah Latif indicates to this important point of Sindhi language.
• Examples of Sindhi prose are found from this era including countless sayings, proverbs and idioms. Shah Inayat Sufi Shaheed has been a great scholar of this period who initiated and propagated the sense of patriotism and nationalism in Sindh. One of his sentences occupies a significant place in Sindhi literature, society and cultural history. That sentence is as under:

ڏونگر ڏني ڏاڙهي، ڪره ڪُتي جو پڇ.

doongar dini daṛhee, karah kute jo puchh.

Appearance of idioms like daṛhee dianh and kutay jo puchh is a simile that has an important place in Sindhi traditions, and from which the values of Sindhi culture become known. Some proverbs and saying from Shah Latif’s works in this era are reproduced here as under:

- data na aahe zaat te, jo wahe so lahe (ڏات نه آهي ذات تي، جو وَهي سو لهي)

- tati-a thadhi-a kaaha, kanhe waila wehaṇ jee (تتيءَ ٿڌيءَ ڪاهه، ڪانهي ويل ويهڻ جي)

- dahyoon dukha disan. (ڏاهيون ڏک سن)

- dudi-a ja beeṇa (ٻڏيءَ جا ٻيڻا)

• The Persian verse that Shah Inayat Sufi Shaheed uttered at the time of his martyrdom eventually became an initiator of many books and movements. That verse is as under:

رهانيدي مرا، از شر هتي

جزاک الله في دارين خيراً

rahayandi mara, az shar hite

jazak allah fi daren khairan

So one can make an inference that Shah Latif’s period i.e. the era of Kalhora rule was great and important in the literary history of Sindhi language.

References

• Usually the year of birth of Shah Latif is said to be 1689AD/1102 AH.
• Karim Buksh Channa: “Tareekh Tamadun Islam”, pp 84
• Allana, Ghulam Ali, Dr: “Sindhi Boli jo Abhiaas”, Jamshoro, Institute of Sindhology, 1987 pp 244 to 271
• Hamid Ali Khanai, Qureshi,Dr: “Sindh ja Chand Aalim ain Muhadis”, Monthly Nain Zindagi, July 1995, p 11
• Ibid pp 11-13
• Ibid pp 11-13
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, Jamshoro, Institute of Sindhology, 1970, p 6,7 and 8
• Ibid p 25
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Sindhi Boli ain Adab ji Tareekh”, IIIrd edition, p 351
• Ibid p 368
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, pp 33, 66, 76, 78, 81, 82, 87 & 96
• Ibid
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi-a ji Adabi Tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, pp 113-114
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, pp 37, 41, 42 & 43.
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi Tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, pp 161
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Sindhi Boli ain Adab ji Tareekh”, IIIrd edition, pp 379
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, pp 51, 52, 53.
• Ibid p 54
• Ibid p 62
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi Tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, 137 & 140
• Ibid pp 166 & 170
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, pp 34-35
• Ibid pp 35
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, pp 123
• Ibid pp 161
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhioon”,, pp 16-17.
• Sachau,C.,Dr., Al-Beruni’s India, Vol I, Op. Cit
• Jhamat Mal Bhavnani, Prof: “Chhand Sughand”, Hindu Printing Press, Ajmer. 1953, pp 5-6, 29-33 Hindustan Sahtia Mala, Bombay, 1956
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, p 21
• Sachau,C.,Dr., Al-Beruni’s India, Vol I, Op. Cit
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937,
• Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr: “Sindhiyoon”, pp 27 and 28.
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Sindhi Boli ain Adab ji Tareekh”, IIIrd edition, 436-437
• Mehr Khadim: “Tanveer Abbassi joon Vaiyoon”, Article in Monthly Nain Zindagi, July 1995, p 32
• Ibid
• Utam A G: Suhni, Article, Ayaz number, p 34
• Allah Buksh Uquaili:
• Memon Abdul Majeed Sindhi, Dr: “Ilm-u-lissan jay Lihaaz Khaan Shah jay Risalay jo Mutaleo”, article, Mehran 1987, p 80
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, p 269
• Ibid
• Mir Muhammad Bhayyo, Prof: “Hazrat Shah Abdul latif Bhittai, Sindhi Boli jo Maimaar”,
• Sirajul Haque Memon: Article; see Nanin Zindagi, January 1971, p 23:: the words given in brackets in the topic of kabaro are from the present day language so that the real words are easily understood.
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Sindhi Boli ain Adab ji Tareekh”, IIIrd edition, pp 427
• The meaning of the word devna is ‘owed’, this is a word of hundi; it should not be taken as a name Devi Rai, but it means that money is owed and has to be paid.
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Sindhi Boli ain Adab ji Tareekh”, IIIrd edition 427
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, p 427
• Muhammad Siddique Memon, Khanbahadur: “Sindhi ji Adabi tareekh”, Part I, Hyderabad, Sindh Muslim Adabi Society, 1937, p 363
• Ibid p 262
• Daudpota Dr: Article; “Qadeem Sindhi Nasr”, Monthly Sindhu, October 1934, p 299
• Sachau Op Cit
• Bherumal Advani: “Sindhi Boli ji Tareekh”, reference given.
• Sehar Imdad, Prof: Article; reference given
• Sachau,C.,Dr., Alberouny’s India, Vol I, Op. Cit
• Ibid
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch, Dr: “Hindi ain Sindhi Shairi jo laagapo”, Soghaat, Sindh Sughar Conference, Tando Adam, Sanghar Historical and Cultural Society, 1412 AH/1991AD, pp 17-18
• Sandeelo Abdul Kareem Dr: “Sindh jo Seengaar”, Jamshoro/Hyderabad, Sindhi Adabi Board, 1985, pp 1
• Ibid
• Param Abechandani: “Sindhi Saranghar Sahat”, Sat Saar, Part II, New Delhi, 1992, pp54
• Fahmida Hussain,Dr: “Shah Latif ji Shairi main Aurat jo Roop”, Bhit Shah/Hyderabad, Shah Abdul Latif Bhit Shah Saqafati Markaz, 1993/1414 AH, p 110
• Param Abechandani: “Sindhi Saranghar Sahat”, Sat Saar, Part II, New Delhi, 1992,p 54
• Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch,Dr: “Balayan ja Bol”, IInd reprint, Preface, Hyderabad, Zaib Adabi Markaz, p 4
• Ibid p 5
• Sandeelo Abdul Kareem Dr: “Sindh jo Seengaar”, Jamshoro/Hyderabad, Sindhi Adabi Board, 1985, pp 1
• Sandeelo Abdul Kareem Dr: “Dahass namo”, Preface, Aslam Manzil, Larkana, 1969, pp 2-3
• Ibid
• Adhar=chap, nasik=nak, kelo=toto, benee= awaz, bhoong=naang