Bulleh Shah - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bulleh Shah ' onMouseout='HidePop("62904")' href="/topics/Hindi">Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

: बुल्ले शाह, full name Abdullah Shah) was a Punjabi

Punjabi people

The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...

Sufi poet, a humanist and philosopher.

Early life

Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch

Uch

Uch or Uch Sharif ) is located in 75 km from Bahawalpur in Bahawalpur District, South Punjab, Pakistan Uch is an important historical city, being founded by Alexander the Great. Formerly located at the confluence of the Indus and Chenab rivers, it is now removed to Mithankot, some 100 km...

, Bahawalpur

Bahawalpur

Bahawalpur , located in the province of Punjab, is the twelfth largest city in Pakistan. The city was once the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur. The city was home to various Nawabs and counted as part of the Rajputana states...

, Punjab

Punjab (Pakistan)

Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

, in present day Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. His father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a teacher and preacher in a village mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

. Little is known about Bulleh Shah's ancestry except that some of his forebears were migrants from Uzbekistan and that his family claimed direct descent from the prophet Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

.

When he was six months old, his parents relocated to Malakwal

Malakwal

Malakwal is town in Mandi Bahauddin District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town serves as the headquarters of Malakwal Tehsil, and administrative subdivision of Mandi Bahauddin District...

. His father later got a job in Pandoke

Pandoke

Pandoke is a village in Lahore District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is located at 32°16'50N 74°21'33E with an altitude of 204 metres ....

, about 50 miles southeast of Kasur

Kasur

Kasur , the capital of Kasur District in Pakistan. Kasur is located adjacent to the border of Ganda Singh Wala between Pakistan and India, and is a tourist attraction because of the daily occurring Flags lowering ceremony...

. Bulleh Shah received his early schooling in Pandoke and moved to Kasur for higher education. He also received education from Maulana Mohiyuddin. His spiritual teacher was the Qadiri

Qadiriyya

The Qadiriyya , are members of the Qadiri Sufi order...

Sufi Shah Inayat Qadiri

Shah Inayat Qadiri

Shah Inayat Qadiri Shatari was a Sufi saint of the Qadiri-Shatari lineage who lived in Qasur, in the Punjab region of present-day Pakistan. Shah Inayat Qadiri is famous as the spiritual guide of the Punjabi poet Bulleh Shah....

, who was a member of the Arain

Arain

The Arain , are a Muslim agricultural caste settled mainly in the Punjab, with significant numbers also in Sindh. They are chiefly associated with farming, traditionally being landlords or zamindars.- Origin :...

tribe of Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

Life

A large amount of what is known about Bulleh Shah comes through legends, and is subjective; to the point that there isn’t even agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of birth. Some "facts" about his life have been pieced together from his own writings. Other "facts" seem to have been passed down through oral traditions.

Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain

Shah Hussain

Shah Hussain was a Punjabi Sufi poet who is regarded as a Sufi saint. He was the son of Sheikh Usman, a weaver, and belonged to the Dhudha clan of Rajputs. He was born in Lahore...

(1538–1599), Sultan Bahu

Sultan Bahu

Sultan Bahu was a Muslim Sufi and saint, who founded the Sarwari Qadiri Sufi order.Sultan Bahu belonged to the Awan tribe, and was born in Anga, Soon Valley, Sakesar . Like many other Sufi saints of South Asia, Sultan Bahu was a prolific writer, with more than forty books on Sufism attributed to...

(1629–1691), and Shah Sharaf

Shah Sharaf

Sahah Saharf is a famous Punjabi Sufi Poet. who wrote his work in Kafi style.-See also:* Baba Bulleh Shah*Punjabi language*Punjabi people*List of Punjabi language poets...

(1640–1724).

Bulleh Shah lived in the same period as the Sindhi

Sindhi people

Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...

Sufi poet , Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai (1689–1752). His lifespan also overlapped with the Punjabi poet Waris Shah

Waris Shah

Waris Shah was a Punjabi Sufi poet, renowned for his contribution to Punjabi literature. He is best-known for his seminal work Heer Ranjha, based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha. Heer is considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature...

(1722–1798), of Heer Ranjha

Heer Ranjha

For 1970 Hindi movie of same name and characters, see Heer Raanjha.Heer Ranjha is one of the four popular tragic romances of the Punjab. The other three are Mirza Sahiba, Sassi Punnun and Sohni Mahiwal. There are several poetic narrations of the story, the most famous being 'Heer' by Waris Shah...

fame, and the Sindhi Sufi poet Abdul Wahab (1739–1829), better known by his pen-name, Sachal Sarmast

Sachal Sarmast

Sachal Sarmast was a Sufi poet from Sindh during the Kalhora era. He was born in daraza near Ranipur, Sindh. His real name was Abdul Wahab and "Sachal" was his nickname. He also used it in his own poetry. Sachu means truthful in Sindhi while Sarmast means mystic in Sindhi and Urdu...

(“truth seeking leader of the intoxicated ones”). Amongst Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

poets, Bulleh Shah lived 400 miles away from Mir Taqi Mir

Mir Taqi Mir

Khuda-e-sukhan Mir Taqi Mir , whose real name was Muhammad Taqi and takhallus was Mir , was the leading Urdu poet of the 18th century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself...

(1723–1810) of Agra

Agra

Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

Poetry Style

The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi, a style of Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

, Sindhi

Sindhi language

Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

and Siraiki poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab

Punjab region

The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

, but also by Sikh

Sikh

A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...

gurus.

Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy strongly criticizes the Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day.

A Beacon of Peace

Bulleh Shah's time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in that age Baba Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of Punjab. While Bulleh Shah was in Pandoke, Muslims killed a young Sikh man who was riding through their village in retaliation for murder of some Muslims by Sikhs. Baba Bulleh Shah denounced the murder of an innocent Sikh and was censured by the mullas and muftis of Pandoke. Bulleh Shah maintained that violence was not the answer to violence. Bulleh Shah also hailed the ninth Sikh

Sikh

Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur as a Ghazi

Ghazw

Ghazi or ghazah is an Arabic term that means "to raid/foray." From it evolved the word "Ghazwa" which specifically refers to a battle led by the Islamic prophet Muhammad.In English language literature the word often appears as razzia, deriving from French, although it probably...

, or "religious warrior", which caused controversy among Muslims of that time.

Humanist

Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Marfat (Union). The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal. Thus, many people have put his kafis to music, from humble street-singers to renowned Sufi singers like the Waddali Brothers, Sain Zahoor

Sain Zahoor

Saieen Zahoor or Saeen Zahur Ahmad is a leading Sufi musician from Pakistan. He has spent most of his life singing in Sufi shrines, and didn't produce a record until 2006, when he was nominated for the BBC World Music awards based on word of mouth.He emerged as the "best BBC voice of the year...

, Abida Parveen

Abida Parveen

Abida Parveen , is a Pakistani singer of Sindhi descent and one of the foremost exponents of Sufi music . She sings mainly ghazals, Urdu love songs, and her forte, Kafis, a solo genre accompanied by percussion and harmonium, using a repertoire of songs by Sufi poets...

and Pathanay Khan

Pathanay Khan

Pathanay Khan was a great Seraiki folk singer from Pakistan. He sang mostly Kafis or Ghazals , which were largely based on the Sufi poetry of Khwaja Ghulam Farid and Shah Hussain...

, from the synthesized techno qawwali remixes of UK-based Asian artists to the rock band Junoon.

Modern renderings

In the 1990s Junoon, a rock band from Pakistan, rendered "Bullah Ki Jaana" and "Aleph" ("Ilmon Bas Kareen O Yaar"). In 2004, Rabbi Shergill

Rabbi Shergill

Rabbi Shergill in Jatt Sikh family is an Indian musician well known for his debut album Rabbi and the chart-topper song of 2005, "Bulla Ki Jaana"...

turned the abstruse metaphysical poem "Bullah Ki Jaana

Bullah Ki Jaana

Bullah ki jaana is a Kafi written by the Sufi saint Bulleh Shah. Bulleh Shah is famous for his spiritual and metaphysical poetry, and "Bullah ki janaa" is one of his well-known poems...

" into a Rock/Fusion song that became popular in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

and Pakistan

Pakistan

. The Wadali Bandhu

Wadali brothers

The Wadali Brothers are Sufi singers and musicians from Guru ki Wadali in the Amritsar District in Punjab, India. Born into the fifth generation of musicians given to singing the messages of Sufi saints, the Wadali brothers dabbled in the most unexpected of professions before they became Sufi...

, a Punjabi Sufi group from India, have also released a version of "Bullah Ki Jaana" on their album Aa Mil Yaar... Call of the Beloved. Another version was performed by Lakhwinder Wadali

Lakhwinder Wadali

Lakhwinder Wadali hails from a family of illustrious musicians. His grandfather Thakur Dass Wadali was a renowned vocalist of his times and his father and uncle formed India’s most celebrated Sufi qawwali duo, the Wadali brothers...

and entitled Bullah.

Bulleh Shah's verses have also been adapted and used in Bollywood

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

film songs including "Chaiyya Chaiyya

Chaiyya Chaiyya

"Chaiyya Chaiyya" is a Hindi song from the 1998 Hindi film Dil Se directed by Mani Ratnam.The song was composed by A.R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. It quickly became popular upon release and its music video gained the same status, partly because it...

" and "Thayya Thayya" in the 1998 film Dil Se
Dil Se
Dil Se is a 1998 Hindi film directed by Mani Ratnam. The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, and Preity Zinta. Mani Ratnam also co-wrote the screenplay for the film...

, and "Ranjha Ranjha" in the 2010 film Raavan
Raavan
Raavan is a 2010 Hindi film directed, written and produced by Mani Ratnam. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram in the lead roles while Govinda, Ravi Kishan, Nikhil Dwivedi, Tejaswini Kolhapure and Priyamani feature in key supporting roles...

. The 2007 Pakistani movie Khuda Kay Liye includes Bulleh Shah's poetry in the song "Bandeya Ho". The 2008 film A Wednesday, included a song titled "Bulle Shah, O Yaar Mere". In 2009 the first episode of the second season of Pakistan's Coke Studio

Coke Studio

Coke Studio is a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. Although it is adapted from the original Brazilian show named Estúdio Coca-Cola, it is fundamentally different from the original version where the show was a concert style show whereas the Pakistani version records its...

featured a collaboration between Sain Zahoor

Sain Zahoor

and Noori

Noori

Noori is a rock band from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, formed in 1996. The band is directed by founder, lead guitarist and songwriter, Ali Noor, and his brother, Ali Hamza, who were soon joined by bassist Muhammad Ali Jafri and drummer Salman Albert...

, "Aik Alif" while, in June 2010, episode one of the third series featured "Na Raindee Hai" and "Makke Gayaan Gal Mukdi Nahi", performed by Arieb Azhar

Arieb Azhar

Arieb Azhar is a Pakistani pop singer. His most famous hit is Husn-e-Haqiqi. He has made appearances in Coke Studio's Season 2 and Season 3.He is listed in the artist section of Danka - Pakistan's Cultural Guide since 2010.- References :...

Works online

External links

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