Amrita Pritam
Encyclopedia
Amrita Pritam (August 31, 1919 – October 31, 2005) was a Punjabi
writer
and poet, considered the first prominent woman Punjabi
poet, novelist, and essayist, and the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language
, who is equally loved on both the sides of the India-Pakistan border, with a career spanning over six decades, she produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah - "Ode to Waris Shah"), an elegy
to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, an expression of her anguish over massacres during the partition of India
. As a novelist her most noted work was Pinjar (The Skeleton) (1950), in which she created her memorable character, Puro, an epitome
of violence against women, loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to existential
fate; the novel was made into an award-winning film, Pinjar
in 2003.
When the former British India was partitioned
into the independent states of India
and Pakistan
in 1947, she migrated from Lahore
, to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi
.
Known as the most important voice for the women in Punjabi literature
, in 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award
for her magnum opus
, a long poem, Sunehe (Messages), later she received the Bhartiya Jnanpith
, one of India's highest literary awards, in 1982 for Kagaz Te Canvas (The Paper and the Canvas). The Padma Shri
came her way in 1969 and finally, Padma Vibhushan
, India's second highest civilian award, in 2004, and in the same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award, given by the Sahitya Akademi
(India's Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
given to the "immortals of literature" for lifetime achievement.
, Punjab
, now in Pakistan
, the only child of a school teacher, a poet and a scholar of Braj Bhasha, Kartar Singh Hitkari, who also edited a literary journal. Besides this, he was a pracharak – a preacher of the Sikh faith. Amrita's mother died when she was eleven. Soon after, she and her father moved to Lahore
, where she lived till her migration to India in 1947. Confronting adult responsibilities, and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves) was published in 1936, at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name to Amrita Pritam. Half a dozen collections of poems were to follow in as many years between 1936 and 1943.
Though she began her journey as romantic poet, soon she shifted gears, and became part of the Progressive Writers' Movement
and its effect was seen in her collection, Lok Peed (People's Anguish) (1944), which openly criticized the war-torn economy, after the Bengal famine of 1943
. She was also involved in social work to certain extent and participated in such activities wholeheartedly, after Independence when social activist Guru Radha Kishan
took the initiative to bring the first Janta Library in Delhi, which was inaugurated by Balraj Sahni and Aruna Asaf Ali
, she contributed to the occasion accordingly. This study centre cum library is still running at Clock Tower, Delhi. She also worked at Lahore
Radio Station for while, before the partition of India
Renowned theatre person and the director of the immortal partition movie 'Garam Hava', MS Sathyu paid a theatrical tribute to her through the rare theatrical performance'Ek Thee Amrita'. Culled from her many writings this rare biographical docu-drama is produced by K K Kohli of Impresario Asia. Written by Danish Iqbal, who had earlier penned 'Sahir', this Play has memorable performances by well known actors like Lovleen Thadani, Mangat Ram, Vijay Nagyal, Kedar Sharma, and others.
s, Hindu
s and Sikhs died from communal violence that followed the partition of India
in 1947, and left Amrita Pritam a Punjabi refugee at age 28, when she left Lahore
and moved to New Delhi
. Subsequently in 1948, while she was pregnant with her son, and travelling from Dehradun
to Delhi
, she expressed anguish on a piece of paper as the poem, "Ajj akhaan Waris Shah nu
" (I ask Waris Shah Today); this poem was to later immortalize her and become the most poignant reminder of the horrors of Partition. The poem addressed to the Sufi poet Waris Shah
, author of the tragic saga of Heer and Ranjah
and with whom she shares her birth place, the Punjabi national epic:
ਅੱਜ ਆਖਾਂ ਵਾਰਸ ਸ਼ਾਹ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਤੋਂ ਕਬਰਾਂ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਬੋਲ।
ਤੇ ਅੱਜ ਕਿਤਾਬੇ ਇਸ਼ਕ ਦਾ ਕੋਈ ਅਗਲਾ ਵਰਕਾ ਫੋਲ।
ਇਕ ਰੋਈ ਸੀ ਧੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਤੂ ਲਿਖ ਲਿਖ ਮਾਰੇ ਵੈਣ
ਅਜ ਲੱਖਾਂ ਧੀਆਂ ਰੌਂਦੀਆਂ ਤੈਨੂ ਵਾਰਸਸ਼ਾਹ ਨੂੰ ਕਹਿਣ:
ਵੇ ਦਰਦਮੰਦਾਂ ਦਿਆ ਦਰਦੀਆ ਉੱਠ ਤੱਕ ਆਪਣਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ।
ਅਜ ਬੇਲੇ ਲਾਸ਼ਾਂ ਵਿਛੀਆਂ ਤੇ ਲਹੂ ਦੀ ਭਰੀ ਚਨਾਬ
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Ik roi si dhi Punjab di tun likh likh maare vaen,
Aj lakhaan dhian rondian tainun Waris Shah nun kehn..
Uth dardmandaan dia dardia uth takk apna Punjab,
Aj bele lashaan bichhiaan te lahu di bhari Chenab..
Kise ne panjaan paaniyan wich ditti zehar ralla,
Te unna paaniya dhar ton ditta pani laa..
Iss zarkhe zamin de loon loon phuteya zehar,
Gith gith chadiyan laliyan foot foot chadeya zehar..
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Weho walissi waah fer wan wan waggi jaa,
Unne har ik wans di wanjhali ditti naag bana..
Naagaan keelle log muuh,bas fer dang hi dang,
Pallo palli punjab de neele pai gye aang..
Galeyon tutte geet fer, trakleyon tutti tand,
Tarinjneyon tutiyan saheliyan, chrekhre kookar band..
Sane sej de bediyan,luddan ditiyan rod,
Sane daliyan peengh ajj, peeplan ditti tod..
Jitthe vajdi si kook pyar di, oh vanjali gayi guwach,
Ranjhe de sab veer ajj bhul gye usdi jaach..
Dharti te lau vaseya, kabran paiyyan chon,
Preet diyan sehzadiyan ajj vich mazaaraan ron..
Ajj sabbe kaidon ban gaye, husan ishq de chor,
Ajj kithon le aaiye labh ke waris shah ik hor..
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Today, I call Waris Shah, “Speak from your grave”
And turn, today, the book of love’s next affectionate page
Once, a daughter of Punjab cried and you wrote a wailing saga
Today, a million daughters, cry to you, Waris Shah
Rise! O’ narrator of the grieving; rise! look at your Punjab
Today, fields are lined with corpses, and blood fills the Chenab
Amrita Pritam worked until 1961 in the Punjabi service of All India Radio
, Delhi. After her divorce in 1960, her work became more clearly feminist. Many of her stories and poems drew on the unhappy experience of her marriage. A number of her works have been translated into English
, French
, Danish
, Japanese
and other languages from Punjabi
and Urdu
, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp (Raseedi Tikkat in Punjabi).
The first of Amrita Pritam's books to be filmed was Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan, as ‘Kadambar’ (1965), followed by ‘Unah Di Kahani’, as Daaku (Dacoit, 1976), directed by Basu Bhattacharya
. Her novel Pinjar (The Skeleton, 1970) was made into an award winning
Hindi movie
by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, because of its humanism
: "Amritaji has portrayed the suffering of people of both the countries." Pinjar was shot in a border region of Rajasthan
and in Punjab.
She edited “Nagmani”, a monthly literary magazine in Punjabi for several years, which she ran together with Imroz, for 33 years; though after Partition she wrote prolifically in Hindi as well. Later in life, she turned to Osho
and wrote introductions for several books of Osho, including Ek Onkar Satnam, and also started writing on spiritual themes and dreams, producing works like Kaal Chetna (Time Consciousness) and Agyat Ka Nimantran (Call of the Unknown). She had also published autobiographies, titled, Kala Gulab (Black Rose) (1968), Rasidi Ticket (The Revenue Stamp) (1976), and Aksharon kay Saayee (Shadows of Words).
And add a new page to your book of love
Once one daughter of Punjab wept, and you wrote your long saga;
Today thousands weep, calling to you Waris Shah:
Arise, o friend of the afflicted; arise and see the state of Punjab,
Corpses strewn on fields, and the Chenaab flowing with much blood.
Someone filled the five rivers with poison,
And this same water now irrigates our soil.
Where was lost the flute, where the songs of love sounded?
And all Ranjha's brothers forgotten to play the flute.
Blood has rained on the soil, graves are oozing with blood,
The princesses of love cry their hearts out in the graveyards.
Today all the Quaido'ns have become the thieves of love and beauty,
Where can we find another one like Waris Shah?
Waris Shah! I say to you, speak from your grave
And add a new page to your book of love.
conffored upon her by Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh
. She is first woman recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award
in 1956 for Sunehray (Messages) , Amrita Pritam received the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, in 1982 for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas). She received the Padma Shri
(1969) and Padma Vibhushan
, India's second highest civilian award, and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
, India's highest literary award, also in 2004. She received D.Litt. honorary degrees, from many universities including, Delhi University (1973), Jabalpur University (1973) and Vishwa Bharati (1987)
She also received International Vaptsarov
Award from the Republic of Bulgaria
(1979) and Degree of Officer dens, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
(Officier) by the French Government (1987). She was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha
1986-92. Towards the end of her life, she was awarded by Pakistan's Punjabi Academy, to which she had remarked, Bade dino baad mere maike ko meri yaad aayi..; and also Punjabi poets of Pakistan, sent her a chaddar, from the tombs of Waris Shah
, and fellow Sufi mystic poets Bulle Shah and Sultan Bahu
.
(Abdul Hayee). The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket. When another woman intruded into the love life of Sahir, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the renowned artist and writer Imroz. She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers. Their life together is also the subject of a book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.
She died in her sleep on 31 October 2005 at the age of 86 in New Delhi
, after a long illness. She is survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Taurus, Noor, Aman and Shilpi.
, with poems of Amrita Pritam recited by him, a film on her life is also on the anvil.
Video links
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...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and poet, considered the first prominent woman 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...
poet, novelist, and essayist, and the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language
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...
, who is equally loved on both the sides of the India-Pakistan border, with a career spanning over six decades, she produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah - "Ode to Waris Shah"), an elegy
Elegy
In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, an expression of her anguish over massacres during the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
. As a novelist her most noted work was Pinjar (The Skeleton) (1950), in which she created her memorable character, Puro, an epitome
Epitome
An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....
of violence against women, loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
fate; the novel was made into an award-winning film, Pinjar
Pinjar (film)
Pinjar is a 2003 film about Hindu-Muslim problems during the time around the partition of India. The film is based on a Punjabi novel by the same name, written by Amrita Pritam...
in 2003.
When the former British India was partitioned
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
into the independent states of 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
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...
in 1947, she migrated from 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...
, to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Shiv Kumar 'Batalvi was a noted Punjabi language poet, who was most known for his romantic poetry, noted for its heightened passion, pathos, separation and lover's agony...
.
Known as the most important voice for the women in Punjabi literature
Punjabi Literature
Punjabi literature refers to literary works written in the Punjabi language particularly by peoples from the historical Punjab region of India and Pakistan including the Punjabi diaspora. The Punjabi language is written in several different scripts, of which the Shahmukhi, the Gurmukhī scripts are...
, in 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
for her magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, a long poem, Sunehe (Messages), later she received the Bhartiya Jnanpith
Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...
, one of India's highest literary awards, in 1982 for Kagaz Te Canvas (The Paper and the Canvas). The Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
came her way in 1969 and finally, Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
, India's second highest civilian award, in 2004, and in the same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award, given by the Sahitya Akademi
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi ', India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India...
(India's Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India. Awarded by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, to the "immortals of literature," and limited to twenty one individuals at any given time, it is the highest literary honour conferred by the Government of India...
given to the "immortals of literature" for lifetime achievement.
Formative Years
Amrita Pritam was born in 1919 in GujranwalaGujranwala
Gujranwala is a industrial city in the north-east of the Punjab province. It is the sixth largest city in Pakistan with a population of approximately 2,661,360 as on 24 June 2011...
, Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, now in 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...
, the only child of a school teacher, a poet and a scholar of Braj Bhasha, Kartar Singh Hitkari, who also edited a literary journal. Besides this, he was a pracharak – a preacher of the Sikh faith. Amrita's mother died when she was eleven. Soon after, she and her father moved to 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...
, where she lived till her migration to India in 1947. Confronting adult responsibilities, and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves) was published in 1936, at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name to Amrita Pritam. Half a dozen collections of poems were to follow in as many years between 1936 and 1943.
Though she began her journey as romantic poet, soon she shifted gears, and became part of the Progressive Writers' Movement
Progressive Writers' Movement
The Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind or Progressive Writers' Movement was a progressive literary movement in the pre-partition British India, consisting of a few different writers groups around the world....
and its effect was seen in her collection, Lok Peed (People's Anguish) (1944), which openly criticized the war-torn economy, after the Bengal famine of 1943
Bengal famine of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
. She was also involved in social work to certain extent and participated in such activities wholeheartedly, after Independence when social activist Guru Radha Kishan
Guru Radha Kishan
Guru Radha Kishan was born in the year 1925 on Krishna Janmashtami in Bid village of district Harda of Madhya Pradesh in a Brahmin family of farmers. He has to experience the hardships of the life very early as his father was expired while he was a kid...
took the initiative to bring the first Janta Library in Delhi, which was inaugurated by Balraj Sahni and Aruna Asaf Ali
Aruna Asaf Ali
Aruna Asaf Ali , born Aruna Ganguli, was an Indian independence activist. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942.She was 87 years old at the time of her death.-Early life:Aruna Asaf Ali was...
, she contributed to the occasion accordingly. This study centre cum library is still running at Clock Tower, Delhi. She also worked at 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...
Radio Station for while, before the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
Renowned theatre person and the director of the immortal partition movie 'Garam Hava', MS Sathyu paid a theatrical tribute to her through the rare theatrical performance'Ek Thee Amrita'. Culled from her many writings this rare biographical docu-drama is produced by K K Kohli of Impresario Asia. Written by Danish Iqbal, who had earlier penned 'Sahir', this Play has memorable performances by well known actors like Lovleen Thadani, Mangat Ram, Vijay Nagyal, Kedar Sharma, and others.
Partition
Some one million MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s and Sikhs died from communal violence that followed the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947, and left Amrita Pritam a Punjabi refugee at age 28, when she left 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...
and moved to New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
. Subsequently in 1948, while she was pregnant with her son, and travelling from Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, she expressed anguish on a piece of paper as the poem, "Ajj akhaan Waris Shah nu
Ajj akhaan Waris Shah nu
Ajj akhaan Waris Shah nun is a famous dirge by Punjabi writer and poet Amrita Pritam about the horrors of the partition of the Punjab during the 1947 Partition of India...
" (I ask Waris Shah Today); this poem was to later immortalize her and become the most poignant reminder of the horrors of Partition. The poem addressed to the Sufi 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...
, author of the tragic saga of Heer and Ranjah
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...
and with whom she shares her birth place, the Punjabi national epic:
ਅੱਜ ਆਖਾਂ ਵਾਰਸ ਸ਼ਾਹ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਤੋਂ ਕਬਰਾਂ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਬੋਲ।
ਤੇ ਅੱਜ ਕਿਤਾਬੇ ਇਸ਼ਕ ਦਾ ਕੋਈ ਅਗਲਾ ਵਰਕਾ ਫੋਲ।
ਇਕ ਰੋਈ ਸੀ ਧੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਤੂ ਲਿਖ ਲਿਖ ਮਾਰੇ ਵੈਣ
ਅਜ ਲੱਖਾਂ ਧੀਆਂ ਰੌਂਦੀਆਂ ਤੈਨੂ ਵਾਰਸਸ਼ਾਹ ਨੂੰ ਕਹਿਣ:
ਵੇ ਦਰਦਮੰਦਾਂ ਦਿਆ ਦਰਦੀਆ ਉੱਠ ਤੱਕ ਆਪਣਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ।
ਅਜ ਬੇਲੇ ਲਾਸ਼ਾਂ ਵਿਛੀਆਂ ਤੇ ਲਹੂ ਦੀ ਭਰੀ ਚਨਾਬ
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Ik roi si dhi Punjab di tun likh likh maare vaen,
Aj lakhaan dhian rondian tainun Waris Shah nun kehn..
Uth dardmandaan dia dardia uth takk apna Punjab,
Aj bele lashaan bichhiaan te lahu di bhari Chenab..
Kise ne panjaan paaniyan wich ditti zehar ralla,
Te unna paaniya dhar ton ditta pani laa..
Iss zarkhe zamin de loon loon phuteya zehar,
Gith gith chadiyan laliyan foot foot chadeya zehar..
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Weho walissi waah fer wan wan waggi jaa,
Unne har ik wans di wanjhali ditti naag bana..
Naagaan keelle log muuh,bas fer dang hi dang,
Pallo palli punjab de neele pai gye aang..
Galeyon tutte geet fer, trakleyon tutti tand,
Tarinjneyon tutiyan saheliyan, chrekhre kookar band..
Sane sej de bediyan,luddan ditiyan rod,
Sane daliyan peengh ajj, peeplan ditti tod..
Jitthe vajdi si kook pyar di, oh vanjali gayi guwach,
Ranjhe de sab veer ajj bhul gye usdi jaach..
Dharti te lau vaseya, kabran paiyyan chon,
Preet diyan sehzadiyan ajj vich mazaaraan ron..
Ajj sabbe kaidon ban gaye, husan ishq de chor,
Ajj kithon le aaiye labh ke waris shah ik hor..
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,
Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol..
Today, I call Waris Shah, “Speak from your grave”
And turn, today, the book of love’s next affectionate page
Once, a daughter of Punjab cried and you wrote a wailing saga
Today, a million daughters, cry to you, Waris Shah
Rise! O’ narrator of the grieving; rise! look at your Punjab
Today, fields are lined with corpses, and blood fills the Chenab
Amrita Pritam worked until 1961 in the Punjabi service of All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
, Delhi. After her divorce in 1960, her work became more clearly feminist. Many of her stories and poems drew on the unhappy experience of her marriage. A number of her works have been translated into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and other languages from 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...
and 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...
, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp (Raseedi Tikkat in Punjabi).
The first of Amrita Pritam's books to be filmed was Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan, as ‘Kadambar’ (1965), followed by ‘Unah Di Kahani’, as Daaku (Dacoit, 1976), directed by Basu Bhattacharya
Basu Bhattacharya
Basu Bhattacharya was a Hindi film director , most famous for his 1966 film Teesri Kasam, starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman , which won the National Film Award for Best Film in 1967; he also produced Sparsh in 1985 starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, which won the Filmfare Best Movie...
. Her novel Pinjar (The Skeleton, 1970) was made into an award winning
Filmfare Best Art Direction
The Filmfare Best Art Direction Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films.Although the awards started in 1953, awards for the best art direction category started only in 1955.-Superlatives:-Awards:...
Hindi movie
Pinjar (film)
Pinjar is a 2003 film about Hindu-Muslim problems during the time around the partition of India. The film is based on a Punjabi novel by the same name, written by Amrita Pritam...
by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, because of its humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
: "Amritaji has portrayed the suffering of people of both the countries." Pinjar was shot in a border region of Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
and in Punjab.
She edited “Nagmani”, a monthly literary magazine in Punjabi for several years, which she ran together with Imroz, for 33 years; though after Partition she wrote prolifically in Hindi as well. Later in life, she turned to Osho
Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
Osho , born Chandra Mohan Jain , and also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and as Osho from 1989, was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.A professor of philosophy, he travelled...
and wrote introductions for several books of Osho, including Ek Onkar Satnam, and also started writing on spiritual themes and dreams, producing works like Kaal Chetna (Time Consciousness) and Agyat Ka Nimantran (Call of the Unknown). She had also published autobiographies, titled, Kala Gulab (Black Rose) (1968), Rasidi Ticket (The Revenue Stamp) (1976), and Aksharon kay Saayee (Shadows of Words).
English Translation of (Ajj Akhan Waris Shah nu)
I say to Waris Shah today, speak from your graveAnd add a new page to your book of love
Once one daughter of Punjab wept, and you wrote your long saga;
Today thousands weep, calling to you Waris Shah:
Arise, o friend of the afflicted; arise and see the state of Punjab,
Corpses strewn on fields, and the Chenaab flowing with much blood.
Someone filled the five rivers with poison,
And this same water now irrigates our soil.
Where was lost the flute, where the songs of love sounded?
And all Ranjha's brothers forgotten to play the flute.
Blood has rained on the soil, graves are oozing with blood,
The princesses of love cry their hearts out in the graveyards.
Today all the Quaido'ns have become the thieves of love and beauty,
Where can we find another one like Waris Shah?
Waris Shah! I say to you, speak from your grave
And add a new page to your book of love.
Acclaim
Amrita is the first recipient of Punjab Rattan AwardPunjab Rattan Award
The Punjab Rattan Award, is an award given by the Government of Punjab for exceptional excellence and achievement in the service of Punjab or international level in the field of art, literature, culture, science, technology, politics and achievements at the international level. The award consists...
conffored upon her by Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh
Amarinder Singh
Captain Amarinder Singh . He served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and presently serves as the President of Punjab PCC. He currently resides in New Moti Bagh Palace, Patiala.-Personal life:...
. She is first woman recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
in 1956 for Sunehray (Messages) , Amrita Pritam received the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, in 1982 for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas). She received the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
(1969) and Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
, India's second highest civilian award, and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India. Awarded by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, to the "immortals of literature," and limited to twenty one individuals at any given time, it is the highest literary honour conferred by the Government of India...
, India's highest literary award, also in 2004. She received D.Litt. honorary degrees, from many universities including, Delhi University (1973), Jabalpur University (1973) and Vishwa Bharati (1987)
She also received International Vaptsarov
Nikola Vaptsarov
Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov was a Bulgarian poet, communist and revolutionary. Working most of his life as a machinist, he only wrote in his spare time. Despite the fact that he ever published only one poetry book, he is considered one of the most important Bulgarian poets...
Award from the Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
(1979) and Degree of Officer dens, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
(Officier) by the French Government (1987). She was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...
1986-92. Towards the end of her life, she was awarded by Pakistan's Punjabi Academy, to which she had remarked, Bade dino baad mere maike ko meri yaad aayi..; and also Punjabi poets of Pakistan, sent her a chaddar, from the tombs of 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...
, and fellow Sufi mystic poets Bulle Shah and 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...
.
Personal life
In 1935, Amrita married Pritam Singh, son of a leading hosiery merchant of Lahore's Anarkali bazaar. In 1960, Amrita Pritam left her husband for poet Sahir LudhianviSahir Ludhianvi
Sahir Ludhianvi was a popular Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist and songwriter. Sahir Ludhianvi is his pseudonym...
(Abdul Hayee). The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket. When another woman intruded into the love life of Sahir, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the renowned artist and writer Imroz. She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers. Their life together is also the subject of a book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.
She died in her sleep on 31 October 2005 at the age of 86 in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, after a long illness. She is survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Taurus, Noor, Aman and Shilpi.
Works
In her career spanning over six decades, she penned 28 novels, 18 anthologies of prose, five short stories and 16 miscellaneous prose volumes.- Doctor Dev
- Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din
- Sagar aur Seepian
- Rang ka Patta
- Dilli ki Galiyan
- Terahwan Suraj
- Yaatri
- Jilavatan (1968)
Short stories
- Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi
- Kahaniyon ke Angan mein
- Stench of Kerosene
Poetry anthologies
- Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves)(1936)
- Jiunda Jiwan (The Exuberant Life) (1939)
- Trel Dhote Phul (1942)
- O Gitan Valia (1942)
- Badlam De Laali (1943)
- Sanjh de laali (1943)
- Lok Peera (The People's Anguish) (1944)
- Pathar Geetey (The Pebbles) (1946)
- Punjabi Di Aawaaz (1952)
- Sunehray (Messages) (1955) - Sahitya Akademi AwardSahitya Akademi AwardSahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
- Ashoka Cheti (1957)
- Kasturi (1957)
- Nagmani (1964)
- Ik Si Anita (1964)
- Chak Nambar Chatti (1964)
- Uninja Din (49 Days) (1979)
- Kagaz Te Kanvas (1981)- Bhartiya JnanpithJnanpith AwardThe Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...
- Chuni Huyee Kavitayen
Legacy
In 2007, an audio album titled, 'Amrita recited by Gulzar' was released by noted lyricist GulzarGulzar (lyricist)
Sampooran Singh Kalra , known popularly by his pen name Gulzar , is an Indian poet, lyricist and director. He primarily writes in Hindi-Urdu and has also written in Punjabi and several dialects of Hindi such as Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Haryanvi and Marwari.Gulzar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in...
, with poems of Amrita Pritam recited by him, a film on her life is also on the anvil.
Further reading
- Uma Trilok, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story, Penguin India (2006) ISBN 0143100440
- Indra Gupta, India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women ISBN 8188086193
- Indian Fiction in English Translation - Chapt 4: Comments on Amrita Pritam's Magnum Opus: The Skeleton (Jagdev Singh), by Shubha Tiwari. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005. ISBN 812690450X. Page 28-35
- Studies in Punjabi Poetry. Chapt. 9- Amrita Pritam: The Poetry of Protest, by Darshan Singh Maini. Vikas Pub., 1979. ISBN 0706907094. Page 109.
- 1st chapter of Revenue Stamp by Amrita Pritam
- "The Cellar" by Amrita Pritam
- “Sahiban in Exile” by Amrita Pritam
- "The Weed" by Amrita Pritam
- "Wild Flower" by Amrita Pritam
- Main Tenu Phir Milangi, (I will meet you yet again) Translation
External links
- Amrita Pritam and her Works at South Asian Women's Network (Sawnet)
- Amrita Pritam 1919-2005-a tribute by Raza Rumi
- Poems by Amrita Pritam at Kavitayan (Archived 2009-10-25)
Video links