A Transcendental Agony - Shiv Kumar

Shiv Kumar was a born poet who migrated from the poetic region of Sialkot to Batala at the most miserable moment of human history. It was the Independence of the sub-continent in 1947 - the dreadful, painful, horrible, miserable, devastating, slaughtering and marauding phenomenon, which bisected the trouble stricken North India. The pangs of separation are recurrent themes of this great lyricist of the land. He has been hailed as one of the great poets of all times.
Nevertheless, being acquainted with some of his poems, receding and bleeding parting songs and prosodic commentary on the nearly dead ROMANTIC tradition of the land of five rivers, Shiv Kumar has fostered the impression of sentimental romance of the bygone era in the contemporary idiom. Spanning from the folk-stage to the film screen, Shiv Kumar has re-established the heroic, romantic and down to earth tradition of transcendental poetry.

It is not generally known, for example, that Shiv Kumar's creativity overflowed with bawdiness, satire, ardent Panjabi odour and recalcitrant revolutionary thoughts that he imbibed in his poetry. His musical presentation has captivated the listeners over a period of revival of chivalrous, sacrificial and utter-devotional aspect of our culture.

I had an opportunity to see Shiv Kumar in the fifties when he sang his first song (the maiden song) 'Piran da Praga' at a kavi darbar in Jalandhar City's company bagh in 1955. I was perhaps the last recorder and listener of Shiv Kumar in England when he wrote down in one of my book - a poem on 'The Sun':-

'Charh Aa! Charh Aa! Charh Aa!
cVH Aw ! cVH Aw! cVH Aw [
DrqI qy DrqI-Dr Aw [
Aj swrw AMbr qyrw [
qYnUM rokx vwlw ikhVw?

I have adorned this poem since 1972 and I am proud of reproducing this great lyric 

 

 

 

PIRAN DA PRAGA was prepared as a manuscript. I asked my friend artist Duleep Singh to illustrate this transcendental poem/song. He chose the image of 'Thohar' (cactus) representing Shiv's poetic thought. Although MAIN KANDIALI THOHAR is not the index poem - this maiden collection by it enjoys the recurrent imagery of this whole work.

To my mind the 'Piran da Praga' and 'Charh Aa! Charh Aa!' were the first and last creations of this great gem of Punjabi poetry of the 20th century. I would like to elaborate this theme in the following words.
He listened with rep attention as an old sage. He learned from chat books and broadside ballads. A boyhood visit to a Mela (folk festival) in the 'Majha' broadened his experiences, revealing vistas stretching far beyond the confines of his father's middle class situation. As he approached young manhood, however, his prospects as either a 'Patwari' or a poet, seemed utterly drearier.