Folktales are not born of chance. “Folktale” has always been an umbrella term encapsulating the whole range of traditional oral narratives. The resilient nature of oral storytelling reflects an interplay of linguistic and social interactions, historical transformations, and the landscapes in which these tales are created and reshaped over time. These tales gently guide identity formation within the regions from which they originate, creating a world that welcomes all. However, they still require mindful engagement from the story-seeker. In Pakistan, this regionality connects to the country’s diverse physical and cultural landscapes. The Sher Darya, more commonly known as the River Indus or Sindhu Darya, has nurtured a polyvocality of tales that echo through its vast regions.
The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) emerged to document oral histories from the generation that witnessed the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent. CAP’s digital archive has expanded to include a range of materials covering the nation’s formative years. It encompasses pivotal moments that reach into microhistories alongside broader cultural phenomena and local knowledge. Through its work, CAP underscores the importance of preserving oral storytelling as a living tradition that reflects a collective memory while embracing change. The act of preservation and reinvention is particularly relevant to the folktales of Pakistan, where the different versions of tales reflect their surrounding physical landscape.
As we navigate the course of the river, we encounter the desert with the tale of Sassi and Punnu, traverse the mountains of Kech with Hani and Shah Mureed, journey east of the Chenab with Heer and Ranjha, and cross its waters with Sohini towards Mahiwal. Finally, we end our journey with Adam Khan and Durkhane among the mountains in the Swat Valley. The fluidity of the spoken word transcends the rigidity of written narratives, “[supplying] the simple man with all he knows of the history of his folk.” In doing so, we make space for the evolution of folktales to preserve the ethos of the culture they inhabit.
Into the Desert: Sassi and Punnu
For the people of Sindh, the tale of Sassi and Punnu echoes unconscious ways of being, reflecting their innermost worlds. Sassi’s journey is one of profound loss, companionship, and a search for purpose. As she traverses the Rann of Kutch looking for her Punnu, her search for the beloved manifests into a search for herself. Sassi’s story, nestled delicately within the literary corpus of a tragic folktale, draws on the essence of oral storytelling. The narrator weaves together the historical underpinnings of a tragic past, shaping the currents of the present, which ebb and flow in ways that remain embedded in our collective memory. This memory, crucial to preserve, represents a people’s heritage – one open to change. Some remember Sassi’s journey through the Pab Mountains, while others will recount her demise in the deserts of Balochistan. What endures the test of time is the power of her journey – her unwavering will to reach her destination. In doing so, the specificities of regionality and dates, typically central to understanding a shared history, fade compared to the binding force of relatability. By going beyond the particulars, Sassi’s story continues to resonate across generations and cultures. When we reflect on the concept of unconscious ways of being, the tale of Sassi showcases the power of collective memory. The contours of this memory invite us to explore how memories are shaped, preserved, and shared, revealing the influence of oral storytelling in connecting past and present. Similarly, at the forefront of CAP’s mission is an openness to collect and preserve shared memory and to allow the “oral anecdote [to flourish] in a new age.”
A shrine honouring Sassi and Punnu exists today in the Pab mountains west of present-day Karachi to establish a sense of permanence. In the same vein, CAP’s archival repository acknowledges the importance of creating space for the diverse fragments of Pakistan’s history while ensuring they are preserved in an accessible medium that remains open to interpretation and variability of thought.
Through the Mountains: Hani and Shah Mureed
Treading further into Balochistan, we are introduced to another tale of great wisdom. The story of Hani and Shah Mureed (also titled the “Lord of the Iron Bow”) allows us to revisit our understanding of “strength.” Shah Mureed, chief of the son of the Kahiri tribe, is an embodiment of valour and hegemonic masculinity. His character arc shifts by “the very personal way of transforming suffering and love” at the loss of his beloved “into something tangible that enraptures the listener and opens new worlds to him.” By releasing ourselves from the material iteration of “tangible,” we can better understand the immortality with which Hani and Mureed’s story persists. This immortality exists within the spoken word and costs Mureed first his Hani and, second, his attachment to the physical world.
Upon meeting Hani, the antagonist, Mir Chakar Rind, plots to ask his fellow tribe members for their allegiance. Mureed is unaware that upon giving his word to Rind, he would give up his fiancé. Hani’s intelligence had enchanted Rind in their first meeting, when she had placed a leaf in his water bowl so he would pace himself in drink. Upon their union, Mureed retires from the realities of his earthly existence and engages in a transformative dialogue with God, rendering him the title of a Sufi. After being freed from a marriage Hani could not give into, she returns to Mureed. Detached from his earthly existence, conversing with the metaphysical, Mureed reminds us of the weight of the oral dialogue, demonstrating a shared understanding of an immortal truth that resonates closest with those actively engaged in such dialogue. In fostering community across generations, CAP’s Story Share Initiative (SSI), established in 2018, has allowed the authority of antiquity to persist by collecting and making space for stories from diverse backgrounds to be shared, appreciated, and understood by the world, such as that of Hani and Shah Mureed.
East of the Chenab: Heer and Ranjha
Acting on a dream showcases the power of a story created and guided by our subconscious. The story of Heer and Ranjha allows us to “reconsider storytelling as a tool that validates the deeds, memory, perception, and cognition of the human subject.” Charting our course to the east of the Chenab, we meet Heer. She belonged to an affluent family from Jhang in Punjab, and Ranjha was a travelling shepherd. When Ranjha dreamt of Heer, he began his search for her, travelling to Jhang via Multan, seeking an appointment as the shepherd for the village’s leader, Chuchak Khan, and using this as a gateway to meet his beloved. As their silent admiration for one another grew, it eventually caused an uproar, and Heer was married off to another.
Still finding ways to meet one another, Ranjha was exiled from the village but made his way back as a yogi. Heer and Ranjha eloped but were caught and brought before the Qazi. The Qazi then sent Heer back to her husband. That night, his house mysteriously burnt down, and the lovers reunited. In her happiness, Heer ate some sweets, unaware of the poison in them. Ranjha rushed to be by her side; upon finding her lifeless, he, too, ate the sweets and died beside her.
Defying logic in an act of pure devotion is the hallmark of Heer and Ranjha. The passion in these tales also highlights the anti-intellectual side of folktales; while they exist in the chain of knowledge transmission, facts of right and wrong do not constrain them; they exist simply to exist. The transformation of dreams into reality continues to be understood by individuals through the very creation of Pakistan. A dream that once was, and then became, a reality. We also know this by the space that CAP gives to record dreams of the past alongside the present and make space for them in the future by way of documenting oral narratives. Most of all, an archival repository ensures that these stories are not fixed but evolve through the experiences and interpretations of those who carry them forward.
Crossing the River: Sohini and Mahiwal
Following the course of the Indus, we encounter the tale of Sohini and Mahiwal. It is a tale that flows with the river – full of longing and separation. Sohini, the daughter of a potter, falls in love with Mahiwal, a wandering trader from Bukhara. Bound by her family’s honour, Sohini is married off to another, but her love for Mahiwal remains steadfast. She crosses the river to meet him each night, relying on an earthenware pitcher to keep her afloat. The river, acting as a metaphor for the trials and tribulations Sohini faced, separates the lovers, testing their resolve. In an act of betrayal, Sohini’s sister-in-law replaces her sturdy pitcher with an unbaked one. As Sohini steps into the river, the vessel dissolves, and the waters claim her. Mahiwal chooses to embrace the same fate, by jumping into the river to join his beloved.
While the lovers’ tragic end may suggest an inevitability to their story, their nightly defiance of societal constraints speaks to their resilient human spirit, making Sohini’s journey a “powerful archetype.” Like the folktales, Sohini and Mahiwal remain unbound by time, carried forward by the oral tradition into each new retelling.
In preserving such narratives, CAP acknowledges the river as a symbol of division and unity. Through its archive, CAP enables communities to see their histories reflected in the waters of memory. In doing so, the people reimagine the fragile earthen pitcher of Sohini’s journey as a durable vessel for storytelling that surpasses time.
Into the Valley: Adam Khan and Durkhane
Our journey ends in the valleys of Swat, where the story of Adam Khan and Durkhane offers a powerful testament to agency. The tale, rooted in the traditions of the Pashtun people, recounts her resistance to being married off against her will, defying the rigid patriarchal norms of her time. When her family arranges her marriage to a man she does not love, she escapes to the mountains, seeking refuge in the wilderness. She forges her identity away from social constraints rooted in self-determination.
Through oral tradition, Durkhane’s tale has endured as a symbol of resistance and empowerment. While the specifics of her journey may vary, the essence of her defiance remains constant, inviting each retelling to emphasise new facets of her courage and ingenuity. Upon climbing the highest peak of the Hindu Kush range, screaming Durkhane’s name, only to hear the echo of his own voice in response, Adam Khan took the plunge. A sorrowful Durkhane followed, reminding us that there are forces more powerful than the sobering influence of rationality that carve human action and decision-making, inevitably shaping our shared history.
From the deserts of Sindh to the mountains of Balochistan, across the rivers of Punjab and into the valleys of Swat, Pakistan’s folktales reflect the land’s resilience. Each story witnesses the power of oral tradition to withstand time’s wear, offering a collective memory that is deeply personal yet profoundly universal.
Through CAP, these tales remain open to interpretation and evolution, embracing the fluidity of the spoken word. While these folktales may end in tragic deaths, our relationship with them – and, by extension, with the land where they continue to exist, is ongoing. In an oral history interview conducted by CAP in April 2020, Attiya Dawood, a Sindhi writer and activist, invokes the spirit of continuity by stating that “wherever the river flows, cultures emerge alongside,” and so do their stories. As we learn that folktales exist beyond a speculative historical origin, we allow them to exist outside of time. Through this, these tales transcend their endings, continuing to evolve and resonate with each new generation through the art of oral storytelling.
Title Image: Bagh-e-Neelab. Still from animated video, narrated by Raza Ali Abidi, 2019. Produced by The Citizens Archive of Pakistan as part of the Story Share Initiative (SSI).
Story Share Initiative | Bagh e Neelab | The Citizens Archive of Pakistan.
This essay is authored by Sarah Hussain, a former archivist at The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP)
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This essay and its visual contents are the intellectual property of The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) and are shared exclusively for the purpose of publishing the essay on The Karachi Collective (TKC). The content and images should not be stored, reproduced, disseminated, or altered in any form without prior written consent from CAP.
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