Post his retirement as the CEO of Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation in August 2019, Krishan Dhawan developed a new routine.
He became a member of INTACH and a regular participant at their weekend walks to Delhi’s historic monuments – almost all built after the 12-century Islamic Turkic conquests of this region.
However, the lockdown in March necessitated a change in plan, forcing him to choose activities he could engage in from home.
“The exposure I gained through INTACH motivated me to sign up for two online courses offered by the University of Leiden on Coursera. One was on the History of the Golden Age of Islam across the Middle East, North Africa and Spain during the 8-14 centuries. The other was on Heritage Studies,” says Dhawan. As part of the Heritage Studies course, he had to submit an essay on his personal heritage linking it to a physical object in his possession.
“I remembered the two old-bound volumes that my father had given to me years ago, and that I had not opened for a long time. All I knew was that these were in the Urdu script and belonged to my great grandfather Ram Chand Dhawan (1843-1903),” he adds. Fortunately, his father, who knew Urdu, had gone through the contents in detail and had left typewritten notes in each of the volumes.“While going through these notes I saw a reference to a handwritten prayer.
I had missed it at first glance because the title page was decorated, the pages were framed and panelled, and it was written in a beautiful calligraphic hand that I had mistaken for printing. Only on closer examination I realised it was handwritten.” The five-page prayer was in the Perso- Arabic script, and now Dhawan is working on a Hindi and English translation of its full text. Dhawan had started learning Urdu late 2019 onwards, but struggled with the hand-written flourishes in the prayer and was not sure if he was reading Urdu, Farsi or Punjabi.
“I was just able to make out the invocation above the text which said Ya Rab, Mushkil Kusha (O Lord, Remover of Difficulties). It sounded like a promising entreaty, and the right note to start my voyage of discovery. It gave me the resolve to try and get the text translated to fully understand what it contained.” Dhawan first shared the manuscript with his Urdu teacher, who found the script was in Urdu, but the language was Punjabi and beyond his understanding.
“It was then I thought of reaching across the border to Lahore to try and find someone who was knowledgeable in both the Punjabi language and the Urdu script. I was extremely fortunate to be introduced to Afzal Saahir, a Punjabi poet and author, and a Punjabi language radio show host. He took on the project with great enthusiasm.” Saahir transcribed the original Punjabi and made an Urdu translation, and even created a 15-minute recording of the entire text, available on YouTube.
The interpretation
The five-page prayer written in Persianised Punjabi, very much follows in the Sufi tradition of deep longing for union with the Divine. “The prayer is 116 lines long, composing 29 verses of 4 lines each. Each verse has its own rhyme pattern that is repeated through the 4 lines. A point of interest from my father’s notes is that each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Urdu alphabet, starting with ‘aliph’, moving on to ‘bey’, etc.
Afzal confirmed that this was the case and this style of Punjabi verse was known as Siharfi,” shares Dhawan. “The audio version recorded by Afzal captures the essence and the flow of the work, however, even the Punjabi speakers among my older relatives could not fully grasp some of the Persianised words, dating back to 150 years.
I am translating the Urdu translation provided by Afzal, which is moving slowly as it is quite challenging to capture the idiom and metaphor. I am trying to retain the rhyme pattern in the Hindi translation, but will be beyond me in the English version, so I am just focussing just on capturing the meaning of the text in it,” he concludes.
TRANSLITERATION OF SIHARFI MANJ BHAN AZ RAM CHAND DHAWAN
‘Aliph’ Allah da naam kar yaad bandey, baajh Allah na hor panah bhai
Rizq, sehat, aaraam jahaan wala, sab Allah dey huthh nibah bhai
Bakshan haar insaan haiwaan da ai-ee, karan saikdey a-ib gunah bhai
‘Manj Bhan’ nu.n aasra hai uss da, hor di nahi.n panah bhai
TRANSLATION OF THE PRAYER: VERSE 1
‘Aliph’ Remember God’s name, brother, for except Him there is no other shelter
The world’s sustenance, health and comfort are all in His hands
Faced with a multitude of sins and faults, He alone forgives man and beast
‘Manj Bhan’ has His protection and needs no one else’s sanctuary