Light was fading fast as we trundled on a dirt track past fields of wheat and cotton towards the India-Pakistan border. Our hearts were pounding with excitement. We couldn’t believe it when we first saw ‘Laila Majnu Mazar’ on Google Maps, just short of Fort Abbas in Pakistan, beside unintelligible squiggles in Urdu.
Agriculturists from Punjab who had been resettled in this tract of Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, gawked as we rushed past, raising dust. Near the fenced border, a BSF (Border Security Force) guard stopped us. “Laila Majnu Mazaar, Laila Majnu Mazar,” we chirped like lost lovebirds. We were reprimanded for our suspiciously speedy approach and redirected to the correct location.
Having survived the crosshairs of the BSF, by the time we reached the tomb, caretaker Mahinder Singh was ready to lock up. We entreated him to leave the site open and rushed past the milestone marker ‘Laila Majnu.’ We had seen movies, heard songs and read tales about the legendary lovers… never in our wildest dreams did we imagine were real people. A signboard mentioned that the bodies of Laila-Majnu were interred here. The original makbara (tomb), supposedly 800-years-old, was renovated by the BSF. The love story is believed to be older, dating back to the 7th century.
Laila bint Mahdi, daughter of Nazir Shah, belonged to a wealthy family. Qais ibn al Mullawah, a young Bedouin poet, was from a humble background and fell madly in love with her, earning the nickname Majnun (‘possessed by Jinn,’ in Arabic). The star-crossed lovers ran to escape the wrath of Laila’s family and the village community, all the way from Sindh province and across the Thar desert where they died in the village of Purana Binjaur near Anupgarh. It’s unclear whether they died of thirst or were killed by their pursuers. The BSF has marked a nearby Border Outpost as Majnu BOP!
While the legend of Laila-Majnu, the ‘Romeo-Juliet of the East’ is well entrenched in Arabic/Persian folklore, the 7th century tale also has
links to Laila Aftlaj in Najjad, Saudi Arabia. Locals believe Laila died heartbroken in a cave where Majnu carved verses to her before he perished in the wilderness nearby.
Others believe the legendary lovers from Sindh crossed the torturous Thar desert to escape their families and died at this spot. They ran away to be together… in death, if not in life. Before the Kargil War, many young couples came from Pakistan to this ‘sacred spot’ to seek blessings for everlasting love. Newly married locals and lovers rekindle their vows at an annual fair on 14 June in the peak of summer. They offer chadar, perform vows and wish-fulling fertility rituals like tying strings and bangles. If a relationship can survive a trip in that season, it can survive anything!
We prayed at the shrine and while perambulating the tomb, an image of a couple caught our eye. A framed photo supposedly of Laila Majnu! Majnu resembled a long-haired Biblical character while the oblong-faced Laila looked like his Brokpa grandmother from Ladakh! Quite a letdown after the movie versions. We couldn’t ascertain the veracity of the images nor comprehend what Majnu saw in her, but it gave credence to the theory that love is blind! It was dusk when we
headed back past Laila Majnu Chauraha to Chhattargarh to rejoin our music caravan of Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, as songs of love and devotion filled the air.