Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 515

MARCH, 1923]
HIR AND RANJHA
67
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During an interval the Kheras go off hunting and Ranjha who has apparently accom panied the procession gets a chance of an interview with Hir. One of the Kheras notices this. Hir threatens to take poison if anybody lays hands on Ranjha. At last the proces. sion reaches Rangpur and Hir is welcomed by her mother-in-law with the customary ceremonies. Hir gets another opportunity of speaking to Ranjha and she advises him to disguise himself as a Jogi and try to get an interview with her in that way. Next comes a tirade againet Jats put partly in the mouth of Ranjha and partly in the mouth of the poet. It is worth quoting in full.
"Friends, you cannot trust the word of a Jat....a Jat can lose his honour twenty. one times and yet be accounted a worthy member of the brotherhood. As butcher's dogs pick up bits from the refuse heap, so Jats inhale wisdom sitting on the village manure heap. They take off their pagris and sit on thein and then find them nice and clean. The Jats were more powerful than the Emperor Akbar. They killed the Royal Minister Birbal. A Jat commits iniquity : somebody else is caught and the butcher's son is hung for it. He is a master of all crookedness and villainy. He is the leader of all quarrels and iniquities. He is a very sharp customer and quarrelsome. Jats steal the property of way-farers. If a Jat becomes your friend he does it for some selfish purpose. He makes friends with every caste even with bar. bors. There is no one more selfish than a Jat; they have as few friends as a policeman (sipahi) (text and translation of this line is doubtful). He enjoys seeing & farcical representation of himself and his women-folk as much as his children enjoy seeing a catherine-wheel go round. They promise their daughters to strangers and then sell them to somebody else. They own only one-thirteenth of the village but they grab one-third by force. If they own a rat hole they claim the whole well. The owners are powerless to object. They promise their daughters in marriage and then go back on their words and the barbers who arranged the match are covered with disgrace. Waris Shih, there are three liars in this world, Jats, goldsmiths and butchers."
I quote two other similar passages from the same part of the poem. The first is a diatribe against the Sials. "Friends, know for sure that the Sials are robbers, they teach all their <laughters to thieve too, they entrap the son of a noble man and make him into a shepherd ...They have boards like a venerable old man, but they are as sharp and dangerous as a butcher's knife. In the assembly they are called judges and counsellory. They are thieves, adulterers and highway robbers. They plunder travellers and break into houses. Waris Shah : All Jats are bad at heart and Chenab Jats are thorough scoundrels."
The second is a diatribe against Dogar Jats. "Dogar Jate sell their soul : they are robbers and house-breakers. They always break the traditions of the Faith. They are thieves, adulterers and usurers. Their women are just as bad. Their sons and daughters are thieves... They have no fear of death or God. A man who prays regularly and leads a life of honesty, they sneer at and call him a saint. They become disgraced in the eyes of the world for devouring the property of their sons-in-law (it is considered very wrong especially among Hindus for a father-in-law to take even hospitality off his son-inlaw. Probably the origin and object of this custom was to discourage selling of (laughters in marriage and making money out of them). They give two husbands to each daughter and lay up trouble for them in the future."
This description of the Jat character is not a very flattering one but it contains a good deal of truth. If Ranjha is meant to be a Jat hero, he is a hero with very little nobility of character. Judged by Westera standards he is a far from ideal lover. He is neither