Asian Ethnology 83-1 | article Locating a Punjabi Classic Regional and Cross-Regional Affinities in Wāris Shāh’s Hīr (18th c.)

Anne Murphy

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Wāris Shāh’s Hīr, widely considered a quintessentially Punjabi literary text, expresses complex linguistic and regional affinities that its designation as a singularly “Punjabi classic” might occlude. This article considers the diverse regional and cross-regional affinities expressed within the text, and the ways in which its linguistic character and textual referencing—with reference to diverse story-telling traditions from South and West Asia, and a multi-religious cultural domain—function to both localize and broaden these affinities, and to shape Punjabi at the intersection with Persian and vernacular traditions. Through recognition of this process, we can see the capaciousness of a designation of what is “Punjabi,” at the intersection of diverse traditions and linguistic domains, at a time, in the early modern period, when the idea of Punjab as a cultural region was articulated across diverse texts and diverse terms. This enables us to consider the multiplicity that can be expressed in the formulation of the “region.”