<div>The Punjab Literary Tradition. Baba Farid Blazes the Trail
http://dawn.com/2013/03/08/the-punja...zes-the-trail/
The medieval Punjabi literature is usually considered to be the product of a tumultuous period from the 11th century to mid 16th century when Punjab was a melting pot due to historical conditions created by the Arab penetration from the south and Turkish march from the north, resulting in the Muslim rule over large swathes of the subcontinent.
One of the consequences of the multifaceted interaction was the emergence of what we call contemporary Punjabi. Without going into the controversy whether it has Dravidian roots or Aryan origins, one can state the obvious; its grammatical structure is indigenous, while its vocabulary comprises the local and borrowed words, mostly from the Arabic and the Persian. It is worth remembering that the contact with the Persian was not something entirely new. Punjab had once been one of the richest satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire during the reign of Cyrus the great (529 BC).
Two larger than life figures
More...
http://dawn.com/2013/03/08/the-punja...zes-the-trail/
The medieval Punjabi literature is usually considered to be the product of a tumultuous period from the 11th century to mid 16th century when Punjab was a melting pot due to historical conditions created by the Arab penetration from the south and Turkish march from the north, resulting in the Muslim rule over large swathes of the subcontinent.
One of the consequences of the multifaceted interaction was the emergence of what we call contemporary Punjabi. Without going into the controversy whether it has Dravidian roots or Aryan origins, one can state the obvious; its grammatical structure is indigenous, while its vocabulary comprises the local and borrowed words, mostly from the Arabic and the Persian. It is worth remembering that the contact with the Persian was not something entirely new. Punjab had once been one of the richest satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire during the reign of Cyrus the great (529 BC).
Two larger than life figures
More...