Singing the River in Punjab: Poetry, Performance and Folklore

Kapuria, Radha; Kumar, Naresh

Abstract

This paper traces the centrality of rivers in twentieth-century and contemporary popular music and poetry in the regional context of Punjab in the north-west of the subcontinent. In contrast to the riverine imaginations in the songs of eastern or central India, we look at the very different evocations of rivers—both real and conceptual—in the subcontinent’s north-west. Rivers feature centrally in the love legends, devotional and folk poetry, and songs of Punjab, and here we trace a river-based ‘hydropoetics’ in Punjab, querying land-focused perspectives. From the metaphysical and the sacred to the sensual, and from the realms of the quotidian to those of mourning and trauma, we argue that in Punjab, ‘singing the river’ is central to people’s definitions of regional and ontological identity, and to the way they understand their place in the world.

Citation

Kapuria, R., & Kumar, N. (2022). Singing the River in Punjab: Poetry, Performance and Folklore. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 45(6), https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2022.2124680

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 7, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Oct 23, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Dec 21, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 21, 2022
• Journal: South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
• Print ISSN: 0085-6401
• Electronic ISSN: 1479-0270
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2022.2124680