Sassi Punnu: The Story & the Influences

Sassi Punnu, is perhaps one of the most famous folktales to have originated from what is modern-day Pakistan. The romance, between a Sindhi Princess, and a Baloch prince, has enchanted generations. 

The story:

Once upon a time, a baby girl was born to the Raja of Bhambore, now in Sindh, modern-day Pakistan. However, court astrologers predicted that she would grow up to be a curse to the royal family’s honour.

Not having the heart to kill his child, the Raja ordered her to be put in a wooden box and set afloat on the Indus. The box drifted away to the opposite side of the riverbank and washed ashore. A washerman from the village by the riverside was doing his chores when he saw a box wash ashore. He did not pay much attention to it until he heard the shrill cries of a baby. He walked up to the box to investigate, and lo behold! There was a beautiful baby girl inside the box.

He took the baby home. He and his wife were heartbroken to see the abandoned child. They had no children of their own and had always yearned for one. The washerman and his family decided to adopt the baby girl, deciding that this was Allah's will.

The years passed, and Sassi grew up into a beautiful young woman. She rose to fame for being the prettiest girl in the village and even in villages nearby. The stories of a petite-framed girl, not too skinny, not too chubby, with a glowing dusky complexion and jet-black locks she kept in a firm, thick long braid, with her wavy hair lining her forehead, the voice of a nightingale, and the gait of a peacock, and big brown eyes lined with kohl reached the ears of travellers and caravans, from where it reached the ear of Punnu, the prince of Makran.

He became desperate to meet Sassi and travelled to her village with one of his trade caravans and sent his clothes to Sassi's father to wash and clean, hoping that he could catch a glimpse of her. He went anyway despite his helpers insisting that he had no need to go. Luck was on his side, for when he arrived, he looked at her laughing amongst her friends on her rooftop. Time froze for Punnu. A few moments later, she felt the gaze which bore into her and turned around. Their eyes met, and the two stared at each other, falling in love at first sight.

Not only did Punnu pick up his clothes, but he also asked Sassi’s father for her hand in marriage. Disappointed and unaware of Punnu’s identity, he expressed to the prince that he had hoped that Sassi would marry within the community of washermen. He asked Punnu to prove himself. Head over heels in love after one look at the girl, the prince took the test.

As he washed the clothes by the river, he ended up tearing them, and it scraped the flesh off his hands, for he had never even imagined being washing clothes all day! However, before he returned those clothes, he hid gold coins in the pockets of all the clothes, hoping it would buy the silence of the village folk, which they did, and Sassi’s father then agreed and promised Sassi to him.

Upset at Punnu marrying far below his stature, Punnu’s father and older brothers traveled to meet Punnu. At first, they threatened him, but upon seeing how relentlessly Punnu was in pursuing Sassi, they resorted to trickery. Mildly surprised and taken aback at how easily his brothers had agreed, Punnu was happy at his family being present at his wedding so wholeheartedly anyway. The marriage was solemnized, the celebrations were done, all while his family played pretend. Sassi was escorted to her chambers, and Punnu was whisked away by his brothers to drink before he met his new bride. After he was intoxicated enough and half asleep, they propped him on a camel and fled back to their hometown, Kech.

The following morning, realizing that she had been abandoned by the love of her life, Sassi went mad with grief. She did not stop to breathe, bundle up her belongings, or even wear her shoes. Barefooted, she ran as fast as her legs would carry her towards Kech. Not her parents, not the Raja; no one could stop her. She took to the desert between her village and Kech. The heat left blisters on her feet. Crying out, “Punnu, Punnu!” with parched lips until barely a sound could escape them, she came across a nomad shepherd. She asked him for water, but looking at her state, he assumed she was a ghost and ignored her. Sassi fell down in Sajda and begged Allah to reunite her with Punnu or end her life. Her prayers were answered, the land shook and split, and she found herself in a grave, albeit alive.

Punnu, on the other hand, mumbled Sassi’s name till he found himself home and set off immediately to look for her. He rode and rode till his horse gave up on him. Continuing on foot, he, too, gasping for air, screaming, “Sassi, Sassi!” at the top of his lungs, headed straight to her village.

On his way, he, too, encountered the same shepherd. Ashamed, the shepherd, narrated the incident. Upon hearing this, Punnu also prayed to Allah to either reunite him with Sassi or to end his life. The ground shook once more, and Punnu found himself in the same grave. Together, at last, Sassi and Punnu found themselves wrapped in one another’s arms…torn apart by fate in this life, but their souls united as one in the next.

Sassi Hasham

Like all folktales, Sassi Punnun also has multiple variants. If there is a verse-based narrative of Sassi Punnu after the Shah Jo Risalo, it is that by Hasham Shah, a Punjabi Sufi poet of the Qadriya order.

Besides Hasham’s narration, which came around to be known as Sassi Hasham, associating the name of the heroin with that of the poet, the most famous rendition to date remains after that by Shah Abdul Latif in Sindhi. 

Both these versions vary considerably from the ones collected by Richard Burton, also transcribed from variants in Sindh, the Gujarati version collected by Marianne Postans, and the variant which is popular among Punjabi Sikhs, transcribed by Bhai Mani Singh.

During the early 20th century, a Punjabi Sufi poet, Hasham Shah, penned down one of the most beautiful renditions of Sassi Punnun. Not much is known about Hasham, sans that the poet from the Qasriya Sufi Order was born around 1753 near Amritsar, died in 1823 and is buried near Sialkot. He wrote both in Persian and Punjabi.

His masterpiece is the tragic love between the Sindhi princess Sassi and the Baluch prince Punnun, which came to be known as Sassi Hasham, associating the name of the heroine and that of the poet.

Hasham charmed his readers with a magical charm of poetic diction. the Qissa progresses in an even tone, and with extremely powerful imagery. The harmonious construction, exceptional concision and the tragic intensity of his narrative have been likened to a magnificent qissa from the previous generation, Varis Shah’s Heer, dated 1767.

Hasham narrated the story in a hundred and twenty-four stanzas, of four rhymed verses each. After a brief prologue, Sassi-Hasham consists of three parts. The first one(stanzas 1–26) is about Sassi’s birth in a royal Sindhi family in the harbour near Thatta, and her abandonment in a chest on the Indus.

In the second part (stanzas 27–82), Sassi grows up with her adopted parents, who’re washermen. It follows her adolescence, and how she falls in love with Punnun. from the washermen caste.

The last part gives the story its tragic conclusion. Sassi, despite her mother’s entreaties, sets off in pursuit of unfun across the desert. Burnt by the sun, she looks for footprints of Baloch camels. She finally discovers one, and then looks in vain for another one. A shepherd, who catches sight of her, thinking it might be a ghost, does not dare to approach her.

Resuming her quest, Sassi understands that her end is near and she comes to breathe her last on the footprint of the camel which had, maybe, carried her lover. The shepherd, then, realises his mistake, buries Sassi and builds her a tomb, near which he decides to live as a faqir, abandoning his family and his herd.

Warned in his sleep by Sassi’s soul, Punnun leaves Kech in haste, not without having been forced to threaten with his dagger his brothers who wanted to hold him back. His camel takes him directly to Sassi’s tomb. Learning from the shepherd the decease of his beloved, he dies of grief on her tomb, which opens up to welcome him.

Another variation of Sassi Punnu is tied to the city of Chunian. Narrations tell tales of Sassi’s birth in Chunian, her life was threatened because of a prophecy that a newborn girl would bring shame to the city, and as an infant, Sassi was put in a basket, and she floated on the river till she reached Bhambor. 

Islamic Influences in Sassi Hasham

In the third stanza of his poem, Hasham writes: “Listening to the story of Punnun and Sassi, one reaches perfect love”.

It talks of the mystical path where love, the lover and the beloved become one. This in itself is an influence from ideas of Sufism.

Besides this, Sassi is cast away in a chest on the Indus, to be adopted by a washerman. As we know, the Prophet Musa (A), was cast away in a chest on the Euphrates, and a water carrier found him on the shores to bring him up as his own son.

Persian Influences in Sassi Hasham

In an epic of Homay and Dareb from the Shahname, a skilled carpenter is summoned, a chest is finely assembled and richly adorned, jewels are added to it, before the infant prince in the chest is given up to the river. A launderer rescues the baby and offers the child a good life. Having come of age, both the prince refuses to live as launderers. Sassi too, in Hasham’s narration, is sent floating in the Indus in a richly adorned chest, to be rescued by a washerman. Knowing the truth of her birth, she too, when comes of age, refuses to live and marry amongst them.

In Khosrow o Shirin, Nezami creates unforgettable characters. There is Khusraw, the king torn between his love and the throne, much like Hasham’s prince, Punnun. Shirin and Sassi, women from royalty and nobility, are both the dominant characters in their respective stories, a benchmark of the incarnation of fidelity and love.

Furthermore, Khusraw becomes enamoured with Shirin after hearing his friend Shahpur singing her praises, whilst Shirin falls in love with Khusraw after she sees a sketch of him drawn by Shahpur, which he cleverly stuck to trees in places where she goes for walks with her friends.

Interestingly, Sassi also falls in love with Punnun, after she sees a picture of him in an exhibition of paintings of royal figures in the garden of a rich merchant. In order to attract Punnun to Bhambor, Sassi pleads with her biological father to keep the first caravan of merchants coming from Kech to Bhambor as hostages.

So it goes, and one of the two leaders of the caravan is dispatched to Punnun’s father, Hot ‘Ali, to request him to send his son to Bhambor. The king refuses, approved by his wife, but Punnun, hearing from the merchant about Sassi, and how lovely she is, falls for her. Against the wishes and advice of his parents, he crosses the desert riding on a camel and joins his beloved. In the Farsi version of Laila Majnun (Layli o Majnun) there is again the idea of the sketch of the perfect lover.

Lastly, let’s talk about the merchant’s garden and its gallery of royal portraits. Sassi had “heard it was as fine as Khotan fabled musk”. Hafez uses this smell to refer to the smell of the gateway to paradise in one of his poems. The famous Ghazal 373 of Khanlari’s Classical Edition goes: "Berha goft-e-am o bar-e degar mi guyam,Gowhari daramo saheb-e nazari mi juyam…"

This translates to: "Times I have said, and again I say,I own a jewel and seek a master of vision…"

The allusion to the musk of Khotan in Hasham’s poem may not be a mere chance. Sassi is on the verge of entering the universe of pure love, that jewel which the Qadiri Sufi Hasham wants to share. Hasham may have intended to make his reader a “master of vision”, with the reader following their own internal master, the heart. As Hafez called it, the pir-e-gulrang, or the rose-coloured master in his ninety-ninth Ghazal.