On Amrita Pritam’s death anniversary, an anthology brings out some of her unpublished works

Renu Sud Sinha

PUNJABI literature’s grande dame Amrita Pritam, despite being much translated, remains shackled by her famous work, “Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu”, and, of course, her love for Sahir. However, the oeuvre of this Jnanpith awardee included much more and “The Ninth Flower: Best of Amrita Pritam”, transcreated from Hindi by Jyoti Sabharwal, celebrates Amrita’s diverse works.

Divided into five parts, the anthology has something from every genre that she wrote on — poetry, novelettes, short stories, essays and her speeches at literary events. It also includes some of Amrita’s unpublished work, handpicked by her before death. One of the novelettes, “Neither Radha, Nor Rukmini”, is ostensibly the biography of a painter but borrows heavily from Sahir’s real life.

Amrita has created some powerful women characters, projecting, perhaps, autobiographical traits. In most of her fiction, the anguish of women comes through with much intensity. Malki (Heer’s mother) in “Mother Malki”, Sassi and her two mothers in “Sassi Punnu”, Barkat (Sohni’s mother) in “Safe Custody”, Hasna, Shahni — capture a woman’s capacity to give love in all its forms.

The book also contains verses of women poets who impacted Amrita. It also has musings on her inner conflicts, dreams, beliefs about past life, Osho and his writings and her other fascinations.

Above all, this daughter of Punjab lays claims to her heritage. In a note in the short-story section, she writes about Waris Shah and his unrequited love for a Hindu girl and how he sublimated his own yearning in “Heer”. Amrita, it seems, not only shared her birthplace with the poet but also inherited his fate in love and literary legacy:

“Jo Waris mein aag thi

Uski main janasheen hoon…

(The fire that was aglow in Waris

I am the scion of that fire…)”

(Today is Amrita Pritam’s death anniversary)