Singing the River in Punjab: Poetry, Performance and Folklore

Figures & data

Figure 1. Topographic map of Punjab, ‘The Land of the Five Rivers’. Source: Wikimedia Commons.⁵⁰

Figure 2. A section showing the ‘Ravi Darya’ or Ravi river flowing next to the Lahore city walls, against the minarets of the Badshahi/Alamgiri Mosque.

Source: Hand-painted scroll, ‘Panoramic Depiction of the Fort and Old City Walls of Lahore’, late eighteenth–early nineteenth century. © The British Library Board.⁵¹ Image courtesy: Radha Kapuria.

Figure 3. Disc Label for the Young India record, ‘Vagdi Aye Ravi’.

Source: CEAP190/9/43 Endangered Archives Programme (EAP190).

Figures 4A, 4B and 4C. Video stills for the song ‘Vagdī e Rāvī De Vich Uḍḍan’, sung by Noor Jehan, from Faqeeria (1987). In the top two images, Mumtaz and other actors dance on boats, while in the bottom image, Mumtaz dances on the riverbank, her hand gestures imitating the whirls of the river.

Source: Famous Films Youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2trCrqHZqIFG64bsm9gklw.

Figure 5. Disc Label for the Young India record for the Punjabi song, ‘Sona Desan Vichon Des Punjab’.

Source: CEAP190/9/51 Endangered Archives Programme (EAP190).

Figure 6. Excerpt of a musical feature of Amrita Pritam’s Kaṇakāṅ de Gīt on the Delhi radio station in 1959.

Source: Akashvani XXIV, no. 15 (New Delhi: Publications Division (India), April 12, 1959).