Yusuf Khan and Sherbano a classic Pashtun romance
Yusuf Khan and Sherbano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaStory
Yousaf Khan was a handsome young man.
The people of Turlandi claim their village to have been his home. His
father Mahmud Shah had died and left young Yousaf Khan with the
responsibility of supporting his mother and his sister Boolanda. He
would hunt and bring home fresh meat for them every other day.
Yousaf Khan would go hunting in the
Kharamar hills. Now nearly barren, the hills are said to have been
thickly covered in trees and thorny thickets, with lots of wild olive
trees, and among this forest roamed dear, partridges, rabbits and
hares. He would take his father's hunting dogs, head to the hills and
bring back what he had hunted. These dogs were very loyal and, being
his fathers', Yousaf Khan took great care of them. He made them
beautiful collars that were hung with silver bells. The jingle of
those bells would alert everyone to the coming and goings of the
handsome man on his travels.
On his way to his hunting grounds,
Yousaf Khan would pass through a village, and it was in this village
that he one day saw a very beautiful girl called Sher Bano. How they
first met I do not recall, but have heard that Sher Bano would
eagerly wait for the jingle of the dogs collars heralding his arrival
to her village. They never spoke to each other but quietly stole
glances.
Sher Bano sighed all day long and
stopped eating; she would hear nothing but the jingle of those bells.
Seeing her waste away like this her friend took her on the pretense
of visiting a saint's grave through Yousaf Khan's village. They made
it a point to stop at Yousaf Khan's house on the pretext of drinking
water. Sher Bano's friend asked whose house they were in and Boolanda
proudly told him it was Yousaf Khan the hunter's house. Laughingly
the friend said, "tell your brother that there is a girl in the
next village who pines for him with such longing that the flame of
love so bright and strong that it consumes her and now she looks ill.
Her parents are worried that she is possessed with peryan."
When her brother came that night,
Boolanda told him what had happened. Yousaf Khan gave her a beating
and told her never to repeat such idle gossip in front of him again.
Next day Sher Bano's friend stopped by
to see what Yousaf Khan had to say, but Boolanda only cried and told
her to leave. Confused by this, Sher Bano decided to confront him
that day on his way back from hunting.
Meanwhile, Yousaf Khan's cousins had
gone hunting with him that day. A lone hunter by nature he did not
want to take them but agreed against his better judgment. Since his
father's death they had put aside their hostilities and had reached
out to him. While his father had been alive, there had been daily
skirmishes between Yousaf Khan and his cousins over petty things, but
now it seemed they had all put those days behind them.
The hunt did not go as well as
anticipated; even the dogs were jumpy. After a long day, just as they
were about to give up, Yousaf Khan shot a wild ram. The ram did not
stop but kept running until it finally fell into a steep ravine. The
cousins stood looking down and finally they convinced Yousaf Khan
that he being the strongest and most agile should be lowered into the
ravine to retrieve the ram. Tying rope around him they started
lowering him, and as soon as he was a third of the way down they let
go of the rope and fled.
Sher Bano waiting by her wall was
surprised to see the lone dogs run barking without their master.
Yousaf Khan's mother seeing the dogs return without her son knew
something awful must have befallen him. She ran out bare headed and
barefoot; wailing and crying she ran towards the hills, followed
closely by Boolanda, both following the dogs that were barking like
crazy. People stopped what they were doing to see why the two were
running like mad women through the streets. Sher Bano on recognizing
them took to the street after them.
The dogs stopped at the edge of the
steep ravine. There they saw a very wounded Yousaf Khan, stuck in a
tree, that had saved his life by breaking his fall. Together the
women and the villagers pulled him back to safety and while they
fashioned a crude stretcher for him, Sher Bano cradled her beloved's
head in her lap. This did not go unnoticed and, when they returned to
he village, Sher Bano found her father standing full of wrath, ready
to kill her. Yousaf Khan's mother quickly took Sher Bano's hand and
said that she was now Yousaf Khan's honor and pride, and as soon as
possible she would come with the elders of their village and take her
away honorably.
A wedding was arranged, and so many
people came to wish them their best that the festivities spread out
through many days. Sadly though, Yousaf Khan was so consumed by
thoughts of revenge that he did not enjoy any of it, nor would he
look at or touch his beautiful wife.
He even heard the wind and birds
taunting him and the leaves shaking at him as if he was not a man.
Not being able to stand it anymore Yousaf Khan left for Delhi. He had
heard that his cousins were hiding there. Leaving behind his
beautiful bride and his mother and sister, he set off telling them
not to expect him back till he had avenged himself or died trying.
There was no news of Yousaf Khan at the
village for many years and his cousins seeing the opportunity
pronounced him dead. They shared out amongst themselves all that had
been his. The marriage not being consummated left Sher Bano in a
precarious position; her father came and took her back to his house.
Sher Bano refused to accept this and insisted that Yousaf Khan was
alive because she would have known if it was otherwise.
Sher Bano grieved for all that could
have been and for the man who she loved so deeply and had left her in
such a predicament. She would cry all night and wait all day for any
news of her beloved. At first her elders kindly tried to tell her to
stop her grieving, and that they would arrange a suitable match for
her. She was young and untouched and many a man would find her worthy
of a wife. Not able to persuade her with their soft words they
resorted to cruel taunts, telling her that because of her emotions
and sentiments they had been forced to marry her to a worthless,
irresponsible man who had deserted her. Now she should listen to them
and marry someone else who could provide her a roof and protection.
Seeing that none of these words had any
effect on her, Sher Bano's father came and put his pagri at her feet
and said, "I am an honorable man, and all my life I have managed
to stay slander free, but I am old and do not know how long I have.
Who will protect you once I am gone? Do not let my honor become the
laughing stock of the village."
Sher Bano quickly lifted her father
pagrai and dusting it off put it on his head saying, "Only God
knows what has happened to my husband, but may I never be cause of
slander to your pride and honor sire. But in my heart I believe him
to be alive even though there has been no word of him. Grant me a
year to cry my grief and at the end of this year you may choose for
me any man that you see fit and I will do as you wish."
Her father was heartened by these words
and smiling said, "You have made me happy my child. I can not
bear the thought of your hair turning grey waiting for a worthless
man who whether dead or for shame has not dared shown his face again.
Don't talk to me of him coming back and you waiting, but choose one
of these handsome men in our village and go on with your life, but if
you think it is a year you need then take a year, but get over him."
Meanwhile Yousaf Khan had traveled far
from the lands of the Pukhtuns, he came across a village that was in
the grip of terror due to some dacoits that had moved into the
neighboring forest. Having to spend the night there he asked what was
going on. They told him that many of their young men had died at the
hands of the wicked men and the rest afraid to take them on had moved
away. Seeing that there was no one to protect them Yousaf Khan
bravely offered to help them. Hidden away the villagers watched
sceptically as Yousaf Khan took on the dacoits. He made fast work of
them and as he wiped his sword clean the villagers rushed out to
carry him back a hero to the village. News of his bravery and valor
spread quickly and soon reached Akbar the Mughal who happened to be
journeying by.
Akbar ordered Yousaf to be presented to
him immediately. When Yousaf came to his court the Mughal threw him a
sword and sent one of his best swordsman against him. Yousaf easily
overpowered him and looked up at the emperor to see what he wanted.
Akbar was clapping and bid him to come closer, and he put a garland
of precious jewels around his neck and gifted him with costly
clothes, as well as making him in charge of a big regiment. Posted
far and near, Yousaf carried out Akbar's orders.
Yousaf Khan with his valor and
handsomeness became a court favorite and was soon ordered to stay
close to the emperor at all times. This gave the emperor a chance to
observe him up close and personal first hand. He found Yousaf to be
brave as rumored, but also that he did not partake in the revelry of
the court. Yousaf Khan seemed to be a loner who sighed often and was
lost in thought with a sad look on his face. He asked his courtiers,
but none could answer him, so Akbar summoned Yousaf Khan and asked
what was it that troubled him so?
Yousaf Khan told the king of how he was
once a reputed hunter, how he went out to hunt, and how a beautiful
girl had fallen in love with him. How his cousins treachery had
prevented him from returning her love and had left her untouched. He
had a concurrent dream of his mother and sister crying beside a
broken swing. He lay awake wondering what had become of Sher Bano,
had she remarried or was she still waiting for him? He had no news of
how his mother and sister fared, or news of his village in over five
years and neither had he found his cousins. He showed Akbar a cap
that Sher Bano had embroidered for him. Akbar told him that it was
high time he returned home, not only for his peace of mind but for
the women he had left so helpless. Yousaf Khan was allowed to take as
many of his men as he wanted. They made great haste towards the land
of the Pukhtuns and on entering it they dressed into rags and made
their way unnoticed to Yousaf Khan's village. It is said that they
spent a night at Dobian, where Yousaf Khan bade his men to stay as he
made his way alone to his village.
That evening Yousaf Khan offered prayers
at his village mosque, but none there seemed to recognize him. He
discreetly walked past his house and was dismayed to find that there
was a barn there instead. He stopped a man on the street and asked
what had become of the people that lived there. The man looked at him
suspiciously and asked, 'Did you know them?'
Yousaf Khan said that many years ago he
had stopped at their door and they had been kind enough to offer him
a place to sleep and a warm meal.
The man shaking his head sadly said,
'the young man here fled to Hindustan, and no one knows what became
of him. His cousins took over all his property and forced his mother
and sister into labor in their house. His wife was taken back by her
parents and today she is getting married to some one. Do you hear
those drums? They are beating for her wedding.'
Yousaf Khan hastily went to Sher Bano's
village where people had turned out in force to witness it. There he
met his sister Boolanda who did not recognize him either, he stopped
her and asked her who had claimed Sher Bano in marriage. She sadly
told him of how her brother had left and her cousins in his absence
had taken over and now were forcing Sher Bano to marry one of them,
but Sher Bano was refusing to get into the dolay and making a
spectacle of them all by refusing to so much as brush her hair or
wash her face. She told him that she had to hurry now or her cousins
would not only beat her but also her blind mother.
Yousaf Khan stopped her said "sister
so you not recognize me?" Boolanda wept with joy on recognizing
him and after promising him not to tell another sole she went off
with a lightness in her step and hope i her heart. Yousaf pulled out
his worn cap and handing it to a child told him to take it to Sher
Bano.
The child handed the dirty cap to Sher
Bano, who on seeing it leapt up, and asked to be immediately cleaned
up and made ready. Everyone was relieved to see the change in her and
joyfully they washed and combed out her thick black hair. Sher Bano
kept on giggling and joking with her friends and family as they
gathered around her. Someone made up her eyes with kohl and someone
marked a beauty spot between her brows for her. She was dressed in
red and adorned with jewelry.
Boolanda came in to watch and both
embraced and happily laughed with none the wiser. She then went out
to tell her brother of the miraculous transformation and of Sher
Bano's fear for him being discovered.
Yousaf had sent a message to his troops
who had silently slid into the village and taken up posts. Such was
Yousaf Khan's rage that he ordered no man to be spared. The wives and
daughters of the men ran into the field bare headed and bare feet
begging and beseeching him to spare them but it was not till Sher
Bano intervened on behalf of the villagers and convinced him not to
make widows out of women that day for she knew first hand how
intolerable the life of a widow could be. She told him that his beef
was only with his cousins not with the other men who had been
bystanders.
Yousaf Khan then gave in to Sher Bano's
request but only after he made the men agree that a jirga would
convene immediately. The jirga conceded that Yousaf Khan has been
wronged and that he should not be punished for the deaths of his
cousin and his lands and property be returned to him immediately.
One day Yousaf Khan went out to hunt,
but returned empty handed. Sher Bano getting up to remove the pot she
had been heating for the meat, Yousaf thinking that she was taunting
him rushed out in anger to hunt again. Sher Bano ran after him to
tell him that he was mistaken and that she did not mean it as a taunt
but to save the pot that would have burnt had she not removed it.
Yousaf Khan never returned, he was found
dead in the same ravine that he had been left for dead in. Some say
he slipped in the dark others say that his cousins got a chance to
get even. Whatever the cause of his death, Sher Bano, the woman who
had faihfully waited those years, died within days heart broken and
bereft.
Film
A film version of Yousuf
Khan Sher Bano' was
produced and photography by Nazir Hussain. It was directed by Nazir
Hussain but the title name was used by Aziz Tabassum as in direction
field.
Comments
Post a Comment