Singing the River in Punjab: Poetry, Performance and Folklore

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