Saraiki literature refers to works written in Saraiki, an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...

predominantly spoken in the southern regions of

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

. Written in the Arabic script, similar to

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and Punjabi, Saraiki is spoken by millions across districts such as

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu: ; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 8th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in ...

, and

Dera Ghazi Khan Dera Ghazi Khan, abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 16th most-populous city in Punjab and List of most p ...

. More than just a language, Saraiki is often regarded as a

cultural identity Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity (social science), identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, Locality (settlement), locality, gender, o ...

, with its speakers advocating for greater recognition of both the language and its literature within Pakistan's multilingual society. Saraiki boasts a rich heritage of poetry, folk music, and oral storytelling traditions.

Overview

The language, partly codified during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, derived its emotional attraction from the poetry of the

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saint, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, who has become an identity symbol. His poems, known as

Kafi Kafi is a classical form of Sufi music in the Punjabi and Sindhi languages that originated from the Punjab and Sindh regions of South Asia. Some well-known Kafi poets are Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sa ...

are still famous. Shakir Shujabadi (''Kalam-e-Shakir'', ''Khuda Janey'', ''Shakir Diyan Ghazlan'', ''Peelay Patr'', ''Munafqan Tu Khuda Bachaway'', and ''Shakir De Dohray'' are his famous books) is a very well recognized modern poet. Saraiki_Poet_and_intellectual

In academia

The Department of Saraiki, Islamia University,

was established in 1989 and the Department of Saraiki,

Bahauddin Zakariya University Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) () is a public university with its main campus located in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. Bahauddin Zakariya University was founded in 1975 as Multan University, and is the 2nd largest university in Punjab follow ...

, Multan was established in 2006. Saraiki is taught as a subject in schools and colleges at higher secondary, intermediate and degree level. The

Allama Iqbal Open University Allama Iqbal Open University is a public university in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is named after Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the country's national poet. It is the world's fifth largest institution of higher learning in terms of enrolment, with an a ...

in Islamabad, and the Al-Khair University in Bhimbir have Pakistani Linguistics Departments offering M.Phil. and Ph.D in Saraiki. The Associated Press of Pakistan have also launched a Saraiki version of the news site.

Writing system

In the province of Punjab, Saraiki is written using the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

-derived

Urdu alphabet The Urdu alphabet () is the right-to-left alphabet used for writing Urdu. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which itself is derived from the Arabic script. It has co-official status in the republics of Pakistan, India and South Afri ...

with the addition of seven diacritically modified letters to represent the implosives and the extra nasals. In

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

the

Sindhi alphabet Sindhi ( ; or , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by more than 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status, as well as by 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language without state-l ...

is used. The calligraphic styles used are Naskh and

Nastaʿlīq ''Nastaliq'' (; ; ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'' or ''Nastaleeq'' (), is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write Arabic script and is used for some Indo-Iranian languages, predominantly Classical Persian, Kashmiri, Punjabi a ...

. Historically, traders or bookkeepers wrote in a script known as ''kiṛakkī'' or laṇḍā, although use of this script has been significantly reduced in recent times. Likewise, a script related to the Landa scripts family, known as Multani, was previously used to write Saraiki. A preliminary proposal to encode the Multani script in ISO/IEC 10646 was submitted in 2011.

Notable people

* Mehr Abdul Haq * Akbar Makhmoor * Ismail Ahmedani (1930-2007), novelist and fiction writer, author of '' Amar Kahani'', ''Peet de Pandh'' and ''Chhulian'' * Mehr Abdul Haq (1915-1995), author of ''Multani Zaban Ka Urdu Se Taaluq'' *

Christopher Shackle Christopher Shackle, (born 4 March 1942) is Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages of South Asia at the University of London. Life and career Christopher Shackle was born on 4 March 1942. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service Colle ...

, a researcher on Saraiki language

Notes

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

Saraiki Web Portal
* http://www.seraikigeet.com
Aslam Rasoolpuri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saraiki Literature Pakistani literature by language Saraiki culture

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...