The Culture of Sindh () has its roots in the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...

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 ...

has been shaped by the largely desert region, the natural resources it has available, and continuous foreign influence. The Indus or Sindhu River, which passes through the land, and the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

(Which defines its borders) also supported the seafaring traditions among the local people. The local climate also reflects why the

Sindhis Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group originating from and native to Sindh, a region of Pakistan, who share a common Sindhi culture, history, ancestry, and language. The historical homeland of Sindhis is bordered by southeastern Balochi ...

have a

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

, and lifestyle that are so different from the neighbouring regions. The Sindhi culture is also practised by the Sindhi diaspora.

History

The roots of Sindhi culture go back to the distant past. Archaeological research during the 19th and 20th centuries showed the roots of social life, religion, and culture of the people of the Sindh: their agricultural practises, traditional arts and crafts, customs and traditions, and other parts of social life, going back to a mature

Indus Valley Civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...

of the third millennium BC. Recent research has traced the Indus Valley civilization to even earlier ancestry.

Archaeological discoveries

The excavations of

Mohen-Jo-Daro Mohenjo-daro (; , ; ) is an archaeological site in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan. Built 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporane ...

have unfolded the city life of a

civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

of people with values, a distinct identity, and a distinct culture. Therefore, the first definition of the Sindhi culture emanates from that of the 7000-year-old

. This is the pre-Aryan period, about 3,000 years BC, when the urban civilization in Sindh was at its peak. In Sir

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, CIE Military Cross, MC Territorial Decoration, TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeolo ...

's book, ''Civilization of the Indus Valley and Beyond'', it is said that; "

Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

, in a minimum sense of the term, is the art of living in towns, with all that the condition implies in respect of social skills and disciplines." When people speak of Sindhi civilization, they have to concern themselves mainly with the material and concrete side of human habitation, of which Sindhi culture is the only essence called the superstructure. The present-day Sindh, along with the Northern part of the Indus Valley Civilization (around 3000 to 2500 BC), is located in its urban civilization.

Ranikot Fort Ranikot Fort (; also known as Rannikot), also known as the Great Wall of Sindh (), is a 19th-century (reconstructed) Talpur-era fort near Sann in Jamshoro District, Sindh, Pakistan. The fort's ramparts have been compared to the Great Wall of C ...

is also a landmark of the Indus Valley civilization. It is the world's largest fort, with walls extending to 20 km. It has been called "The great Wall of Sindh", and attracts many visitors.

Literature

History

Sindhi language is ancient and rich in literature. Its writers have contributed extensively to various forms of literature in both poetry and

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

. Sindhi literature is very rich and is one of the world's oldest literatures. The earliest reference to Sindhi literature is contained in the writings of

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

historians. It is established that Sindhi was the first eastern language into which the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

was translated in the 8th or 9th century. There is evidence of Sindhi poets reciting their verses before the Muslim

Caliphs A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the enti ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. It is also recorded that treatises were written in Sindhi on

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, and history during the 8th and 9th centuries.

Poetry

Prominent in Sindhi culture, Sindhi poetry () continues an oral tradition dating back a thousand years. The verbal verses were based on folk tales. Sindhi is one of the major oldest languages of the

Indus Valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

, having a peculiar literary colour both in poetry and prose. Sindhi poetry is very rich in thought and contain a variety of genres, like other developed languages. Old Sindhi poetry impacts upon contemporary languages and also accepts the healthy influence of some languages like

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. Sindhi poetry contains two main original forms of verse, such as bait and Waei. ''Bait'' slightly resembles the forms of Dohas and Sorthas and is also influenced by Persian forms like

Ghazal ''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...

, Mathnavi, Rubai, and Kaafi. Since the 1940s, Sindhi poetry has incorporated broader influences, including the sonnet and blank verse. Soon after the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in 1947, these forms were reinforced by

Triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...

Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

Renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked poem'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets ...

, and

Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...

etc. At present, these forms continue to coexist, albeit to varying degrees, with Azad Nazm having an edge over them all. The poetry of

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (; 1689/1690 – 21 December 1752), commonly known by the honorifics ''Lakhino Latif'', ''Latif Ghot'', ''Bhittai'', and ''Bhit Jo Shah'', was a Sindhi Sufi mystic and poet from Pakistan, widely considered to be the ...

and

Sachal Sarmast Sachal Sarmast or Sacho Sarmast (; – 1827), was an 18th and 19th century Sindhi Sufi poet, mystic and philosopher from Daraza (present-day Sindh, Pakistan), regarded as an important figure in the Sindhi-language literature. He is revered ...

is very famous throughout Sindh.

Music

Sindhi music has its own unique quality. It is performed in many different ways.

Sufi music Sufi music refers to the devotional music of the Sufis, inspired by the works of Sufi poets like Rumi, Hafiz, Bulleh Shah, Amir Khusrow, and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. Qawwali is the best-known form of Sufi music and is most commonly found in ...

is performed at shrines, and other simple music is performed at

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s and gatherings.

Sports

There are many regional sports that are played in

. Malakhiro is one of the famous local sports of Sindh. Other sports include ''Wanjh, Kodi Kodi'', ''Beelarhoo'', ''Thipai Rand'', ''Notinn,'' ''Biloor'', ''Cricket'', ''Volleyball'' and ''football'' are also popular among the locals of Sindh.

Cultural character

The ancient Sindhi civilization was a place where the aesthetic utilisation of leisure was freely indulged. There has been evidence that the excavations of sites dating back to 3000 BC (all over Sindh) are also true, around 1200 years ago when Jaina Dakshiniya Chihna (778 AD) described the distinguished features of Sindhis in this way: "Elegant, with a lovely, soft, and slow gait, they are fond of the art of Gandharvas (that is, songs, music, and dancing) and full affection towards their country." Nasir Kalwar

Sindhi Cultural Day (Ekta Day)

celebrate Sindh Cultural Day worldwide every year on the first Sunday of December. The 1st Sunday of December was Advised and fixed by Dr. Sarang Ansari, a Sindhi poet also known as Sarang Bhittai. Dr. Sarang Bhittai lives in New York, USA. By wearing Ajrak and Sindhi Topi. On that occasion, musical programmes and rallies are held in many cities to mark the day with zeal. Major hallmarks of cities and towns are decorated with Sindhi Ajrak to highlight the cultural values of Sindh. The people across

exchange gifts of Ajrak and Topi at various ceremonies. Even the children and women are dressed up in Ajrak, assembling at the grand gathering, where famous Sindhi singers sing Sindhi songs, which depict the love and progress of Sindh. The musical performances of the artists compel the participants to dance to Sindhi tunes and ‘Jeay Sindh Jeay-Sindh Wara Jean’.
All Political, social, and religious organisations of Sindh, besides the Sindh culture department and administrations of various schools, colleges, and universities, organize a variety of events, including seminars, debates, folk music programmes, drama, and theatrical performances, tableaus, and literary sittings to mark this annual festivity. Sindhi culture, history and heritage are highlighted at the events.
Ekta (Unity) Day is observed to display solidarity among the Sindhi-speaking masses; the event is celebrated not only in Karachi but throughout Sindh. The province’s culture and unity day was celebrated for the first time on December 6, 2009 (as Sindhi Topi Day) as a backlash to the comments of anchorman Dr. Shahid Masood, who had criticised President

Asif Ali Zardari Asif Ali Zardari (born 26 July 1955) is a Pakistani politician serving as the 14th president of Pakistan since 2024, having held the same office from 2008 to 2013. He is the president of Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians and was the ...

for wearing a Sindhi cap on his foreign tours. People across the

province condemned Masood’s comments via SMS, which ultimately resulted in the announcement of celebrating Sindhi Topi Day. Moreover, a prominent figure in Sindh, Ali Kazi, had started issuing a call for observing a unity day, and a large number of people responded to the call and started celebrating the culture and the unity days. Ever since, Sindhi media groups have started to celebrate the day as ‘Sindhi Cultural Day’ or 'Ekta Day'. The Sindhi language TV channels, including KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz TV, and Mehran TV broadcast, special programmes on the culture of Sindh; besides these media outlets separately arrange the mega musical events, which also attract large audience to celebrate Culture Day every year. The Sindhi language TV channels and Political Parties of Sindh, first time celebrated Sindhi Cultural Day (Ekta Day) together for the first time on December 8, 2013.

Gallery

File:Hindu girl karachi.jpg, File:Syud Sabir Ali Shah of Tattah Sheea Mussulman Sind.jpg, File:Muslim girl karachi1870.jpg, File:Abida Parveen concert 1.jpg, File:Z.A Bhutto j.jpg, File:Sindh Museum - inside view 4.JPG, Sindhi traditional Swing (Hindoro/Pingho) File:SukkurHolz.jpg, Sindhi handmade boats. File:Smile of Poverty.jpg, A girl selling traditional Sindhi Pindi/Dabeki File:Sindhi Jewellary.jpg, Traditional Sindhi Kundan necklace and earrings File:Pindii.jpg, Sindhi

Rilli Ralli, Rilli or Rillki quilts are traditional quilts of Sindh, in southeastern Pakistan, and the surrounding regions bordered by the southeastern part of Balochistan, the Bahawalpur (princely state), Bahawalpur region of Punjab, Rajasthan and the ...

quilts and Pindi/Dabeki File:Acessories of Kitchen.jpg, Sindhi wooden utensils with lacquer (Jandri/Jandi) work File:Relli.jpg, Traditionally decorated Sindhi house File:Sindhi shoes.jpg, Sindhi women shoes File:Inbound8299878215848908872.jpg, Sindhi cows File:Sindhi desert Home.JPG, Sindhi desert home (Chonro)

Notes

External links

Official website of Sindh about culture

Sindhi Sangat - produces many Sindhi Movies, Music Albums, Events Worldwide promoting Sindhi heritage, culture and language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culture Of Sindh Culture of Pakistan Pakistani social culture

History

Archaeological discoveries

Literature

History

Poetry

Music

Sports

Cultural character

Sindhi Cultural Day (Ekta Day)

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links