RELIGION KALEIDOSCOPE: 'O! East is East: and West is West, …' and the 'twain
did meet at great cost & will continue to meet in the Punjab: 5 'Aab': the Land
of the Five rivers: JEHLUM, CHENAB, RAVI, BEAS, SUTLUJ; which since ancient
times continue to flow from the roof of the world: the Himalayas, along the
plateaus, foothills, plains, deltas; into the Arabian Sea: for all successive
R. INDUS VALLEY civilizations: a very sacred land: every inch an imprint of
almost all the major ancient religions of the East and of the West: whose priests
and soldiers, one after another, all had their wave and ways, wars and warriors,
sword and sway, seekers of fame and faith: forging each other here, till some
seekers from amongst themselves, led by Guru Nanak, revolted proclaiming -'Naa
Mai Hindu! Naa Mai Musulmaan'- Neither am I a Hindu! Nor am I a Muslim! - ushering
in the latest revolutionary religion :Sikhism, of -'Ek Onkaar Sat Naam'- There
is One God: The True Name - :: and the Seeker followers of this new faith -'the
Sikhs' ! Hence this pot pourri *excerpts glimps facets: before/ during/ after:
- 'The Gurus'- of the Punjab & their Punjabiat: -
'… To the student of
religion
the '5 Aab' - the Punjab -
presents features of
peculiar interest.
In the earliest days of
Hinduism
the people of the Punjab Proper
were a bye-word
in the mouths of
the worshippers of Brahma, and
Brahmanism
has always been weaker here than
perhaps in any other part of India.
Neither
Islam nor the
Hindu religion
has ever been able to expel from the lives of the people
the customs and superstitions which they brought with them
from the homes of their ancestors; and
the worship of godliness
unknown to the
Hindu pantheon.
In the Punjab hills the
Hindu religion and the caste system to which it gave birth
are to be found free in a very unusual degree from alteration by external influences,
though doubtless much deteriorated by decay from within.
Among the
Bishnois of the Hariana is to be found
a curious offshoot from the national religion which is peculiar to them alone.
[ * Excerpts from: A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North - West Frontier Provinces: compiled by H.A. ROSE. Based on the Census Report for the Punjab, 1883 : By Sir DENZIL IBBETSON, K.C.S.I., and the Census Report for the Punjab, 1892, and the Hon. Mr E.D.MacLAGAN, C.S.I., Pub : Director, Language Department, Punjab. ]