Qisse and The Punjabi Culture
The Punjabi language is famous for its rich literature of qisse, most of the which are about love, passion, betrayal, sacrifice, social values and a common man’s revolt against a larger system. In the Punjabi tradition, friendship, loyalty, love and ‘qaul’ (verbal agreement or promise) are given utmost importance and most of the stories in the qisse hinge on these critical elements.
Qisse are attributed to have inspired folk music in Punjabi and have added depth and richness to its delivery. These traditions were passed down generations in oral or written forms and were often recited, told as bedtime stories to children or performed musically as folk songs.
Each qissa, if performed, has its unique requirements. A person able to sing or recite one may not necessarily transmit another. The vocal ranges on the musical scale and accurate pauses, if not performed well leaves a performed breathless and unable to continue. Most of the beats used in modern Punjabi music (often misleadingly labelled Bhangra), originated from qissa tradition and recitations in old times. Qisse also boast to be among the best poetry every written in Punjabi. To date, places like the Qissa Khawani Bazaar (Market of Story-tellers) in Peshawar, Pakistan are thronged by people who visit them to hear oral recitations of qisse sung by renowned performers.
Read more about this topic: Punjabi Qisse
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“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)