Presently, Hadrat Sultan
Bahoo’s one book in the Lonehdi language (origin of Punjabi, Seraiki
and Hindko languages) and thirty books in the Persian language are
available, whereas, according to popular tradition, he authored around one
hundred and forty books. The question arises where those books are or how
those have been lost. In the following paragraphs, we would look at this predicament
from different angles and try to explore some ways to recover the same.
None of the available manuscripts of any book of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo is over
one hundred and fifty years old - what to speak of his own manuscripts
or any manuscript written in his period. Hence, all the available manuscripts
are closer to our time than to his period. It means that manuscripts of his
books are available as the existing scripts, which were at least a hundred
years old, were copied from the same. It is to be seen where and in which
condition are these manuscripts or why these are not available.
 |
| mahak-ul-faqr |
1. In the first instance, I hold those disciples and
vicegerents of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo
responsible who once possessed manuscript(s) of some of his books. Instead of
treating the same as “source of guidance”, they kept those with
themselves as jealously guarded secrets of national defense.
Resultantly, the manuscripts were either eaten away by termite or were lost.
Lack of interest or lack of awareness among successors of these vicegerents
further complicated the situation as they did not take due care of the
manuscripts, leading to their subsequent extinction. There is also a
possibility that progeny of the vicegerents still hold some manuscripts but cherish
them as relics of their forefathers, depriving people of the opportunity to
seek guidance from the same. Here I would like to quote Said Ameer Khan
Niazi, a translator, and researcher of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo’s books:-
2. “It is a great tragedy that people having an invaluable
treasure of mysticism, philosophy, literature, and wisdom in shape of
manuscripts of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo’s writings are keeping the same to
themselves as personal property and depriving general public to benefit from
the same. As a translator, the greatest difficulty I face is non-availability
of manuscripts, rendering me handicapped to do justice to a translation by
drawing accurate Persian contents through comparison. If the original
manuscripts of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo become available, then none other is
needed for translation. Unfortunately, not a single manuscript of his own is
available as vicegerents, instead of spreading them, hid the same with
themselves. I would earnestly request all those holding manuscripts of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo’s
writings, not to be stingy (in sharing these with others) as it would be unfair
to his teachings.”
 |
| Nur-ul-huda |
3. There is another dimension of the issue. During the
period of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo, landlord families had literary interests
and used to have their own private libraries. We (descendants of Hadrat
Sultan Bahoo or researchers on his writings) have so far not approached
families of those landlords in this regard. For example, the author of “Munaqib
e Sultani”, while discussing the history of Awans, has cited various
reference books of the personal library of Nawabs of Kalabagh. It is
possible that manuscripts of some books of Hadrat Sultan Bahoo may be
available there or with such like people.
No comments:
Post a Comment