ABSTRACT
The essay exemplifies how, essentially, it is important to realise from the various qisse on Hir written in Indo-Persian or Gurmukhi scripts and performed that Hir was not created by these great poets and storytellers. In fact, Hir had created these great poets and storytellers in Punjab over the span of the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Hir is an epic, a genre in itself. Hir’s long lament, made eloquent in language by Waris Shah, found an echo in the hearts of many 18th-century Punjabis. They responded to a passionate, sensitive and resourceful Punjabi girl like Hir who stood up to patriarchs and bigots.
