During the 18th century, the artist Nainsukh of Guler, in modern-day Punjab state, painted the story of those two legendary star-crossed lovers, Sohni and Mahiwal. During the 19th century, Punjabi poet Fazal Shah Sayyed brought the tale to life with his well-known qissa, or epic poetry. Today, Arpana Caur's Love Beyond Measure series takes the classic legend and renders it with a new focus on modern elements. Caur, a well-known artist, draws frequently on Punjabi and other literature of the Subcontinent. Her collection provides a visual account of a story familiar to all in the Punjab.
Unsurprisingly, the details of the Sohni-Mahiwal legend vary. Born into a family of potters during the 18th-century Mughal period, Sohni was raised crafting earthenware. Her family's home lay close to the Chenab River, on a trading route between Delhi and Central Asia. A wealthy young trader from present-day Uzbekistan, Izzat Baig fell in love with the young woman. In order to be close to his beloved he took on the job of cattle-herder in Soni's family, and hence acquired the moniker 'Mahiwal'. Word of the couple's affections began to spread. In an attempt to preserve their honour, perhaps, Sohni's family members quickly arranged her marriage to another young man of the potter caste.
Devastated, Mahiwal abandoned his material possessions and, after much searching, moved to a hut across the river from Sohni's new home. In the guise of an ascetic, he revealed himself and his new address to Sohni. Thereafter, the two would meet by night, Mahiwal swimming across the river. An injury on his part led Sohni to wade across with the help of a large earthenware pot, returning home before dawn. Suspicious of Sohni's whereabouts, however, one night her husband's sister-in-law followed her to the river and watched, shocked, as Sohni removed the pitcher from a bush and swam across the Chenab. Again, the question of family honour arose. The sister-in-law, whose name is unclear, decided to replace the baked, water-resistant, vessel with an unbaked one. Sohni thus began her final trip across the river only to find her pitcher disintegrating in her arms. By the time Mahiwal reaches her, it is too late. Both drown, to be found together the next day.
Before Caur, the lovers also captured the imagination of numerous painters. Nainsukh's miniatures during the 18th century – an era that some attribute to the incidents of the story – were followed by Sobha Singh's famous work in 1957, as well as subsequent paintings by Satish Gujral. Caur pays conscious tribute to some of these earlier efforts. Two of the Love Beyond Measure works copy Sohni's 18th-century attitude as depicted by Nainsukh, but place the subject in a new setting and context – a melding of history and modernity that rests at the heart of this series. For instance, Caur replaces the water of Nainsukh's painting with a turbulent river of rulers and other drawing instruments, perhaps acknowledging a modern-day predilection for quantifiable information. These motifs, which suggest Enlightenment rationality, are juxtaposed with Sohni, whose courage is quite simply, as the title suggests, beyond measure.