Lallah and Granaz

By @arsalanactual

Lallah and Granaz were married and lived a happy life as loving husband and wife. A few days after their marriage, word came from a tribal foe to Granaz’s father, Mir Baran, that they were coming to avenge an old wrong.

Mir Baran and his sons armed themselves and prepared to meet the challengers on the way to their village. Lallah, too, saddled his horse and took up his sword and spear. Although he had personally had nothing to do with the old enmity, tribal traditions and sense of honour would not allow him to sit comfortably at home while his near ones were on the battlefield. He would have become an object of scorn to his family, his village, and his entire social environment if he had failed to face the challenge.

The party of Mir Baran encountered the enemy at some distance from their village and fought valiantly. However, the opposing force was large and had come well prepared. The result was soon evident. Mir Baran and his sons were killed. Lallah was seriously injured, and while everyone else was overpowered and slain, he alone continued to give the enemy a tough fight.

What a fight it was! His sword broken and his wounds bleeding him into weakness and near death, he continued to fight furiously, with the courage of a lion. His trusted and faithful lieutenant, who was fighting alongside him, saw his broken sword and grievous injuries. Fearing that his master would succumb to his wounds or be killed by the enemy horde, he whipped Lallah’s horse and forced it away from the battlefield to save his life.

The horse immediately carried him away from the arena and rushed towards the village.

Word had already reached the village that Mir Baran and his sons had been killed in the fight. Someone, however, mischievously spread the slander that Lallah had fled the battlefield out of cowardice while the others were being slain.

This was a greater shock to Granaz than the loss of her father and brothers. When Lallah finally reached the village in his battered condition, she addressed him thus: "Till recently, I spoke highly and proudly of your valour, courage, and bravery to my closest friends. I thought I would receive the news that you had died fighting like a lion. I would then remove the ornaments from my person and sit in mourning until the opportune moment when you would once again avenge us. We Baluch, whenever the battle cry pierces the skies and men encounter their foes, grappling with them and fighting like angry lions, never think of their beautiful, moon-faced beloveds."

“But you, you were not fighting. You were imagining the pleasures of the company of fair ones and the cool, comfortable place of the reputed Mir Baran. You were thinking of fun and frolic, the charms of chaste virgins, and, above all, my cursed, lovely face adorned with ornaments.” She added.

Granaz uttered these words out of grief, anger, and shame. Her father and brothers had died a hero’s death in the encounter, while Lallah, her husband, had survived, allegedly because of cowardice and having fled the battlefield. She therefore vowed never to accept him again as her husband, believing this to be the only expiation for his supposed cowardice and dishonour.

She swore, “You, Lallah, will be like a brother and a father to my golden ornaments until the Day of Qayamat.”

Yet Lallah had, in fact, fought fiercely. He had received serious injuries in battle, but his horse had been driven away from the scene of the fight by his loyal and faithful servant in an attempt to save his life.

All these details were later conveyed to Granaz in verse by Lallah while he was recovering from his wounds. Lallah was deeply insulted and humiliated. After hearing the allegations levelled against him by some ill-wishers, he too, out of anger and humiliation, swore that Granaz, his wife, would be like a sister to his cups of wine.

He sent her the following message: “O Granaz, better companions than you are the logs of wood brought by mighty currents of floodwaters from far-off places, floating majestically until they are left upon some high ground when the flood subsides. They are superb. Neither the winds can move them nor can the floods carry them away. They are collected and brought by my brother and burned throughout the night. They keep me company as my wounds burn and pain me. If you came and looked at my fresh wounds, sitting gracefully on my left side, you could not help but cry, O Lallah, why have you madly plunged yourself into such blazing flames?"

“If I do not die and survive these wounds this time, I shall not be like cold water to my enemies. If stones could melt beneath deep waters, then perhaps brave men might forget revenge. But neither do stones melt, nor can revenge be forgotten. The revenges of the Baluch, even after two hundred years, remain as fresh as young, tender deer.” He wrote.

He further added: “O cuckoo of the Kalmatis, you are not aware of the deep wounds I received on the battlefield. My Egyptian sword butchered the enemies like a knife cutting watermelons. But alas! My sword broke, my horse was badly wounded, and my servant let me down by whipping my horse away from the battlefield. My wounds are still fresh, and I swear upon my honour that until I have avenged the deaths of your father and brothers, I shall not see you.”

It is said that when Lallah regained his strength, he single-handedly avenged the deaths of his father-in-law, Mir Baran, and his sons. He then sent word to Granaz, his estranged wife, telling her to keep her head held high in society, as he had washed away the blot upon the family’s name by taking revenge upon their enemies.

By then, Granaz was already repentant for what she had done. She had lost her father and brothers, and now regretted the insult she had hurled at Lallah. She composed verses calling upon the elders of the family and the neighbours to persuade Lallah to forgive her for her words, which she claimed had been uttered in a moment of grief and mental anguish brought about by the shock of losing her loved ones.

On the other side, Lallah’s family members also wanted him to relent and console Granaz, who had otherwise been a faithful wife and possessed all the virtues expected of the wife of a brave man like Lallah. However, it became a serious problem for them to resume their life as husband and wife because of the oaths each had taken.

The elders and relatives consulted the village Maulvi. In return for some gold sovereigns, the Maulvi devised an ingenious solution: if Granaz vowed never to wear ornaments again during her lifetime, and Lallah agreed to give up wine forever, the two could once again live together as husband and wife.

The solution was acceptable to both of them. They were reunited and once again lived together as husband and wife.