Sassui and Punhun: From Bhambore to Kech

Sassui and Punhun is told in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab alike: a love that runs from the port of Bhambore, near today's Thatta, across the desert to Kech in Makran.

Sassui was born the daughter of the Raja of Bhambore, but astrologers warned that she would bring dishonour on the royal house, so the infant was set adrift on the Indus in a wooden box. A washerman of Bhambore found her and, having no children of his own, raised her as his daughter. She grew up so beautiful that word of her reached Kech, where Punhun, son of the Baloch ruler Jam Aali, set off to see her.

In Bhambore Punhun sent his clothes to the washerman's house just to catch a glimpse of her, and the two fell in love at first sight. Sassui's father wanted her to marry a washerman, so he set the prince a test: to wash clothes like one. Punhun tore every garment, having never washed anything in his life, but before handing them back he slipped gold coins into the pockets, and the washerman agreed to the match.

The road to Kech

Punhun's family would not accept a washerman's daughter. His brothers came to Bhambore, joined the wedding celebrations as if they welcomed it, and on the first night carried Punhun away on a camel back to Kech. When Sassui woke she set out barefoot across the desert after him, calling his name. The tale ends with the lovers reunited in a valley in the hills, where, the story says, the earth opened and kept them together for ever. Shah Abdul Latif sings it as a parable of the soul's longing for God.

Where the story lives

The earliest mention of the tale is in the verses of Qazi Qadan; it then appears in the Risalo of Shah Abdul Karim of Bulri and in Shah Abdul Latif's Shah Jo Risalo, as one of the Seven Queens of Sindh, the seven heroines of his poetry. In Punjab, Hashim Shah retold it and Fazal Shah's version became the most popular. A fort of Punhun stands at Kech on the Makran Coastal Highway, and graves said to be Sassui's and Punhun's lie near Lasbela.