No text gives a better picture of life in Punjab of this period (and preceding periods) than Waris Shah’s celebrated Heer, composed in 1766. Its story was not Waris’s original creation. Punjabis had been reciting it from Akbar’s time: they believed that the events unfolding in Heer had actually occurred in areas around Jhang during the fifteenth century. Several writers before Waris had presented their versions of the Heer story, including Damodar Das Arora of Jhang. Earlier, Lahore’s famed poet, Shah Hussain, had turned to the story for some of his verses.
