Lehal Library

8 The Punjab and the Birth of Sikhism are one expanse of water. . . . The nights are dark. Frogs croak in contentment. Peacocks cry with joy. The papiha calls peeooh, peeooh. The fangs of serpents and the stings of mosquitoes are full of venom. The seas have burst their bounds in the ecstasy of fulfilment.' Life begins afresh. There are new leaves on many trees and grass covets the barren ground. Mangoes ripen. The clamour of the koils and the brainfever bird is drowned in the song and laughter of girls on swings in the mango groves. By the time the monsoon is over, it is cool again. The dust has settled and the countryside is green once more. If the summ('r monsoon has bf-en good-neither too sparse to create a drought nor too heavy to cause floods-all is well. A new crop of rice, millet, maize, indigo, and pulses of many kinds is sown. The peasants wind brightly coloured and starched turbans round their heads, pul on waistcoats covered with mother-ofpearl buttons, tie bells round their ankles, and dance the bhaiigra to the beat of the dn1m. From October to the festival of the lamps (Divali) in November there is a succession of fairs and festivals. There is little rest for the peasant. Cotton is to be picked and the land ploughed again for sowing wheat and gram. Persian wheels begin to tum. The lwoh, kooh of the flour mills is heard in every village. Partridges call in the wheat fields. And at night one hears the honking of geese on their way back to the Punjab. Once more it is wintertime. The starlit nights are cold and frosty, the days full of blue skies and sparkling sunshine. The mustard is in flower, the woodlands are loud with the humming of the bumble bees, and all is seemly once again. The Punjab is essentially a mral state made up of innumernble mud and brick villages built on the ruins of older villages. At one time most of them were fortified. Even today one comes across remains of baronial castles and ancient battlements that rise out of the rubble or the village dung heap. Until the 15th centtu-y the Punjab had only two important cities, Lahore, which was the seat of most governments, and Multan in the south, which bad a busy market dealing with commerce