Lyrics as Travelogue beyond Boundaries: An Anthology of Punjab's Mystical Wanderings

The hallmark of Punjab's mystical traditions is an amalgamation of religious materials of pluralistic mystical expressions like nirgun sampradaya, sahaja samadh, sahajaniya budhism, mahayana, vajarayana, tantric, hath yogis, nath panthi, kann phata yogis, sahajiya Vaishnavism, bouls of Bengal, chisti, qadri and sohrawardisufi traditions amongst others. Punjab became the epicenter of these far flung regional expressions of mystical traditions within and outside India. Each tradition carried within itself a global world view represented through respective regionalities. However, these regionalities instead of being watertight compartments participated in a porous interpenetrative multicultural, philosophical, theological, socio-cultural, politico-economic terrain. Moreover, on Indian soil these varied mystical expressions, instead of relying on textuality, were highly oral, carrying within themselves components of cultural performances which engaged withregional myths, symbols, dialects, idioms, rituals, etc. Hence, these became mediums of the flow and sites for exchange of theological, philosophical, ideological and intellectual trends. Orality, as a cultural performance, found expression through lyrics. The paper attempts to analyze this exchange of ideas and mystical precepts through traditionalism and changing dynamics of contemporaneous East and West Punjab. Lyrics, as travelogues present an interesting field of study to analyze these changing platforms, within a globalizing world, where regionality fosters globalism. Acceptability of a variety of identities through myths, symbols, idioms, dialects, rituals points towards dissent and a deconstruction of identities in contemporaneous Punjab. Resistance to, and redefinition of traditionalism through dissent, placed mystical tradition in Punjab on multiple highways that connected both East and West Punjab through inter-continental and inter-regional mystical expressions. The paper attempts to explore lyrics as multiple travelogues on this highway of mystical expressions. Interestingly, religion as an identity, gets deconstructed on these travelling ideas, producing multiple images of collectivism. These travelling ideas painted a new canvas of collectivism. The paper attempts to analyze these images on the ?lyrical-canvas? by documenting the emerging lyrical imagery that redefined collectivism.