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| ==Plot== | ==Plot== | ||
| The lovers in the story are Shah Ji, the prince of Kuldip, and Mah Ji, the princess of an island called Sangaldip. They fall in love after a turtle reveals to them each other's images. Shah Ji undertakes an arduous journey, travelling across the ocean in search of his beloved. | The lovers in the story are Shah Ji, the prince of Kuldip, and Mah Ji, the princess of an island called Sangaldip. They fall in love after a turtle reveals to them each other's images. Shah Ji leaves his kingdom and undertakes an arduous journey, travelling across the ocean in search of his beloved. | ||
| Upon reaching the island of Sangaldip, he meets with the king, who happens to be his paternal uncle. He faints when the princess is brought in front of him. However, Shah Ji has begun to regard the image of Mah Ji that he carries around in his heart as the reality and the princess herself as an illusion. Thus, he leaves the palace, in search of the truth through contemplation. This contemplation lasts for one year, and Mah Ji is left pining for her lover. | |||
| After a year, Shah Ji realizes that Mah Ji was not a reflection, and returns to the island. He meets with the king, and the lovers reunite. Finally, they are married. | |||
| == Illustrations == | == Illustrations == | ||
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Pem Nem is a 16th-century manuscript commissioned at the court of the Bijapur Sultanate. It belongs to the Prem Marg genre of Sufi literature, where a love story forms a metaphor representing the quest for the union with God. Written in an early form of Dakhni, it is a mathnawi, a long narrative poem written in rhyming couplets.
The only surviving copy of the manuscript, containing 239 folios, is situated in the British Library. It is richly illustrated, with thirty-four paintings in the Bijapur school of Deccan art.
Plot
The lovers in the story are Shah Ji, the prince of Kuldip, and Mah Ji, the princess of an island called Sangaldip. They fall in love after a turtle reveals to them each other's images. Shah Ji leaves his kingdom and undertakes an arduous journey, travelling across the ocean in search of his beloved.
Upon reaching the island of Sangaldip, he meets with the king, who happens to be his paternal uncle. He faints when the princess is brought in front of him. However, Shah Ji has begun to regard the image of Mah Ji that he carries around in his heart as the reality and the princess herself as an illusion. Thus, he leaves the palace, in search of the truth through contemplation. This contemplation lasts for one year, and Mah Ji is left pining for her lover.
After a year, Shah Ji realizes that Mah Ji was not a reflection, and returns to the island. He meets with the king, and the lovers reunite. Finally, they are married.
Illustrations
There are thirty-four illustrations, mostly full-page, done by three different artists.
16th-century References
- ^ Hutton 2011, p. 44.
Bibliography
- Hutton, Deborah (2011). "The Pem Nem: A Sixteenth Century Illustrated Romance from Bijapur". Sultans of the South: Arts of India's Deccan Courts, 1323-1687. pp. 44–63.
- Munshi, Neha. A journey of longing - the art of courtly romance in Bijapur.
- Matthews, David. "Pem Nem: A 16th Century Dakani Manuscript". From Cairo to Kabul: Afghan and Islamic Studies presented to Ralph Pinder-Wilson.