It is a play pen up by Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Punjabi epic verse book. Based on the folk tale of Puran Bhagat, this story(loona punjabi book) was present to with reputable Sahitya Akademi Award in 1967, offered by India’s National Academy of Letters(Sahitya Akademi). Shiv became the younger recipient of this respected award.
Though Loona(story of loona in Punjabi) is painted as a villain in the legend, Shiv developed the epic around her pain which caused her to become a wrongdoer.
The epic is construct on the ancient saga of saint Puran Bhagat (Bhagat is the Punjabi word for a devotee). Puran is a prince whose papa be married a girl named Loona, who’s much youthful than his age. The stepmother of Puran, Loona, gets attracted towards Puran and display out her feelings to him. Puran, being a devotee of Almighty and having divine thoughts, refuses. Loona gets pain and seeks the vengeance by convincing his hubby to send Puran to banishment. In the legend, Loona is the pure villain.
The author took an opposite view from the legend and developed the epic around the suffering of the teenaged girl forcibly married to a man much older than her own age, and further, rejected by the man she fell in love with.
In other words, king of Sialkot marries a young chick named Luna. She falls into love with the king’s son from his initial marriage, Puran who is of her age. When Pooran rejected her advances, she asserts misbehaviour by him to the king. Pooran is injured and fell into a well as a punishment. A sage save and treats him, and Pooran turns into a wandering austere himself – a Bhagat. Pretty later time period, a childless Luna comes to visit the popular Bhagat. When she understands his identity, she admits her fault. Pooran absolve her and his father, and a kid is later born to Luna.
That is how the story of Puran Bhagat has been told in Punjab for thousand years. Shiv Kumar Batalvi has instead turned it into a narrative that questions the old legend, shifts the outlook and tells the tale from the point of view of the woman. For Shiv, it is the legend of Luna: a chick of lower caste, marry out against her wishes, who falls in love with a man of her own age. He questions the community and makes Luna the center point of his tale.
Importance in Punjabi Literature
This novel is regarded as a masterpiece in modern Punjabi literature, and which also developed a new genre, of modern Punjabi story. Shiv’s poetry is regarded standing in equal footing, amongst that by faithful of modern Punjabi poetry, like Amrita Pritam, all of whom are famous on both sides of Indo-Pakistan frontier.
This novel is good, not only in its pretty woven verse, but also in the study of human circumstances and characters. The novel touches on many subjects, which we dont judge, but plainly states them and leaves it for the reader to make up his own acumen.
