Going
Back 6,000 years
Punjab is the wellspring of Indian culture. Traditional literature
the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the  Puranas, the Vedas, all take us back to Punjab.
Archaeologists
find the earliest evidence of recognisably Indian civilisation
in the excavation of Punjab's Harappan sites. The uninterrupted
continuity of Indian culture flows forth from ancient Punjab.
Artifacts
dating back to the Pleistocene Age have been found in the
valley of Kangra, Pehalgam, and Hoshiarpur. These finds testify
to the cultural unity extending to the whole of the region.
The Harappa-Ropar and Sanghol civilisations were the outcome
of the culture that developed over a vast area. The Harappan
civilisation perhaps was overwhelmed by the village folk,
who, although did not belong to a different culture, represented
a different pattern of life.
There is no
conclusive evidence to prove that the authors of the Rig Veda
came to the land of seven rivers from any outside country.
The whole complex of Rigvedic hymns shows them settled in
this region from the outset and considering it their sacred
land and original home .
Sage Priyamedha
Sindhukshit in the famous ‘Hymn of Rivers" (Nadi-stuti)
after invoking the favour of rivers soars to a high pitch
of exultation in his reference to the Sindhu. He clearly states
that his ancestors were the inhabitants of the land through
which the river flowed from ages immemorial,
 The Vedic and the later
Epic periods of the Punjab were socially and culturally the
most prolific. The Rig Veda was composed here.
During the
period quite a number of centres learning and culture were
established. Panini and Vishnu Gupta were associated with
this.religion , Philosophy, grammer, law, astrology, medicine
and warfare were taught . Yasak’s Nirkuta and
Panini’s Ashtadhyayi are those classic creations
of which help us to understand the language and culture of
the ancient Punjab.
The field
of action of the Ramayana is believed to be outside the Punjab
but the tradition maintains that Valmiki composed the Ramayana
near the present Amritsar city and Kaikeyee belonged to this
region.
 The advent of Buddhism
saw Punjab become, more than ever, a cultural crossroad. A
few years before the birth of Buddha (556 BC), the armies
of Darius I, king of Persia, had swept across Punjab and made
the area a protectorate of Persian empire. This was a fruitful
interaction that ripened into the cultured and sophisticated
cities of Gandhara (present day northern Pakistan-southern
Afghanistan). To the Buddhists Punjab was Uttar Path –
the way to the North, to the valleys of Afghanistan, and further
on to Central Asia and China. In 327 BC Alexander invaded
Punjab, defeating Raja Paurava (Porus). The centuries that
followed brought more incursions from the north but the Indian
response was vigorous. This happened during the rules of the
Mauryas, the Sungas, the Guptas and the Pushpabhuti.
Confluence
of Cultures
Throughout the ages Punjab was a crucible
of culture. An unending amalgamation of communities and confluence
cultures took place resulting in a pragmatic, experimental
and utilitarian  outlook on
life and a robust common-sense view which debilitated the
root of all sorts of dogmas, conventions and conservatism.
Arab Muslims
under the leadership of Mohammad Bin Qasim raided Sind and
Multan in 713 AD; that was Punjab’s involvement with
the next phase of military, political and cultural conflicts.
Other armies from West and Central Asia followed over the
next 1000 years. The Ghoris, Mongols and Ghaznavids swept
across the Khyber Pass and down into Punjab to plunder, but
they were not interested in establishing their rule and staying
in the country permanently. During this convulsive period
the Natha mendicants kept alive the cardinal spirit of India.
The clash of cultures was also responsible for the birth of
the Sufi tradition. Khwaja Moinuddin Chist, one of the greatest
of the Sufis, arrived at Lahore in 1190. Farid-ud-Din Ganj-i-Shakar
(1 173-1265) is the first Sufi poet, who wrote in Punjabi
– then a sort of North Indian lingua franca. It was an
amalgamation of Hindi and Multani. Other Sufis like Shah Hussain,
All Haider and Ghulam Farid identified themselves with what
is commonly termed as Punjabiat, and sang in the language
of the land the songs of love, humanity and God.
Guru
Nanak Dev and a New Vision of Man
During the Sultanate period and  Mughal
rule, Punjab was engaged in intermittent warfare. It was an
age of chaos. Saints have a way of arriving when times are
bad and sure enough, this was the time when a remarkable man
was born – a man who would transform the Punjabi consciousness
permanently. This was Guru Nanak Dev. He was born in 1469
in district Sheikhupura (now in Pakistan), and spent his entire
adult life roaming through Punjab – and beyond Punjab
to the farthest corners of India and even westward to Mecca
and perhaps to Rome. By the time he died in 1539 he had launched
a powerful movement with radical rejection of caste, dogma,
ritualism and superstition, and this constituted the true
beginning of modern thought in India. It was said of him:
"Guru Nanak shah fakir, Hinduon ka guru, Mussalmanon
ka pir" – meaning, "Guru Nanak, lord of renunciation,
teacher of the Hindus, guide of the Muslims".
The religio-social
movement of Guru Nanak was strengthened by a line of illustrious
successors for the next two centuries. In circumstances transformed
a purely socio-devotional movement into a creed compelled
to struggle for survival with dignity and integrity of faith.
The martyrdoms of Guru Arjan (1606, AD) and Guru Tegh Bahadur
(1621-1675 AD), the fifth and the ninth master, the heroic
sacrifices of the tenth master, Guru Gobind Singh, find no
comparison in. the history of the world. Their cause was humanity
and the exaltation of the human spirit.
 The compilation of the
Adi Granth in 1604 by Guru Arjan Dev is a remarkable literary
accomplishment. It includes the works of 36 writers - six
Sikh Gurus, Hindu and Muslim saints and the works of great
Bhaktas We find in the lengthy volume of 1430 large-size pages,
.the coherent, composite and compact philosophical compositions
like Japji, Sidha Goshta by Guru Nanak and Sukhmani by Guru
Arjan. The Adi Granth, in fact, besides being the treasure-house
of Indian philosophy, depicts through the poetry spreading
over the centuries, the social and cultural history of Punjab.
The tenth
master, Guru Gobind Singh (1661-1708 AD) created the Khalsa,
an army of saint-warriors to protect the down-trodden. He
infused a new spirit among the masses and they rose up against
the ferocity perpetrated by the rulers. He charged his Sikhs
with the responsibility of fighting for the exploited and
the oppressed. He was a scholar and poet, who recreated in
the forceful language the myths and the traditions of the
past, Figuratively speaking, he "inspired the sparrows
to fight with the hawks".
 The Sikhs carried on their
struggle and after the fall of Banda Bahadur, they established
themselves as sovereign rulers of the greater part of the
Punjab. This was the age of the Misals, autonomous units participating
in a republican type of confederation in which an attempt
was made to reconcile local autonomy with central responsibility.
From the misals evolved the government of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh (1778-1839). He was the first independent native Indian
ruler after the centuries of slavery. His reign, though not
long, is significant because of its concept of dharma entwined
with the practice of secularism.
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