ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>SATVANT KAUR</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279<i>SATVANT KAUR</i>, whose full title is <i>Sr&#299mat&#299 Satvant Kaur d&#299 j&#299van Vithi&#257</i>, is a historical romance by Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh. Its first part was published in 1900 and the second in 1927. In later editions, both parts were combined in a single volume. The plot has been set against the backdrop of the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n invasions of the Punjab in the eighteenth century. With Ahmad Sh&#257h Durr&#257n&#299's fourth-raid in 1756 is linked the story of the heroic Sikh girl, Satvant Kaur, who, having been abducted to K&#257bul, undergoes untold tribulation but remains streadfast in her devotion to her religious faith. Her days in the Af<i>gh</i>&#257n capital are full of hair-raising adventure. She is purchased from her abductor by another Af<i>gh</i>&#257n noble. In this family, she wins the affection of the wife (F&#257tim&#257) and her little son and is thus able to evade the Af<i>gh</i>&#257n. She lays F&#257tim&#257 under her debt by dramatically saving her life one day from the schemes of her drunken husband. He himself is committed to jail for a crime and is sentenced to death by royal fiat. Satvant Kaur further obliges her mistress by saving her husband's life by a clever ruse. Disguised as Fatim&#257, she goes in a palanquin to see the Af<i>gh</i>&#257n in the prison. She sends him out in the palanquin and herself stays behind in his place. The ruse is discovered the following day when the prisoner is led out for execution.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Satvant Kaur is granted a reprieve. When the story reaches the ears of the Am&#299r (presumably, Ahmad Sh&#257h Durr&#257n&#299), he is deeply impressed by her daring. On her request, he pardons the nobleman, but, instead of sending her back to her native village of Khann&#257, in India, he insists on admitting her into the harem as one of his <i>begums</i>. A fire in the building where she is detained gives her the chance to make good her escape. She is afforded willing and secret refuge in F&#257tim&#257's house. Through an old tunnel from that house she establishes communication with a Hindu family in the city. She finally sets out for the Punjab disguised as a boy with a party led by an elder of the family, called Ladh&#257 Si&#7749gh. The caravan is stopped by an Af<u>gh</u>&#257n squad on search for a royal diamond missing from the treasury. The leader of the squad &#256<u>gh</u>&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n is, in reality, the son of a Sikh <i>sard&#257r</i> abducted as a child, with his mother and a maid, during N&#257dir Sh&#257h's invasion of India. The mother was beheaded on refusing to marry the trooper. The child grew up as his adopted son, but discovered the secret through the old maidservant of the family. He now separates himself from the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n troops and travels on to India with Satvant Kaur ---Jasvant Si&#7749gh, in boy's dress-- and the maidservant. They all reach Amritsar safely, &#256<u>gh</u>&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n returns to the faith of his forbears and becomes Al&#257mb&#257 Si&#7749gh. He vows himself to fighting for the honour of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257. This also is Satvant Kaur's ambition. The maid is initiated as Tej Kaur and takes the same pledge.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#256<u>gh</u>&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n, now Al&#257mb&#257 Si&#7749gh, traces his sister. Satvant Kaur visits her parents at Khann&#257. F&#257tim&#257 journeys to the Punjab in search of her husband who has been wounded in another of Ahmad Sh&#257h's campaigns against the Sikhs and arrested. She meets Satvant Kaur, receives the rites of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 and becomes her comrade in faith and in arms.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unlike <i>Sundar&#299</i> and <i>Bijay Si&#7749gh</i>, the plot of Satvant Kaur is full of digressions into history. The chapters describing the history of Pesh&#257war, Bodhi Vih&#257rs and withdrawal of Mar&#257&#7789h&#257s have no relevance to the history of the period. The story is strewn with miraculous and extraordinary elements. The style throughout is rhetorical. The plot and the characters have been devised to bring out the chivalry of the Sikh tradition and the ethical excellence of the Sikh faith.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>Bhai Vir Singh</i>. Delhi, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Talib, Gurbachan Si&#7749gh, and Attar Si&#7749gh, eds., <i>Bhai Vir Si&#7749gh : Life, Time and Works</i>. Chandigarh, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> Kohl&#299, Surindar Si&#7749gh, and Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh Sh&#257n, eds., <i>Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh, J&#299van, Sam&#257&#7749 te Rachn&#257</i>. Chandigarh, 1973<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">M. P. Kohl&#299<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>