Jaiguner Puthi

Jaiguner Puthi one of the finest examples of dobhasi puthi literature, composed by syed hamza of Udna village in Hughli district in 1797. The poem is based on Shah Barid Khan's Hanifar Digvijay (16th century) and Muhammad Khan's Hanifar Ladai (1724) and narrates the story of the battle between Jaigun, princess of the kingdom of Erem, and Hanifa and their subsequent marriage. Jaigun, depicted as a heroic woman, defeats Hanifa in a duel, but Hanifa wins in the end, and Jaigun embraces Islam. The two are engaged to be married. Before their marriage, Jaigun and Hanifa together conquer one kingdom after another, converting their pagan kings to Islam. Hanifa attacks his father's kingdom and converts his father and uncle to Islam. The story ends with the marriage of Hanifa and Jaigun. The objectives of the poem were to describe the heroism of Hanifa and Jaigun and to emphasise the physical prowess that helped the spread of Islam. During British rule, the defeated Muslims looked for consolation in tales of the past glory of Islam, which poems like Jaiguner Puthi satisfied. [Wakil Ahmed]