The human condition in Puran Bhagat: an essay in existential anthropology of a Punjabi legend.

In the article, the author has attempted to analyze the human condition of legend Puran Bhagat in a number of crises in medieval Punjab, as of January 1, 1985. The point of departure is the version composed by the well-known Punjabi bard Qadiryar, in the early years of the 19th century. Condemned by astrologers to avoid his parents, Puran grows up in the darkness and deprivation of a dungeon for the first 12 years of his life. Immediately after his advent in the light of human relationships, Puran is enticed by his stepmother. The human condition in the narrative of Puran is the condition of sex and violence, of discipline and austerity, of heightened emotions and extreme egocentric personalities. Each sequence of the narrative is charged with an existential crisis of the being that can never forget him. The analysis of the sequences of the legend, Puran follows the constituting process of the narrative. It is quite different from the usual interpretations which move along either the collective social norms, as is the case with the poet Qadiryar himself.