PESHAWAR: The Indus River, fondly called Abasin, the father of rivers, has great significance in the life of Pakhtuns down the ages.

Pashto folk literature is replete with stories related to Abasin, flowing to the east of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has great bearing on the culture and traditions of the Pakhtuns. Numerous Pashto proverbs and Tappas mention ‘Abasin’ which is reflective of its importance in the life of people living across the Indus River.

A popular Pashto Tappa says ‘Zama Day Ilam Pakaar Na Day / Da Abasin Chapy Day Yosa Kitaboona (I don’t need your scholarship / the waves of Abasin may sweep away your books). The Tappa in fact condemns a person, who claims scholarship but remains impractical and passive when it comes to bring it into any practical usage for public service.

In the olden days, women used to wash clothes along the bank of the river while children would either play or swim in pools around them. One day, the maid servants of Shahbaz Khan Khattak, father of Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689), went to wash clothes along the Abasin and Khushal Khan, then six-year-old, began swimming in a nearby pool. He suddenly disappeared from the sight of the maid servants.

A few yards away, other women along the riverside saw a silken cap floating on the surface of the roaring water of the Indus River. An elderly woman named Daulatai Bibi extended her hand to grab the colourful embroidered cap, she had believed to be of little Khushal Khan.

Being known as a brave woman, she put her life at great risk and got hold of the floating cap covering head of a promising child, who became father of Pashto, a poetic genius and tribal chieftain in his later life.

Daulatai literary means wealth. She in fact saved a precious asset that impacted the entire history of Pakhtuns. Khushal Khan Khattak survived the gushing waves of the Indus River and the name of Daulatai Bibi went down in the history of Pakhtuns as a woman, who had given a second birth to their celebrated hero.

All the maidservants began wailing and crying as the little Khushal lay unconscious for hours and then water was drained out of his belly through mouth. He came to senses and then he was safely shifted to his mansion in Akora Khattak, located in today’s Nowshera district.

Afzal Khan Khattak, the grandson of Khushal Khan, narrated this incident in his celebrated book ‘Tarikh-i-Mursa’ (the embellished history). He while quoting his grandfather said when he grew up, his mother related to him the childhood story of his narrow death by being drowned in the Indus River.

Till today, most scholars believe had Dualatai Bibi not rescued Khushal Khan Khattak, Pakhtuns would have deprived of a great national hero, who had huge contribution to Pashto and Pakhtuns. Also Daulatai Bibi had set a rare example of an extraordinary bravery in history by rescuing a genius from being drowned in the Indus River.

During another incident when Khushal Khan Khattak was 50-year-old, the boat carrying him and a few others turned turtle near Attock Fort but he remained unhurt. Literary historians look upon Daulatai Bibi as a saviour of a great literary figure in the history of Pakhtuns.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2018