Lahore’s Shah Hussain (1538-1599) a poet-philosopher of the profound pathos of life subsisting in the law of separation, the alambana of dukkha, and life’s perennial inter-mingling of joy and sorrow symbolised in the motif of the shoulder-wrap, salu, worn by girls at the time of marriage. In an essentially karuna rasa pradhan poetry, Shah Hussain wraps bhakti, in the sufi garb, woven of words of weaving that capture the warp and woof of life. A great artist of words and a great craftsman, painter of images, Shah Hussain more than any other devotional poet weaves around our hearts and minds a net of differently shaded emotions. He is an all-time great poet also because of his syncretic amalgamation of multiple strands of thought and beliefs of Indian culture.
