RANA SURAT SINGH, an epiclike poem by Bhai Vir Singh published in 1905. This poem of more than fourteen thousand lines is written in blank verse, tried for the first time in Punjabi. With all its protracted search and pang, it is ultimately a poem of complete spiritual certitude, of utter harmony and undifferentiation, of turiydpad, the final stage of realization. But despite this religious leitmotif, the work does not degenerate into a dry and didactic poem, but possesses intrinsic worth as a literary production of high aesthetic value. The backdrop of the story is the eighteenth century when the Sikh people were facing oppression and persecution.
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