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48 / Bhai Vir Singh
most. Itacquired from these works unaccustomedfluency and
subtlety of expression. In spite of their unity of theme and
purpose, each of the three novels had its own individuality.
BijaySingh contained an intriguingly human situation in the
ruling Begum of Lahore falling in love with the principal
character. SatwantKaur evoked the pathos of those helpless
timeswhenthecountrylayatthemercyofinvadersfrom across
the border. Sundari was conceived with a poetic tenderness
which made it the superior of the other two.
BhaiVirSingh'sfourth novelBabaNaudhSingh, published
in 1921, was set in a contemporary locale. In motivation,
however, it was not dissimilar from its historcal predecessors.
Baba Naudh Singh lived in a village in the Punjab in more
halcyon andsettled times. In thatsimple and rustic setting, he
personifiedPunjabicommonsense, motherwitandassurance,
and was the pillar of Sikh virtue and piety. India had become
one unit under the British. Bhai Vir Singh began the story in
far-off Mandawi, inKathiawar. Jamuna, a Jain resident of that
town,waswidowedata youngage. Shesoughtcomfortfor her
sorrowinworship attemples. An old womanintroducedherto
a sadhu who promised to unite her with her dead husband if
she would renounce her property and accompany him to a
mountaintop. Together they travelled to Jammu. She was
escorted up the hill to a spring and asked to squat there and
gaze intently into the water. In that concentration she would
seethe door to paradiseandhearherhusband'svoice call out,
"Enter." She had been especiallywarned not to keepwith her
the wallet containing her jewellery lest her meditation be
disturbed. The thug in sadhu's dress disappeared. Before
Jamunafell intothepoolingiddiness, a gentlevoice cautioned
her and she rose from her dangerous rocky perch.
Thevoice wasthat of a Christian missionarywhobrought
her safely to the city. Here in a Christian family she accepted
baptism and came to be known as Miss Domeli. To escape a
marriage against her will, she fled to Lahore with the help of
the Muslim ayah. She was now converted to Islam. The pang
in her heart was not yet extinguished and she longed to see
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