Lilan Chanesar

Lilan Chanesar
Folk tale
NameLilan Chanesar
RegionSindh
Origin Date14th century

Lilan Chanesar (or Laila, Leela; Sindhi: ليلا چنيسر) is a traditional story which dates back to the time of Jam Chanesar, one of the Soomra rulers in the 14th century Thatta, Sindh, Pakistan. It has often been retold in Sindhi and Persian.[1]

Chanesar's wife, spoiled and pleasure-loving Lilan, is enticed by another woman's necklace worth 900,000 rupees to allow the former owner of the necklace to spend one night with her husband. Furious that he had been 'sold', Chanesar divorces Lilan, who has to undergo a long process of purification to once more be acceptable in her husband's eyes.[1]

The story also appears in Shah Jo Risalo and forms part of seven popular tragic romances from Sindh, Pakistan, commonly known as "the Seven Queens of Sindh", or "the Seven heroines of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai". The other six tales are Umar Marvi, Sassui Punnhun, Sohni Mehar, Noori Jam Tamachi, Sorath Rai Diyach and Momal Rano.

  1. ^ a b Annemarie schimmel (2003). Pain and grace:a study of two mystical writers of eighteenth-century Muslim India. Sang-E-Meel Publications.