Landai au Tappa

Landai is a Pashto word, (land means short with the suffix ai). The name is given to a two line Folk poetry also known as Tappay, Tikai or Misray. Some believe that Landai was composed only by women. This is due to the content which belongs to women's lives rather than men's. However, we don't have any proof that men did not contribute to Landai.

The subject of Landai varies from war and revenge to love, longing and nature. This oral poetry traveled from the plains of Indus to the mountains of Pamir in Afghanistan with the nomads and modified accordingly. One couplet may have the same opening line with the second slightly different.

Pashto Academies in Kabul and Peshawar have collected and published thousands of Landai in several volumes many years back.

One of the oldest Landai is like this,

{Yar me Hindu, za musalman yam

Da yar lapara dharamsal jaroo kawooma.}Translation:

My beloved is a Hindu and I am a Muslim

I wipe the floor of Hindu Temple only for him/her.