Umar Marvi

Umar Marvi or Marui (Sindhi: عمر مارئي) is a story of a village girl Marvi who resists the overtures of a powerful King and the temptation to live in the palace as a queen, and prefers to be in simple rural environment with her own village folk.^[1]

The story also appears in Shah Jo Risalo and forms part of seven popular tragic romances from Sindh, Pakistan. The other six tales are Sassui Punhun, Sohni Mehar, Lilan Chanesar, Noori Jam Tamachi, Sorath Rai Diyach and Momal Rano commonly known as Seven heroines (Sindhi: ست سورميون) of Shah

Synopsis

Marvi (Sindhi: مارئي), a beautiful village maid of Khaur, Tharparkar, Sindh, Pakistan was betrothed to Khet (Sindhi: کيت) whose rival Phoag (Sindhi: ڦوڳ) went to the court of King Umar Soomro (Sindhi: عمر سومرو) at Umarkot, Pakistan, and spoke of the beauty of Marvi in such a glowing terms that the King himself rode out to the village and brought Marvi to Umerkot, where he persuaded her to give her consent to marry him. Marvi refused. The King tried his best to make her understand that she would be the queen living in the palace, and that she could have golden ornaments, silken-apparel, tasteful dishes, fruit of all the kind, maidservants and everything else she would imagine; Marvi would always reply that she would prefer the hamlet of poor with sand dunes around to the palace and the gardens; coarse clothes and loee head-wear (made of coarse woolen thread); the loaf of bread made out of grass seed to the rich dishes; Chibhar, Golara and other wild fruit to the mangoes and pomegranates, as far as the golden ornaments are concerned:

"It is not the custom of Maru folk.
To exchange kith and kin for gold."

Since Umar was merely a King and he did not want to impose his will on Marvi. In the meanwhile, witnesses affirmed that Marvi was, in fact, related to Umar as sister. Umar however believed this, bestowed all the favor on Marvi, and sent her back to her village of folks of her own, honorably, where she joined Khet, and lived happily.

Umar learns about Marvi

During those days, Sindh was ruled by Umar Soomro, her (Sindh) capital was Umarkot, Pakistan. He was known for his justice. His palace was full of beautiful damsels from all parts of Sindh. Phoag left Malir and went to Umarkot In Pakistan to seek his fortune. He managed to secure employment under Umar. He soon won Umar's confidence and was put to work managing matters relating to women. One day he told Umar about the most beautiful woman in Sindh. Curious, Umar asked, "Who is she?" Phog replied, "Her name is Marvi!"

Drama adaptation of Marvi

Pakistan Television Corporation ran a serial-adaptation called Marvi in 1993. The series depicts the story of Marvi and Umar in a modern setting. Ghazal Siddique played the title-role, while Hassam Qazi played Umer.