At the Lohri fire Punjab sings for Dulla Bhatti, the zamindar of Pindi Bhattian who fought Akbar's revenue officers, robbed the rich for the poor and rescued a poor Brahmin's daughters, Sundri and Mundri, from a powerful man, giving them away in marriage himself with a ser of sugar for their dowry. The ballad and the historians add his family's execution, his revolt, his hanging at Lahore in 1599 and Shah Hussain's line over his death.
On Lohri day children go door to door singing 'Sundar mundriye ho' and are given til, gur, rewari, peanuts and money, their lohri.
After dark the family lights the fire in the courtyard, walks round it and throws the til and gur in; a house with a new baby or a new bride keeps the biggest fire.
The elders tell who Dulla Bhatti was: the zamindar of Pindi Bhattian who fought the emperor's revenue men and gave what he took to the poor.
A poor Brahmin's daughters, Sundri and Mundri, are wanted by a powerful man, and their father comes to Dulla for help.
Dulla takes the girls away, lights a fire, calls their grooms, and marries them off himself as their father, with a ser of sugar as the only dowry.
The song remembers the red suit, the torn shawl, the choori the uncle made and the landlord's men who looted it, and ends by asking the house for its lohri.
The song is sung into the fire, and the fire takes the offerings.
On Lohri, children go from house to house singing the song of Sundri and Mundri, one leading and the rest answering 'ho', and collect til, gajak, jaggery, peanuts and popcorn, their lohri, which is shared at the fire at night. The song says the beautiful girl's one friend is Dulla of the Bhattis, that Dulla married his daughter off and gave a ser of sugar, that the girl's suit is red and her shawl torn, that her uncle made choori and the landlords looted it and were beaten, that a soldier dragged a boy off and hit him with a brick, and it ends by asking the house for its lohri and wishing the couple long life. Punjab tells behind the song that Dulla, the Robin Hood of Pindi Bhattian, rescued two poor Brahmin girls from a powerful man who wanted them, declared himself their father and married them off; a Lahore telling has him take them to the forest, light a fire, put sugar and sesame in their shawls and let folk verses stand for the mantras. Houses with a new baby or a new bride hold the biggest Lohri, and Hindus pour milk and water round the fire for the Sun.
The var of Dulla Bhatti and the historians: Pindi Bhattian to Lahore
North India · Pindi Bhattian and LahoreFolkPunjabi
Dulla's grandfather Sandal (Bijli) and father Farid, hereditary chiefs of Pindi Bhattian on the Kabul road, refused Akbar's new cash revenue and were taken to Lahore and beheaded, their heads hung on the town gate. Dulla was born to Ladhi four months later, by the storytellers' account on the same day as Prince Salim, whom Ladhi was made to nurse. His mother hid the family's weapons and the family's fate until a woman whose pitcher he broke taunted him; then she opened the locked room and he armed his friends. He robbed the imperial caravans and gifts on the Lahore to Kabul road and gave to the poor, and the songs say he let a captured prince go because his quarrel was with the emperor. Akbar's commanders came with a great force to Sandalwala, seized the women of the house while Dulla was at Chiniot, and his mother made him spare a surrendered commander. Taken to Lahore, he was publicly hanged at the Nakhas, today's Landa Bazar, in 1599, defiant and cursing the emperor; the kotwal who repeated his words was executed the same day. Shah Hussain, the Sufi, is said to have stood in the crowd and left the line that thrones are not got by asking. A grave at Miani Sahib is pointed out as his; the var is still sung at Pindi Bhattian.
What is different here:
The ballad and the historians give his family, his revolt and his death; the song gives only the wedding. The ballad has no Lohri night in it.
Sources: Lohri, Wikipedia; The fire we once shared: Lohri and the cultural memory of Lahore (Talha Shafiq, The Friday Times, 17 January 2026); Jashan-e-Lohri, and Dulla Bhatti (Folkloristan); Who is Dulla Bhatti, the Robin Hood of Punjab immortalised in the Lohri song? (The Quint); Lohri: the legend of Dulla Bhatti (Live History India); Lohri 2018: why and how we celebrate the festival (International Business Times India); There is an agrarian backstory to the legend of Dulla Bhatti (Down To Earth, 2023, excerpting Ishwar Dayal Gaur, Martyr as Bridegroom, 2008); Dulla Bhatti (Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, Dawn, 23 June 2006, archived by APNA)