MP village home to 16th C tale of Tota Maina love birds

MP village home to 16th C tale of Tota Maina love birds

Burhanpur: The famous Kishore Kumar song “Tota Maina Ki Kahani” from the ’70s film, ‘Fakira’, has always epitomized eternal love. What is little known is that the story originated in Burhanpur, a nondescript district in Madhya Pradesh. Now, 40 years after ‘Fakira’, Suraj Nagar, a subdivisional magistrate, is making a movie which has a scene dedicated to this love story.
    Quamaruddin Falak, a historian, claims that this love story is not a myth but a forgotten history. When Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, one of Akhbar’s navratnas, ruled this city in the 16th century, the region suffered a severe drought. Rahim then got a reservoir constructed on the top of a hill from where water was later brought to the city. It still exists.
    But few know the role Tota and Maina played in getting water to the city. They belonged to a seer called Hazrat Shah Mustaqbil and fell in love while being kept in different cages.
    It was said that whoever went to the seer seeking water never returned empty-handed. During the drought, Rahim went to him and the seer said he would set his birds free and they would guide him to water. “The birds went to a hill and sat on a stone which suddenly caved in to reveal a hollow, full of water,” adds Falak. But the birds could not be found. Later, they were found dead, wrapped in each other’s wings.
    When they were brought to the seer, he said that they preferred dying together than living in seperate cages. Impressed, Rahim got their graves built next to each another. Falak claims that this is a fact recorded by books, including one written by Sir Thomas Roe, a British ambassador who visited Burhanpur.

BIRDS OF LOVE: The grave of Tota Maina in Burhanpur