VAR, a verse form in Punjabi popular in folklore as well as in refined poetry. In the old bardic tradition of the Punjab, var meant the poem itself with its typical theme as also the form in which it was cast. The earliest vars were ballads of battles and

BASANT KIVAR, by Guru Arjan, is the shortest of the twenty-two vars, i.e. holy poems composed in the style or tone of odes (vars, in Punjabi) or heroic ballads included in the Guru Granth Sahib. Basant, Punjabi for spring, from which musical measure the Var derives its title is,

BILAVAL KI VAR, by Guru Ram Das, is one of his eight vars in a corpus of twenty-two included in the Guru Granth Sahib. It occurs in Raga Bilaval, and consists of thirteen pauris or stanzas, each comprising five lines, with the exception of pauri 10 which is of