Bulleh Shah was born around 1680 at Uch and brought up at Pandoke near Kasur. He took Shah Inayat Qadri of Lahore, an Arain by caste and a gardener's son, as his murshid, and was disowned by his own Syed family for it. His answer to them is in the poetry, which is why it is quoted at every level of Punjabi society and always has been.
He wrote in Punjabi, in kafi form, and he wrote against the clergy, against caste and against himself. ਬੁੱਲ੍ਹਾ ਕੀ ਜਾਣਾਂ ਮੈਂ ਕੌਣ, Bulleh, what do I know of who I am. He died at Kasur around 1757 and the local clergy refused to lead his funeral prayer. His tomb is in the middle of the town and is now one of the busiest shrines in Pakistani Punjab.
Kasur was held by Pathan nawabs through the eighteenth century and was one of the last places near Lahore to hold out against Ranjit Singh Ji. He took it in 1807 after several attempts.
The folk etymology derives the name from Kusha, son of Rama, with Lahore from Lava, the other son. There is no evidence for it and everyone repeats it.
Kasur's tanneries now discharge into the Sutlej tributaries and the town is one of the more polluted places in the Punjab on either side of the line.
Kasur is on the Pakistani side opposite Ferozepur and it is where Bulleh Shah lived and is buried, which makes it one of the two or three most important Punjabi literary sites anywhere.
It was a Pathan town of independent chiefs before the Sikh conquest and the quarters of the old town still carry their names.
It is thirty kilometres from the Indian border and the crossing at Ganda Singh Wala has been closed for decades. The shrine of the greatest Punjabi Sufi poet is unreachable from half of Punjab.