 A Living Portrait of India |
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| Ghalib |
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Possibly the most famous of Urdu poets, and a towering genius of his age, Mirza Asad Ullah Khan (1796-1869) had the poetic surnames of Asad and Ghalib, and was also known as Mirza Nausha, Najamuddaulah, Dabir-ul-mulk, and Nizam-Jung, conferred on him by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II. Ghalib came from a noble family of Central Asian Turks which had migrated to India. His early years were spent in Agra, but later he made Delhi his home. His life was not too smooth or happy, but he retained his good humour and wit throughout. Extremely courteous and genial, loving and lovable, and a moderate drinker as well, he was also scholarly and liberal. His works are many. Ood-i-Hindi and Urdu-I-Mualla (Urdu) published in 1869 contain letters and other prose compositions. Lataif-i-Ghaibi, written under the pseudonym Saif-ul-Haq, is a miscellany. Qata-I-Burhan (afterwards called Durafsh Kawaiani) pointed out mistakes in the Burhan Qata which was regarded as a standard lexicon. Tegh-I-Tez (Urdu) and Nama-i-Ghalib (Persian) are the outcome of the controversy around the mistakes it had pointed out. Panch Ahang contains prose compositions in Persian, and Kuliyat contains Persian verses in praise of God, Mohammad, the Imams, kings of Delhi and Oudh and even Governors of British India. Mahr-I-Nimroz (Persian) is an account of events from Taimur and Humayun, commissioned by Bahadur Shah II. Dastambu (Persian) is an account of the Indian Mutiny (1857-58). Subdchin (Persian) contains qasidas, qitas and some letters. Ghalib is regarded as a master of prose and poetry in Persian,
but it is for his contribution to Urdu literature that he is most acclaimed.
One of Ghalib’s claims to immortality is his originality
of thought as well as imagery, another is his allusive and suggestive
style. Introspection and mysticism are other distinctive characteristics
of his, along with emotionalism relieved by humour. Brief as they are,
Ghalib’s verses are the concentrated essence of poetry.
Among his pupils were Nawab Ziauddin Nayyar, Majruh, Munshi
Har Gopal Tufta, and Aziz. Ghalib’s verses are popular
even today and have been translated into several regional languages,
for example, Bengali. |
