Mirza Ghalib was an Indian poet during the time of declining Mughal empire and rule of East India company. He saw the horrors of Rebellion of 1857. He was born in the year 1797 and died in 1869. In the year of his death Mahatma Gandhi was born.
Ghalib wrote in Urdu and Persian. The idea that life is one continuous struggle with pain that can end only when life itself ends. It is a recurring theme in his poetry. Here is one of his couplets –
The prison of life
And the bondage of sorrow
Are the same.
Why should man be
Free of sorrow before dying?
In 1850 Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar bestowed upon Ghalib the title of Dabir-ul-Mulk. Ghalib was an important courtier of royal court of mughals. As the Emperor himself was a poet, Mirza Ghalib was appointed as his poet tutor in 1854. Also he became the Royal Historian of the Mughal court. Being the member of Mughal nobility his life was easy.
Ghalib started writing poetry at the age of 11 (eleven). His main language was urdu. But Persian and Turkish were known to him. When Ghalib was 14 years of age a newly converted muslim tourist Abdul Samad came to Agra. He stayed in Ghalib’s house for two years during which period He taught Ghalib Persian, Arabic, philosophy and logic. Before Ghalib the ghazal was primarily an expression of anguished love. Ghalib expressed philosophy, the travails and mysteries of life. He expanded the scope of the ghazal. The first complete English translation of Ghalib’s Ghazals was Love Sonnets of Ghalib by Sarfaraz K. Niazi, published by Rupa and co.
Also Mirza Ghlib was a letter writer. In this field also he was outstanding. Before Ghalib urdu letter writing was highly ornamental. Ghalib used a conversational method.
From a thousand miles
Talk with the tongue of the pen
And enjoy the joy of meeting
Even when you are separated.
Ghalib saw a turbulent period of Indian History-during the time 1857 mutiny. He saw bazaars-Khas bazaar, Urdu Bazaar, Kharam-ke-Bazaar- all disappeared before his eyes. The havelis of his friends were razed to the ground. Ghalib wrote-Delhi has become a desert. Water was scarce. Delhi was a military camp. It was the end of the Mughals. He wrote –
An ocean of blood
Churns around me-Alas!
Was this all?
The fracture will show
What more remains for
Me to see.
(The views expressed are the writer’s own.)
Radhakanta Seth is a Former Income tax officer in Sambalpur. He is a Freelance writer and his articles have been published in some Oriya dailies like Sambad, Samaj, Dharitri and English dailies like The Telegraph and in a sociological journal ‘Folklore’ published from Kolkata.
(Photo has collected from net )