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    My favorite artworks from European Museums

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    Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

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    Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

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    Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

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    Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

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    The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

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    Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

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    St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

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    The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

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    St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

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    The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

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    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

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    Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

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      Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

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      Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

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      Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

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      St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

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      The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

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      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

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      Rekhta, Rekhti and how women found their voice in Urdu poetry

      Who speaks for 'her'.

      inBook and Publication
      0

      The beloved of the Urdu ghazal is a cold-hearted, indifferent being who has no time for the overtures of the beleaguered lover.

      Aah ko chaahiye ek umr asar hone tak
      Kaun jeeta hai tere zulf ke sar hone tak
      (A sigh needs an age to reach fulfilment
      Who can live long enough for you to tame your tangled locks…)

      The beloved has no time to reply to his missives professing his passions.

      A point to note is the beloved of Persian/Urdu poetry is gender-neutral. The one addressed is never spoken of — referred to — in the female gender as per the classical Persian form. Could that be to spare the beloved’s blushes?

      Whatever be the reason, the beloved (henceforth I’m breaking tradition and, for ease of writing, addressing the beloved as her/she) was an arrogant object of unrequited passion.

      So what was the beloved really like and what were her own feelings?

      Why was she so indifferent to the lover, for doesn’t everyone need romance in their lives? Or a lover or two singing her praises and sighing verses into her tumbling curls?

      A conversation I had with the late Prof Yunus Jaffery on the development of romantic ghazals led to a surprising discovery.

      According to him, after the Mongol invasion of Central Asia in the 13th century, the beloved in Persian poetry started getting portrayed as the cold-hearted, indifferent and inaccessible one. This was because the barbaric Mongols perpetuated such cruelty on the conquered, including women; those women and courtesans who had till then been willing partners in flirtation and romance were now hostile and repulsed by attempts aimed at closeness.

      This developed into a style. While I must confess I am no authority on Persian ghazals, the theory seemed to make sense to me.

      kishwar-naheed_120917044903.jpg
      Poetesses like Kishwar Naheed speak for women and on women’s issues with a fearlessness like never before. PC: Poetry International

      That also means that this was an artificial portrait of the beloved and the latter would definitely be having romantic inclinations, feelings and reciprocal passions.

      The first to explore this genre in the 18th century was Saadat Yaar Khan from Lucknow who kept his pen name as Rangin. The genre was called rekhti as opposed to rekhta the classical form of Urdu ghazals.

      Rekhti wasn’t afraid to give full-throated expression to the sexual longings and desires of women. Here was a woman who was not afraid to speak out. Of course, one mustn’t forget that it was men who wrote it, and who read it in mushairas, often dressed as women, and mainly men who consumed it too.

      This genre was not for genteel gatherings where women would be present as it was thought to be voyeuristic and aimed at titillation. Only in a decadent society would a woman talk so openly of her sexuality or her lovers. For example a verse by Rangin where one woman complains to her friend [du-gaana] of her lover’s demands:

      Tis peruu mein uthhi ohii meri jaan gayi
      Mat sata mujhko do-gaana tere qurban gayi
      (My pelvis aches, Oh my life is going
      Don’t harass me, du-gaana I beg of you)

      [Translation Ruth Vinita in Gender, Sex and the City]

      Though it got a lot of flak from connoisseurs of poetry, it proved to be an invaluable source of information regarding the society of the 19th century. It talked of not just sexual and sensual desires, their dresses, and jewellery but as Ruth Vanita writes inGender, Sex and the City,also of the wearer’s good taste and the garment’s erotic dimension. “The woman swinging her body to catch a ball while adjusting her bodice draws attention to its close fit.”

      This verse by Nisbat talks of a mundane earring:

      Jaani kya khoob bani yeh teri baali hai nayi

      Uske sadqe yeh tarh jisne nikali nayi

      (Darling how beautifully made is your new earring

      May I be sacrificed on whoever invented this new design.)

      Very few women wrote rekhti. Prof CM Naim records only Naubahar — a temporary wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah with the takhallus “Zalil” (shameless) who was a maidservant employed by Mirza Sulaiman Shikoh, a Mughal prince living in exile in Lucknow. The latter was Rangin’s patron.

      When I first decided to include rekhti in a #shair schedule, purist members were outraged that I was trying to defile Urdu ghazals, since rekhti too is written in that form. #shair is a poetry forum that I run on Twitter with a vast number of members who tweet poetry as per the weekly schedule I set. It’s been ongoing since 2011 and not a single day has passed since then when we haven’t had a series of poetic tweets.

      However, other members found no such objection and since I also explained what rekhti actually was we ended up learning something.

      The famous rekhti poets are, of course, Sadaat Yaar Khan Rangin, Inshallah Khan Insha, Mohsin Khan Mohsin and Meer Yaar Ali Jan.

      Sajid Sajni (1922-1993) revived this genre and was the last famous rekhti poet. His famous couplet is often attributed to Meena Kumari:

      Talaq de to rahe ho ataab o qahar ke

      Mera shabab bhi lauta do mere mehr ke saath

      (You are punishing by giving me a divorce in fury

      Do return my youth too, along with the bride money.)

      But at the end of the day these were male poets addressing a male audience, albeit with deep knowledge of women from their frequent interactions with courtesans and dalliances with khangis (according to Prof CM Naim these were “parda nasheen women who surreptitiously engage in prostitution in their homes”).

      Mahlaqa Chand (1768-1824) is said to be the first woman to publish her diwan, but her verses were written in the classical context of her times with the recurring use of saqi, makhana and sharab, which were the themes of many ghazals.

      Qatl par kis ke aaj hoti hai

      Tausan-e-husn par sawaar sharab

      (Bent on whose murder today

      Is wine riding an unbridled beauty?)

      Once again these are verses which could have been written by either sex and except for a few of her verses none were expressions of a feminine voice.

      It’s not till mid-twentieth century that we find women who could articulate both feminine and feministic feelings of a woman in verse and they didn’t need rekhti for that.

      They did it in the classical form of nazms and ghazals.

      Now we have female poets who speak for women and on women’s issues with a fearlessness that was not seen before.

      Whether it is Kishwar Naheed challenging patriarchy or Parveen Shakir questioning male prerogative, or Zehra Nigah on the compulsions and compromises of a woman, there are many who speak for her and have found appreciation and acceptance.

      Vo to Khushbuu hai havaaon men bikhar jaayegaa

      masalaa phuul ka hai phuul kidhar jaayegaa

      (He is like the perfume which will disperse in the breeze.

      The problem is, what of the flower? Where will it go?)

      Taaza mohabbatoN ka nasha jism o jaaN meiN hai

      phir mausam’e bahaar mere gulsitaan meiN hai

      (My body and mind are drunk on tender love.

      Once again there is spring in my garden.)

       — Parveen Shakir

      yeh hum gunahgar aurtain hain

      jo ahl-e-jubba ki tamkanat se na roab khaen

      na jaan bechen

      — Kishwar Nahid

      Find the full poem and translationhere.

      Mulayam garm samjhaute ki chadar

      Yeh chadar mein ne barson mein buni hai

      (This warm and soft blanket of compromise

      It took me years to weave to weave this blanket.)

      — Zehra Nigah

      There are many more female poets and can be found on the websites on Urdu poetry, for finally women have found a voice — their own — they don’t need others to speak for them.

       

      Published on DailyO.in

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      Come, explore and fall in love the Beauties of Delhi (Dilli ki Ranaiya’n) and the World with me, Rana Safvi

      I have a masters in medieval history from the prestigious Centre for Advanced Studies, Dept. of History, AMU. A firm believer in our Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb, I am passionate about gaining and sharing knowledge and these days I am doing it via the social media platform.

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      © 2018 Rana Safvi - A blog Exploring Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb of India, website handcrafted by Abu Sufiyan.