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    Dargah of Sheikh Raju Qattal in Khuldabad, Maharashtra

    Dargah of Sheikh Raju Qattal in Khuldabad, Maharashtra

    AkshayVat in Allahabad/ Prayagraj

    AkshayVat in Allahabad/ Prayagraj

    Helical stepwell in Pavagadh area of Gujarat

    Mysore Silk and Tipu Sultan

    Mysore Silk and Tipu Sultan

    Lord Buddha statue in Chandigarh Museum

    Akbar’s Inscription in The Ranakpur Jain Temple

    Neelkanth Temple in Kumbhalgarh

    Neelkanth Temple in Kumbhalgarh

    Vijai Stambh in Chittorgarh Fort

    The importance of River Yamuna in Vrindavan

    The importance of River Yamuna in Vrindavan

    Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur or Shahenshah-e Haft-e Aqleem Hazrat Baba Tajuddin

    Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur or Shahenshah-e Haft-e Aqleem Hazrat Baba Tajuddin

    Shri Niwas or the House of Mirrors in Jaipur’s City Palace

    Shri Niwas or the House of Mirrors in Jaipur’s City Palace

    Kanishka statue in Mathura museum

    Kanishka statue in Mathura museum

    Shahji ka Mandir, Vrindavan

    Shahji ka Mandir, Vrindavan

    Gopinath Mandir in Vrindavan

    Gopinath Mandir in Vrindavan

    The Govind Deva temple in Vrindavan

    The Govind Deva temple in Vrindavan

    Difference between Gandhara and Mathura School of Art

    Difference between Gandhara and Mathura School of Art

    The tiled staircase in Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan, Iran

    The tiled staircase in Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan, Iran

    St John in the Wilderness Church in Nainital

    St John in the Wilderness Church in Nainital

    A mural in Chehul Sutun, Isfahan, Iran showing battle between Nadir Shah and Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah

    The Rasa Mandala of Lord Krishna in Bundi Fort

    The Rasa Mandala of Lord Krishna in Bundi Fort

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      Dargah of Sheikh Raju Qattal in Khuldabad, Maharashtra

      Dargah of Sheikh Raju Qattal in Khuldabad, Maharashtra

      AkshayVat in Allahabad/ Prayagraj

      AkshayVat in Allahabad/ Prayagraj

      Helical stepwell in Pavagadh area of Gujarat

      Mysore Silk and Tipu Sultan

      Mysore Silk and Tipu Sultan

      Lord Buddha statue in Chandigarh Museum

      Akbar’s Inscription in The Ranakpur Jain Temple

      Neelkanth Temple in Kumbhalgarh

      Neelkanth Temple in Kumbhalgarh

      Vijai Stambh in Chittorgarh Fort

      The importance of River Yamuna in Vrindavan

      The importance of River Yamuna in Vrindavan

      Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur or Shahenshah-e Haft-e Aqleem Hazrat Baba Tajuddin

      Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur or Shahenshah-e Haft-e Aqleem Hazrat Baba Tajuddin

      Shri Niwas or the House of Mirrors in Jaipur’s City Palace

      Shri Niwas or the House of Mirrors in Jaipur’s City Palace

      Kanishka statue in Mathura museum

      Kanishka statue in Mathura museum

      Shahji ka Mandir, Vrindavan

      Shahji ka Mandir, Vrindavan

      Gopinath Mandir in Vrindavan

      Gopinath Mandir in Vrindavan

      The Govind Deva temple in Vrindavan

      The Govind Deva temple in Vrindavan

      Difference between Gandhara and Mathura School of Art

      Difference between Gandhara and Mathura School of Art

      The tiled staircase in Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan, Iran

      The tiled staircase in Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan, Iran

      St John in the Wilderness Church in Nainital

      St John in the Wilderness Church in Nainital

      A mural in Chehul Sutun, Isfahan, Iran showing battle between Nadir Shah and Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah

      The Rasa Mandala of Lord Krishna in Bundi Fort

      The Rasa Mandala of Lord Krishna in Bundi Fort

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      The bard who wrote elegies – The Hindu

      inOur Cultural Heritage, Sher o Sukhan
      0

      Umr guzri hai isi dasht ki sayyahi main
      Paanchvi pusht hai Shabbir ki maddahi main
      I’ve spent a lifetime traversing this desert with veneration
      In Shabbir’s service I am the fifth generation
      Mir Anees

      I grew up hearing Mir Anees’ marsiyas and on a recent visit to Lucknow, I decided to read the fatiha on his grave. The rickshaw took me into a narrow alley near Lucknow’s Akbari Darwaza. From there I negotiated my way through the dirt and slush that cover most alleys in old areas of India. I reached what was once a grand doorway and saw that some steps led to a locked iron grill. After enquiry a family nearby said the keys were with a family member of Mir Anees. He kindly led me to his house through some more narrow alleys and a family member accompanied us back.
      The grave building was clean though the grounds were overgrown.

      Mir Babar Ali Anis was born in Faizabad in 1803 to Mir Khaleeq a marsiya writer. As was normal in those days, he received a comprehensive education which included Arabic and Persian literature, horse riding, fencing etc. Spending his childhood in Ayodhya meant that he was steeped in Awadhi culture and Indian traditions.
      With 22 poets in his family it was but natural that by the time he was 13 he was writing ghazals and later 6 line marsiyas. Initially his father was his ustad and he suggested that the young Anis concentrate on marsiya. After shifting to Lucknow he came under the tutelage of the famous Lucknow poet, Imam Baksh Nasikh.
      The word Marsiya is derived from the Arabic word Risa, meaning a great tragedy or lamentation for a departed soul. It is an elegy, a poem of mourning which has now come to be specifically associated with the tragedy of Karbala and to describe the battle fought on the plains of Karbala in Iraq by Hazarat Imam Husain and his supporters against the army of Yazid.
      On 10th of October 680 A.D. / 10th of Muharram 60 A.H., the first month of the Islamic calendar, Hussain was martyred in battle alongside all the male members of his family, except one son who was too ill to fight. Considering it a betrayal the basic tenets of Islam , and of all that his grandfather, the Prophet, pbuh , stood for, Imam Hussain had refused to accept Yazid’s suzerainty.
      Yazid, the second Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty is widely accepted by both Shias and Sunnis as being amoral, debauched and a tyrant. Imam Hussain refused to accept his religious suzeranity over the Muslims and preferred to leave Medina for Kufa in Iraq where some friends had invited him, in order to avoid bloodshed. Those friends eventually buckled down under Yezid’s oppression. Hussain had already travelled a distance when he came to know of it. He was confronted by Yezid’s considerable army on the dusty plains of Karbala and forced to camp there. Hussain was martyred in battle alongside all the male members of his family, except one son who was too ill to fight.
      This act of supreme sacrifice, acceptance of certain matyrdom of self and family , with knowledge of untold and intense suffering awaiting the surviving women and children of his family yet steadfast refusal to compromise the principles of his grandfather, became the incomparable metaphor for truth and integrity.
      Marsiyago [marsiya writers] pay tribute to this martyrdom. This form of poetic genre flourished in Awadh under the Persian origin Shia nawabs till it reached a literary zenith. Today one cannot conceive of the observance of Muharram without a marsiya.
      Marsiya generally consists of six-line units, with a rhyming quatrain, and a couplet on a different rhyme.
      It is characterized by six-line verses in an AA, AA and BB rhyme scheme. They are traditionally either recited by Marsiya-Khwans or sung by a Marsiya-Soz .

      Lucknow had several marsiyagos but none as famous and sublime as Mir Anees who combined the Arabic classical poetic traditions with the local Awadhi culture. He created tragic scenes of loss and desolation of the women after the martyrdom of Imam Hussain and the men; vivid battle scenes and made each heroic character come live before our eyes.
      Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, famous Urdu critic and scholar writes, “Mir Anees’ marsiyas are the best pre-modern model in Urdu of narrative-historical, narrative-lyrical and oral-dramatic poetry.”
      Mir Anees wrote over 213 marsiyas and other verses commemorating Imam Hussain’s martyrdom. He was also a master in the art of writing rubayi or quatrain. He could have been as famous as Ghalib had he written ghazals instead of a specific genre.
      He died in 1874 at the age of 72 and was buried in a land he had bought earlier as his family graveyard.

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      Rana Safvi

      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.