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Mir Taqi Mir

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Mir Taqi Mir
Mir Taqi Mir in 1786
BornFebruary 1723
Agra,Agra Subah,Mughal India
(present-dayUttar Pradesh,India)
Died20 September 1810 (aged 87)
Lucknow,Oudh Subah,Mughal India
(present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Resting placeLucknow
OccupationPoet
EraMughal India
Notable work
  • Faez-é-Mīr
  • Zikr-é-Mīr
  • Nikat-ush-Shuarā
  • Kuliyāt-é-Fārsī Kuliyāt-é-Mīr
Urdu literature
ادبیاتِ اُردُو
Urdu literature
By category
Urdu language
Rekhta
Major figures
Amir Khusrau(father of Urdu literature) -Wali Dakhani(father of Urdu poetry) -Mir Taqi Mir-Ghalib-Abdul Haq(Baba-e-Urdu)
Urdu writers
Writers–Novelists–Poets
Forms
Ghazal–Fiction
Institutions
Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu
Urdu movement
Literary Prizes
Related Portals
Literature Portal

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This article containsUrdu text.Without properrendering support,you may see unjoined letters running left to right or other symbols instead ofUrdu script.

Mir Muhammad Taqi(February 1723 – 20 September 1810), known asMir Taqi Mir(also spelledMeer Taqi Meer), was anUrdu poetof the 18th centuryMughal Indiaand one of the pioneers who gave shape to theUrdulanguage itself. He was one of the principal poets of theDelhiSchool of the Urdughazaland is often remembered as one of the best poets of the Urdu language. Hispen name(takhallus) was Mir. He spent the latter part of his life in the court ofAsaf-ud-DaulahinLucknow.[1]

His father's name was Meer Muttaqi. After his father's death, his step-brothers took control over his property. His step-uncle took care of him after he was orphaned and after the death of his step-uncle (paternal) his maternal step-uncle took care of him. The signature of his poetry is the grief he expresses. He has expressed a lot of grief over the downfall of his city, Delhi.

Life

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The main source of information on Mir's life is his autobiographyZikr-e-Mir,which covers the period from his childhood to the beginning of his sojourn inLucknow.[2]However, it is said to conceal more than it reveals,[3]with material that is undated or presented in no chronological sequence. Therefore, many of the 'true details' of Mir's life remain a matter of speculation.

Early life and background

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Mir was born inAgra,India (then calledAkbarabadand ruled by theMughals) in August or February 1723.[1]His grandfather had migrated fromHejazto Hyderabad, then to Akbarabad or Agra. His philosophy of life was formed primarily by his father, Mir Abdullah, a religious man with a large following, whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with Mir throughout his life and imbued his poetry. Mir's father died while the poet was in his teens, and left him some debt.[4]Mir left Agra forDelhia few years after his father's death, to finish his education and also to find patrons who offered him financial support (Mir's many patrons and his relationship with them have been described by his translatorC. M. Naim).[5][6]He was given a daily allowance by the Mughal Amir-ul-Umara and Mir Bakhshi,Khan-i Dauran,[7]who was another native of Agra.[8]


Some scholars consider two of Mir'smasnavis(long narrative poems rhymed in couplets),Mu'amlat-e-ishq(The Stages of Love) andKhwab o Khyal-e Mir( "Mir's Vision" ), written in the first person, as inspired by Mir's own early love affairs,[9]but it is by no means clear how autobiographical these accounts of a poet's passionate love affair and descent into madness are. Especially, as Frances W. Pritchett points out, the austere portrait of Mir from these masnavis must be juxtaposed against the picture drawn by Andalib Shadani, whose inquiry suggests a very different poet, given to unabashederoticismin his verse.[10]

Life in Lucknow

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Mir Taqi Mir, Lucknow, 1800-10

Mir lived much of his life inMughalDelhi.Kuchha Chelan,in Old Delhi was his address at that time. However, afterAhmad Shah Abdali's sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court ofAsaf-ud-DaulahinLucknow,at the ruler's invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets.[6]

کیا بود و باش پوچھو ہو پورب کے ساکنو
ہم کو غریب جان کے ہنس ہنس پکار کے
دلّی جو ایک شہر تھا عالم میں انتخاب
رہتے تھے منتخب ہی جہاں روزگار کے
جس کو فلک نے لوٹ کے ویران کر دیا
ہم رہنے والے ہیں اسی اجڑے دیار کے

Mir migrated to Lucknow in 1782 and stayed there for the remainder of his life. Though he was given a kind welcome by Asaf-ud-Daulah, he found that he was considered old-fashioned by the courtiers of Lucknow (Mir, in turn, was contemptuous of the new Lucknow poetry, dismissing the poet Jur'at's work as merely 'kissing and cuddling'). Mir's relationships with his patron gradually grew strained, and he eventually severed his connections with the court. In his last years Mir was very isolated. His health failed, and the untimely deaths of his daughter, son and wife caused him great distress.[11][6]

Death

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He died of apurgativeoverdose on 21 September 1810, and was buried inLucknow.[12][6]The marker of his burial place is believed to have been removed in modern times when railway tracks were built over his grave.[13][14]In the 1970s, acenotaphwas built in the vicinity of his actual burial place helped byMaqbool Ahmed Lari,the founder of Mir Academy in Lucknow.[12][15]

Literary life

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His complete works,Kulliaat,consist of sixDiwanscontaining 13,585 couplets, comprising a variety of poetic forms:ghazal,masnavi,qasida,rubai,mustezaad,satire, etc.[12]Mir's literary reputation is anchored on theghazalsin hisKulliyat-e-Mir,much of them on themes of love. HismasnaviMu'amlat-e-Ishq(The Stages of Love) is one of the greatest known love poems inUrdu literature.[10]

Mir lived at a time when Urdu language and poetry was at a formative stage – and Mir's instinctive aesthetic sense helped him strike a balance between the indigenous expression and new enrichment coming in from Persian imagery and idiom, to constitute the new elite language known asRekhtaorHindui.Basing his language on his native Hindustani, he leavened it with a sprinkling of Persian diction and phraseology, and created a poetic language at once simple, natural and elegant, which was to guide generations of future poets.[10]

The death of his family members,[12]together with earlier setbacks (including the traumatic stages in Delhi), lend a strong pathos to much of Mir's writing – and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos and melancholy.[10]

According to Mir, Syed Sadaat Ali, aSayyid of Amrohaconvinced him to pursue poetry in Urdu:[16][17]

"A Sayyid from Amroha took the trouble to put me on to writing poetry in the Urdu medium, the verse which resembled Persian poetry. Urdu was the language of Hindustan by the authority of the king and presently it was gaining currency. I worked at it very hard and practised this art to such a degree that I came to be acknowledged by the literari of the city. My verse became well known in the city and reached the ears of the young and old."

Mir and Mirza Ghalib

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Mir's famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, wasMirza Rafi Sauda.Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet,Mirza Ghalib.Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Mir's supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa. It may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Mir was indeed a genius who deserved respect. Here are two couplets by Mirza Ghalib on this matter.[1]

Ghalib and Zauq were contemporary rivals but both of them believed in the greatness of Mir and also acknowledged Mir's greatness in their poetry.[1]

Famous couplets

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Some of his notable couplets are:

At a higher spiritual level, the subject of Mir's poem is not a woman but God. Mir speaks of man's interaction with the Divine. He reflects upon the impact on man when God reveals Himself to the man. So the sameshercan be interpreted in this way as well:

Othershers:

Mir Taqi Mir in fiction

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Major works

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  • Nukat-us-Shura,a biographical dictionary of Urdu poets of his time, written in Persian.[6]
  • Faiz-e-Mir,a collection of five stories about Sufis & faqirs, said to have been written for the education of his son Mir Faiz Ali.[21]
  • Zikr-e-Mir,an autobiography written inPersian.[3]
  • Kulliyat-e-Farsi,a collection of poems inPersian
  • Kulliyat-e-Mir,a collection of Urdu poetry consisting of sixdiwans(volumes).
  • Mir Taqi Mir Ki Rubaiyat

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcdSweta Kaushal (20 September 2015)."Meer Taqi Meer: 10 couplets we can use in our conversations".Hindustan Times (newspaper).Retrieved18 July2020.
  2. ^Naim, C M (1999).Zikr-i-Mir, The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet: Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir (1725–1810), Translated, annotated and with an introduction by C. M. Naim.New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^abFaruqi 2001.
  4. ^Islam & Russell 1994,p. 235.
  5. ^Naim, C. M. (1999)."Mir and his patrons"(PDF).Annual of Urdu Studies.14.
  6. ^abcdeProfile and poetry of Mir Taqi Mir on University of Chicago websiteRetrieved 18 July 2020
  7. ^Zahiruddin Malik (1973).A Mughal Statesman Of The Eighteenth Century.Aligarh Muslim University. p. 108.
  8. ^Zahiruddin Malik (1973).A Mughal Statesman of the Eighteenth Century, Khan-i-Dauran, Mir Bakshi of Muhammad Shah, 1719-1739.Aligarh Muslim University. p. 4.ISBN9780210405444.
  9. ^Islam & Russell 1994.
  10. ^abcdPritchett, Frances W. (1 September 1979)."Convention in the Classical Urdu Ghazal: The Case of Mir".Columbia.edu website.Retrieved18 July2020.
  11. ^Matthews, D. J.; C. Shackle (1972).An anthology of classical Urdu love lyrics.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-713570-9.Mir.
  12. ^abcdSrivastava, Rajiv (19 September 2010)."Legendary Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir passed away".The Times of India.Archivedfrom the original on 3 November 2012.Retrieved18 July2020.
  13. ^Islam & Russell 1994,p. 269.
  14. ^Dalrymple, William(1998).The Age of Kali.Lonely Planet.p.44.ISBN1-86450-172-3.
  15. ^Sharda, Shailvee (3 May 2015)."Meer to get his due respect back as the government proposes restoration of his mazar".The Times of India.Lucknow.Archivedfrom the original on 1 October 2016.Retrieved29 May2021.
  16. ^Arthur Dudney (2015).Delhi:Pages From a Forgotten History.Hay House.ISBN9789384544317.
  17. ^S. R. Sharma · (2014).Life, Times and Poetry of Mir.Partridge Publishing. p. 133.ISBN9781482814781.
  18. ^Shaikh Imam Bakhsh Nasikh of Lucknow, a disciple of Mir.
  19. ^Poetry of Mir Taqi Mir on Rekhta.org websiteRetrieved 18 July 2020
  20. ^"0071_01".
  21. ^Foreword by Dr. Masihuzzaman in Kulliyat-e-Mir Vol-2, Published by Ramnarianlal Prahladdas, Allahabad, India.
  • Lall, Inder jit; Mir A Master Poet; Thought, 7 November 1964
  • Lall, Inder jit; Mir The ghazal king; Indian & Foreign Review, September 1984
  • Lall, Inder jit; Mir—Master of Urdu Ghazal; Patriot, 25 September 1988
  • Lall, Inder jit; 'A Mir' of ghazals; Financial Express, 3 November

Further reading

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