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Mir Taqi Mir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mohammed Taqi (Urdu: محمد تقی) (b. 1723 - d. 1810), better known by his nom de plume of Mir Taqi Mir (Urdu: میر تقی میر) (sometimes also spelled as Meer Taqi Meer), was the leading Urdu poet of the eighteenth century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the principal poets of Delhi school of Urdu ghazal and remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry.
He was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1723. He left for Delhi, at the age of 11, following his father's death. His philosophy of life was formed primarily from his father, whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with him through his life and imbued his poetry. At Delhi, he finished his education and joined a group of nobility as a courtier-poet. He lived much of his life in Mughal Delhi. However, after Ahmad Shah Abdali's sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the king's invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets. He remained in Lucknow for the remainder of his life.
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Mir's literary reputation is anchored on his ghazals. 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 enrichments coming in from Persian imagery and idiom, to constitute the new elite language known as Rekhta or Hindui. 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.
After his move to Lucknow, his beloved daughter died, followed by his son, and then his wife. This, together with other earlier setbacks (including his traumatic stages in Delhi) lends a strong pathos to much of his writing - and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos and melancholy.
Another noted feature of his work is his pederastic poetry:
When I had some wealth, even then I spent it on boys--
And now that I wander as a mendicant, Mir, it is thanks to them.
Evil days have come to me through friendship with boys;
My father often used to warn of this day.
Was it a disaster that I gave my heart to boys?
In the city all, old and young, are discussing it.
'Andalib Shadani claims that If anyone undertakes a thorough inquiry into the works of Mir, without being influenced by the opinions of others, he will certainly arrive at the conclusion that Mir's poetic subject is 'the love of beardless youths,' and that Mir is absolutely unique in this quality. You will not find 'the lads of Delhi' in such abundance anywhere else.[1]
Mir made no secret of his attachments, and wrote of his passing fancy for Attar Ka Launda — the son of a perfumer — and Memar Ka Larka — son of a mason.[1]
While some historians have read into Mir's verse his own feelings and experiences, whether that be love for boys or love for women, others hold that "Such contradictory visions of Mir's life and times arise from the effort to extract from Mir's ghazals information that they simply do not contain."[2]
What Mir was practicing was probably the “Malamati” or “Blameworthy” aspect of the Sufi tradition. Using this technique, a person ascribes to oneself a negative aspect of a person or society, and then plays out its results, either in action or in verse. During the times Mir lived, this sexual practice was not unknown, and was symptomatic of the general malaise of the ruling classes. Mir showed in his verse, how the rulers of India had sunk from greatness to a veritable shadow of their former selves, through self- indulgence.
Mir was a prolific writer. His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of 6 dewans, containing 13,585 couplets comprising all kinds of poetic forms: ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire, etc.
He died in Lucknow, of a purgative overdose, on 20 September 1810.
Mir's famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, was Mirza Rafi "Sauda".
Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Meer's supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa. It may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Meer was indeed a genius that deserved respect. Here is a couplet by Mirza Ghalib.
Reekhta kay tumhi ustaad nahi ho Ghalib
Kehtay hain aglay zamanay may koi Meer bhi thaa
(You are not the only master of Urdu Ghalib
They say there used to be a Meer in the past)
Khushwant Singh's famous novel Delhi: A Novel gives very interesting details about the life and adventures of the great poet. His memoirs and confessions, especially those about his illicit relations with elite women, mainly with the wife of the aristocrat Rias Khan who employed him as tutor to teach his children, are not only very entertaining but also provide a lot of insight into his mind and heart.
- Zikr-I Mir: The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet: Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir (1723-1810), by C. M. Naim (University of Chicago), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.
- Mir Taqi Mir: Life and Ghazals - One of the sources for this original writeup.
- A Garden of Kashmir: the Ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir (maintained by Frances W. Pritchett)