Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan
(1797–1869), Indian poet. Ghalib (Mirza Asadullah Khan), commonly regarded as the greatest Urdu poet, also wrote poetry and prose in Persian and was a great wit and conversationalist. Born to a noble family of Mughal descent in Agra, India, he migrated to Delhi around 1813 and later became the poetic mentor of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar (1837–1858). As he was accustomed to living like an aristocratic nobleman, his needs far outstretched his means, so that he was forced into a life of penury.
Ghalib started writing poetry at a very early age under the pen name Asad, which he later changed to Ghalib. A study of his earliest manuscripts demonstrates that he produced most of his significant verses before he was twenty-one. He spent much of his youth writing poetry in Persian, putting together his Persian Diwan (Diwan-e Farsi, c. 1835) at least three years before the Urdu Diwan (Diwan-e Ghalib, c. 1838). His two collections of letters, Ud-e Hindi (Indian Harp) and Urdu-e Mua'lla (High Urdu), show him to be a classic writer of Urdu prose. Dastanbu (Persian, Pellet of Perfume, 1858) records his impression of the 1857 upheaval (the Sepoy Mutiny; also regarded by some as the first war of Indian independence), while Mihr-e Nim Roz (Persian, Midday Sun, 1854–1855) is the first volume of a projected multivolume history of the Timurid dynasty (ruled in India 1513–1857, with a brief interruption of Pathan rule).
However, Ghalib's Urdu Diwan, containing 1,458 verses, has been most instrumental in establishing his reputation as a great writer. Each generation reads the poetry of Ghalib for its own reasons; the metaphysical cogitations and the tough intellectual content strike a chord in every mind.
The themes of Ghalib's poetry are varied—love, the nature of human life and existence, people's role in the universe, free will versus predestination. However, love between a man and a woman, the traditional subject of the ghazal (Arabic, a poetic genre), does not substantially engage his mind, and he views this transcendental passion with profound skepticism. Ghalib was a product of the Sufi tradition and had a highly eclectic mind and an attitude of cheerful irreverence toward God and institutionalized religion. If he asserted the dignity and self-respect of people in their relationship with God, he also advocated the value of humans as human, regardless of their religion and race.
To Ghalib the poet, sorrow and pain are essential conditions of human life. He does not neglect or underplay any experience but savors each to the full, even if it is painful. To him every experience becomes an ontological end in itself, regardless of the attendant pain or pleasure. In one of his couplets, he yearns for the inclusion of hell in heaven, as that would provide greater scope for his mind and imagination. In another verse, he exhorts his heart to find solace even in sorrow's song, because one day the body would be deprived of even this sensation, having become insensate and inert. This insatiable appetite for new experiences remains the driving force behind much of his poetry and imparts to his images a private significance and an illuminating power.
Further Reading
Ahmad, Aijaz. (1971) Ghazals of Ghalib. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bijnori, Abdur Rahman. (1925) Mahasin-e Kalam-e Ghalib (An Appreciation of Ghalib's Poetry). Aurangabad, India: Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu Hind.
Mujeeb, Muhammad. (1969) Ghalib. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Russell, Ralph, and Khurshidul Islam. (1969) Ghalib: Life and Letters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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