daad-;xvaahii : 'The demanding of justice, application for redress'. (Platts p.499)
i;hraam : ''The act of entering upon a thing, or state, or time, that caused what was before allowable or lawful, to be forbidden or unlawful'; ... — determination or resolution to enter upon the performance of the ;hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca; — the period of pilgrimage at Mecca; — the garment worn by pilgrims on entering Mecca, consisting of two wrappers without seam'. (Platts p.29)
mudda((aa : 'What is claimed, or alleged, or pretended, or meant; desire, wish; suit; meaning, object, view; scope, tenor, drift; — object of search, stolen property'. (Platts p.1015)
Every lament of Asad's shares in the theme of complaint and lament-- that is, for Asad's speech or verse, paper is the pilgrimage-robe of purpose. Pilgrims, for religious merit, tie on pilgrimage-robes of cloth. According to an Iranian custom, to put on a robe of paper is considered to be a sign of seeking justice against someone. For poetry/speech to put on a robe of paper became, for this reason, a pilgrimage-robe of purpose/intention. i;hraam baa;Ndhnaa means to make a resolve. i;hraam-e mudda((aa = the resolve to attain a purpose/intention.
SETS == POETRY
ISLAMIC: {10,2}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
What an elegant, intriguing verse! It seems almost effortlessly simple, yet it twines together several different strands of meaning into a single inseparable braid. Here are the strands:
=Asad's poetry seeks justice. In the first line, this is all we learn. (The line refers to 'laments', but also to their 'theme', a clearly literary term.) Most obviously, 'justice' could refer to the praise and rewards that are deserved by his poetry. If he doesn't receive the praise that is his due, isn't this a form of injustice?
=Asad's poetry (or, poetry in general) intentionally wears paper robes. The idea is that this behavior is a Persian practice adopted by people who are making a complaint against injustice; in this attire they approach the king and ask for redress. As Zamin notes, this notion is the foundation of the first verse in the divan, {1,1}; it is extensively explored and discussed there by different commentators (including Ghalib himself).
=Asad's poetry (or poetry in general) intentionally wears pilgrimage-robes. In a general sense, as Gyan Chand notes, ' i;hraam baa;Ndhnaa means to make a resolve' (see the definition above). In this case the resolve is surely to obtain justice, and approaching God's court is an obvious way to go about it. More concretely, Muslim pilgrimage-robes are white and plain (unstitched), like paper.
There might also be a suggestion that when orally-composed, orally-recited poetry/'speech' is put down on paper, it assumes a sterner, more focused intentionality. In a twofold sense, oral poetry then becomes 'committed' to paper.
Zamin:
Here the 'pilgrimage-robe of purpose/intention' is that same paper robe: see the opening-verse at the head of the divan: {1,1}.
== Zamin, p. 410