| Mirza Asadullah Khan "GHALIB" (1797-1869) | |
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FORT* |
Growing up in Agra, he had the strong ramparts and aristocratic elegance of the Agra Fort in the neighborhood |
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Two of Ghalib's early seals, dated 1231 AH (1815/6); he composed a large number of his Urdu ghazals in 1816 |
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Some portraits of Ghalib,
including one actual photo |
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JAHAN- ABAD* |
Ghalib's Delhi was Shahjahanabad-- as modified by the presence of the British: here's *a good pre-1857 overview* |
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This map shows Ballimaran ki Gali, where Ghalib lived his last years, in one of the series of rented havelis he had inhabited for most of his adult life |
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Shah Zafar* |
The last Mughal emperor was a poet too; after Zauq's death, he reluctantly asked Ghalib to be his Ustad, and the impecunious Ghalib reluctantly accepted |
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But by then it was almost 1857, and throughout the bloody months of the Rebellion Ghalib never left Delhi; the chaos, looting, and violence in the streets appalled him |
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Ghalib didn't really disapprove of British rule: he loved *Calcutta*, and urban planning; he also loved the cultural and religious complexities of *Banaras* |
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He also loved newspapers, and his ghazals appeared frequently in the Dihli Urdu Akhbar and other papers of the day |
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Best of all he loved the British-provided postal service; he constantly exchanged newsy letters with his friends and shagirds (students of poetry) in other cities |
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Nawab Kalb-e 'Ali Khan of Rampur, Ghalib's last patron in the few years before his death |
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Ghalib's tomb is in New Delhi, near the shrine of *Hazrat Nizamuddin* |
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The
haveli
where
Ghalib spent his final years has now been (partly) bought
by the Delhi government, and its bare walls have been opened to the
public |
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GHAZALS: |
*A DESERTFUL OF ROSES* |
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There's a great deal of modern commemorative material-- some of it, like this stamp, revealing both carelessness about the actual poetry, and a great desire to claim the poet |
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A few examples (among many) of how modern translators and interpreters tend to "transcreate" Ghalib |
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Ghazals, including Ghalib's, are nowadays often sung in formal concerts |
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Ghalib's ghazals remind me of "khat-e ghubar" calligraphy, or fractal geometry-- they're enjoyable at every level of magnification |