Introduction by FWP
When we decided to do the 2008 Columbia workshop on the general topic
of satire, Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda (1706?-1781) at once came to
mind: he is, after all, the preeminent satirist in the Urdu classical
tradition. When I started looking for suitable material for the workshop,
Henry Court's wonderful little book was right there in the stacks
of Butler Library, and I clutched it to my bosom and carried it home
with delight.
For by taking Henry Court as my "guest editor," I can offer you,
dear reader, more historical depth, and another perspective. So I've
basically scanned his book, and turned his numerous footnoted annotations
into side-notes for more convenient access. The changes I've made
in his text have been minimal. In a few cases, punctuation and spelling
have been adjusted for clarity. All comments in square brackets are
my own. Henry Court's spellings have in most cases been retained,
but his diacritics have been abandoned. The diacritics are really
not much of a loss, for Court apparently didn't take them very seriously:
his diacritics are spotty, haphazard, and inconsistent at best, so
they aren't all that helpful to begin with.
Through links called "old Urdu," I've interpolated with Court's text
and notes page images of Kulliyat-e Sauda, ed. by Dr. Muhammad
Hasan (Delhi: Popular Publication, 1966), as follows:
(1) Masnavi dar hajv-e hakim ghaus, pp. 375-378
(2) Masnavi dar hajv-e bakhil [miser], pp. 346-351
(3) Masnavi dar ta'rif-e shikar, pp. 356-358
(4) Masnavi dar hajv-e fil, pp. 339-343
(5) Masnavi dar be-nasiqi [disorderedness]-e shahjahanabad, pp. 343-346
(6) Masnavi dar hajv-e fidvi, pp. 370-375
Dr. Muhammad Hasan's Urdu text is of scholarly interest, since it deliberately
retains some conspicuous archaisms that were common in Sauda's day:
in the script: gaaf is written as kaaf; chho;Tii ye
often appears where ba;Rii ye would nowadays be found; final
chho;Tii ye has two dots underneath it that are nowadays not
used; gol he replaces do-chashmii he in aspirations; retroflex
markers consist of four dots in a square pattern, rather than the modern
sign that looks like a small :to))e (as in Platts' Dictionary);
words are written together that are really separate; and so on. This
means it can provide excellent practice in reading earlier texts.
But in case you might find such scholarly archaisms confusing, I've
also provided "modern Urdu" links to the poems from a widely available
modern-style edition with exceptionally attractive calligraphy, Kulliyat-e
sauda, ed. by Dr. Amrit La'l 'Ishrat (Allahabad: Ram Nara'in Lal
Beni Madhav, 1971, 2 vols.), as follows:
(1) Masnavi dar hajv-e hakim ghaus, vol. 1, pp. 304-307
(2) Masnavi dar hajv-e amir-a daulatmand bakhil, vol. 1, pp. 289-295
(3) Masnavi dar ta'rif-e shikar, vol. 1, pp. 265-266
(4) Masnavi dar hajv-e pil rajah nripat singh, vol. 1, pp. 275-278
(5) Masnavi dar hajv-e sidi faulad khan kotval-e shahjahanabad, vol.
1, pp. 279-282
(6) Masnavi dar hajv-e fidvi mutavatan-e panjab kih darasal baqal
bachchah bud, vol. 1, pp. 317-322
[(7) Masnavi dar hajv-e chipak mirza faizu, vol. 1, pp. 308-311
(9) Qissah-e darvesh kih iradah-e ziyarat-e ka'bah kardah bud, vol.
1, pp. 247-250]
(11) Mukhammas-e shahr ashob, vol. 2, pp. 261-266
(12) Qasidah dar madh-e navab vazir imad ul-mulk, vol. 1, pp. 161-167
There are definitely some textual discrepancies-- usually, but not
always, smallish ones-- between these two Urdu editions themselves,
and between these and other available modern editions-- and also between
all these and the one(s) that Henry Court used. Court himself refers
to such problems in his annotations. Unfortunately such discrepancies
are the rule rather than the exception in editions of older Urdu texts
(and even in editions of more recent ones, alas, though the problems
are rarely so major). In the case of Sauda, there's even some doubt
about whether various masnavis attributed to him were actually composed
by him.
My own ustad, S. R. Faruqi, recommends for Sauda's ghazals the edition
by Nasim Ahmad, published by Banaras Hindu University. And for the
rest of Sauda's poetry, he recommends Kulliyat-e sauda (4
vols.), ed. by Muhammad Shamsuddin Siddiqi (Lahore: Majlis Taraqqi-e
Adab, 1973-). From Volume 3, the masnavi volume, the following critically
edited texts are here provided:
(1) Masnavi dar hajv-e hakim ghaus, pp. 144-153
(2) Masnavi dar hajv-e 'umdah-e bakhil, pp. 103-118
(3) Masnavi dar ta'rif-e shikar-kardan-e asif ud-daulah, pp. 69-73
(4) Masnavi dar hajv-e fil-e rajah parbat singh, pp. 84-93
(5) Masnavi dar hajv-e sidi kafur kotval-e shahjahanabad, pp. 94-102
(8) Masnavi dar haq-e mirza fakhir makin, pp. 175-178
Of the masnavis translated by Court, Muhammad Shamsuddin Siddiqi
lists (p. 1) only the ones noted above (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8) among
those he considers to be unquestionably Sauda's own work.
The first five masnavis from Court's book are provided as web pages,
along with associated hyperlinked Urdu text pages. The latter five
masnavis are provided in PDF form. Then to accompany (6), (7), and
(9), Urdu texts from the Amrit La'l 'Ishrat edition (see above) have
been provided in PDF form. For (8), the text doesn't appear in 'Ishrat,
so it's been taken from Intikhab-e sauda, ed. by Rashid Hasan
Khan (Delhi: Maktabah Jami'ah, 1972), pp. 303-304. For (10) I haven't
provided any Urdu text; apparently the original is by Miskin and not
even by Sauda in the first place.
I give less attention to these latter five because life is short,
and arranging everything into all those tables takes time. If I weren't
already so committed to working on Ghalib and Mir, it would be very
tempting to launch out into Sauda, and to look at his ghazals as well.
But for the present, I'll confine myself to giving my own translation
and notes for just one of Court's chosen masnavis that I particularly
enjoyed (though its authenticity is not vouched for by the Lahore
critical edition), and for a couple of other long poems that Court
didn't include (but for which I have some unpublished SOAS versions
to start with). In lieu of more extensive knowledge and study on my
part, I'm very glad to have discovered Henry Court, dear reader, and
to be able to share his helpful book with you.
Fran Pritchett
June 2007