Class: B.Ed.

Hons

COURSE: Pakistani Languages & Literature

TOPIC: Poet (Mirza Ghalib)

SEMESTER: 8th (Morning)

SUBMITTED BY: Rahimah Hashmi

(BSF1800168)

SUBMITTED TO: SIR Yawar Haroon

DATE:
 MIRZA ASADULLAH KHAN GHALIB

Introduction:

There are numerous writers, but only a handful stand out and have profoundly affected one's
heart with sensations of agony, joy, romance, anger, aggressiveness, welfare, security, and all
that happens around us. Urdu Literature is a sea of lovely expressions– this talent was conferred
onto the world's most famous Urdu poet, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib. His era is that of the
Mughals, who were driven out by the British and later Indian insurgents in 1857. (British
Colonial rule).

Ghalib and his early days:

Ghalib was born in Agra on December 27, 1797. His ties to Agra, however, were not ancestors.
Ghalib stated that his ancestor, Quqan Beg Khan, came to India from Samarqand. Khan was a
military adventurer who worked for the Governor of Punjab, Mughal Abdullah Beg Khan, and
his sons, Nasrullah Beg Khan and Nasrullah Beg Khan. It was a perilous and precarious
vocation. As we've seen, Ghalib was only four years old when his father died. Following his
death, Nasrullah Beg took in his brother's family, which included Ghalib, his younger brother
and sister. Nasrullah died two years later, in 1806, after rising to become the Commander of
Agra Fort under the Marathas and eventually being awarded by the British for surrendering the
Fort to them. As a result, by the age of nine, Ghalib had lost both his father and uncle. His
father married into a rich Agra family. Ghalib was born at the home of his maternal
grandparents and lived there for the rest of his life, even after his father and uncle died.
Undoubtedly, his early years were fraught with mental and emotional strain, and it is possible
that he began writing poems when still very young, maybe the same year his uncle died (1806).
Fortunately, his early education was such that it could foster the development of such a gifted
mind. He was tutored by Sheikh Moazzam, one of Agra's most accomplished intellectuals at
the time. He may have also gone to a madrasa administered by Mir Azam Ali. His knowledge
of the classical disciplines taught at the time—logic, astronomy, medicine, and metaphysics—
was extensive. His true interest, though, was in languages and literature, particularly Persian.
Abdus Samad, a prominent Persian and Arabic scholar, happened to be in Agra at the time.
Ghalib became his student. Samad spent two years in Ghalib's residence (1811-12). Ghalib
never acknowledged anybody as his ustad, but the effusive terms in which he afterwards
referred to Abdus Samad come the closest (Russel and Islam 1969). It is reasonable to believe
that Ghalib's extensive Persian learning was laid in these early years. Ghalib married Umrao
Begum, the daughter of Nawab Ilahi Baksh Khan, on August 8, 1810, when he was just thirteen
years old. Shortly after his marriage, he relocated from Agra to Delhi, where he would remain
for the rest of his life. Ghalib rented a haveli in the heart of the Walled City, near Chandni
Chowk, upon his arrival in Delhi. He had access to the nobility and elite through his father-in-
law, with whom he may have lived for a period upon arrival. His lyrical debut, on the other
hand, was far from seamless. Early Urdu literature by Ghalib was heavily Persianized.
Furthermore, the intellectual structure of his works was intricate to the point of obscurity.
Ghalib appears to have been heavily inspired by Persian poets such as Bukhari, Aseer, and
Bedil's abstract compositions.

Ghalib Literary Contribution:

Ghalib's reputation as a poet grew significantly over time. In 1821, he began compiling his
Urdu poems. He compiled the main principles of Persian letter-writing in a famous pamphlet
called Panj Ahang in 1825, at the request of friends. Gul-i-Rana, a collection of his Urdu and
Persian poetry, was published in 1828. His Urdu Diwan was originally published in 1841 and
quickly sold out. It was reissued in 1847, but clearly failed to fulfil public demand. Even as
late as 1855, Ghalib complained that he couldn't get his hands on a copy because the publishers
had committed copies in bulk to bookstores ahead of time. In 1845, a collection of his Persian
poetry was released. Ghalib was a prolific letter writer who put in a lot of time and effort into
them since he saw it as a literary endeavour. His countless letters seem like fluid conversation,
full of details and amusing obiter dicta, with minimal stylization and obvious spontaneity. 'I
have devised a style through which writing has become conversation,' he reportedly wrote to a
friend. You can communicate with your pen from a thousand kilometres away and have
company despite isolation. During the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Ghalib was assigned the
task of writing the history of the Mughals. The project died naturally. The court had lost
interest, and Ghalib made no attempt to rekindle it. What he had already written was eventually
published in 1854 as Mihr-i-Nimroz (The Sun at Mid-day). The only noteworthy effect of the
whole thing was that Ghalib, exhausted by the long hours of writing stylised Persian, returned
to Urdu as the medium of his letters after a two-decade hiatus. Dastanbuy was written in Persian
as a personal diary or notebook. It covers the time period from May 11, 1857, to July 31, 1858.

Ghalib and Development of Urdu Language & literature:

Exceptional individuals have stated their philosophy of Urdu literature. Mirza Ghalib is a well-
known and, in reality, one of the best poets who has elevated Urdu literature in general and
Urdu poetry in particular. His Urdu poetry is a blend of absolute expressions of intellectualism,
philosophy, and a futurist frame of mind. As a modern poet, he is connected with the Urdu
language. He crossed the best poets of his period and established current styles in Urdu poetry,
and he now dominates the Urdu Literature Legacy. There were two sides of Urdu Literature
and poetry visible in his poetry – one was his own ambivalent personality, which was a result
of his own upbringing, and the other was his independent strength, which had a lot of
contribution in his poetry, which was not confined to the society's traditions and was more
realistic and open in its scope of Urdu poetry. His poems were true to life, especially in the
early years of his poetry, which primarily reflects his psychological input as being denied of a
regular family life and being financially reliant on his maternal grandparents. He had been
through a lot in his life, which was evident in his lyrics. Ghalib created a mark of brilliance in
urdu poetry that is the eternal pattern of writing style, giving Urdu Philosophy a new meaning.

Poetry characteristics of Ghalib:

Ghalib's finest poetry were composed in three styles: lyric, moralistic or mystical fable, and
qasidah (panegyric).

The finest element of his poetry is that his emotions are obvious and true to reality. The words
used to depict a certain point in time were outstanding.

‫غالب اسیری میں بھی آتش زیر پا‬

ؔ ‫بسکہ ہوں‬

‫موئے آتش دیدہ ہے حلقہ مری زنجیر کا‬

Ghalib is a difficult poet. His universe is too large and conflicting to fit into any one
categorization. His Ghazals are exceptional not just for the depth of the emotions they
communicate, but also for their completely flawless form, exquisite melody, and profound
sense of the world's beauty that they disclose.

‫غالب ہوا ہے نکتہ سرا‬

ؔ ‫ادائے خاص سے‬

‫صالئے عام ہے یاران نکتہ داں کے لیے‬

Ghalib sung about "all the phases of life," and he had a breadth and depth of passion that no
other Urdu poet possessed. His love is entirely sensual, rather than idealistic and self-
sacrificing.

‫ہیں اور بھی دنیا میں سخن ور بہت اچھے‬

‫غالب کا ہے انداز بیاں اور‬

ؔ ‫کہتے ہیں کہ‬

Ghalib and Art of Letter writing

Mirza Ghalib was also a gifted letter writer. His letters paved the way to a simpler usage of
Urdu. Before him, letter writing in Urdu was highly ornamental, his letters used common words
to express ideas. Ghalib abandoned the false jargon of feudal etiquette and wrote in a
refreshingly plain, intimate, and casual style, striving for the joy of connection. No one has
ever written Urdu more gracefully and clearly. Ghalib's clever turn provided every page of his
letters an alluring charm and lasting fascination.

Example of letter:

He avoids long introduction in start. Just greeting and come to the point.
Awards:

He was awarded the title Dabir-ul-Mulk by Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II in 1850, along with
the title of Najm ud-Daulah.

Death:

He died in New Delhi on February 15, 1869. The house where he lived has been turned into a
memorial and hosts a permanent Ghalib exhibition.

Today, he remains one of the most popular and influential masters of the Urdu language; he is
known simply as Ghalib. Poet Salman Areeb give honor to mirza Ghalib in such words:

‫اری ؔب دیکھو نہ اتراؤ چند شعروں پر‬

‫غالب کو تم سالم کرو‬

ؔ ‫غزل وہ فن ہے کہ‬

REFRENCES:

• A.A. Beg, Life and Odes of Ghalib (Lahore, 1940).

• Q. Hyder and S. Jafri, Ghalib and His Poetry (Bombay, 1970)
• Ralph Russell, The Famous Ghalib: The Sound of My Moving Pen (Roli Books
Private Limited, 2015)