LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE IN MUGHAL ERA

Under the Mughals all form of literature flourished, from poetry to popular Sufi verses to learned prose and historiography .16th and early 17th century literature in the Persian Language is relatively well known ,and the historical works of that period have long since been studied ; however there ha been a tendency to over look the fact that there was literature in languages other than Persian , much of which is first written down in Akbar’s time .Arabic has always played an important role ,being the language of Quran ,of theology and philosophy. Elegant prose and poetry were also composed in Arabic, not only in the southern India but also in the north.

The Turkish Language or rather the Chaghatay Turkish ,Babur’s mother tongue also played an important role .Until the early 19th century it was still spoken to some extent in the ruler’s palace and also by many of the nobility .

In the 16th century, regional languages appeared for the first time in literature , then mystical writings ,followed by secular ones.

Sindhi, Punjabi and Pushto came into prominence during this time and Bengali and Kashmiri which had long been literary languages are also noteworthy.
Hindi -including the various dialects spoken in northern India, such as Braj and Purabi ,played an important role and thanks to the translation project initiated by Akbar and his great grandson Dara Shikoh ,Sanskrit also became and important literary language in the Muslim world .

Finally towards the end of Aurangzeb’s era Urdu became the quintessential literary language of Indian Muslims.

Poetry

In general poetical forms which has been developed in classical Arab literature and to even greater extent those in Persian Literature, were transposed into Perso-Turkic Urdu Poetry during the Mughal Era.
They follow the same strict rules with regard to meter and include the

Ghazal (lyric) form, which is short lyrical poem with a single rhyme at the end of each line, usually expressing sacred of profane love. The first two half-verse rhyme, setting the tone, or the mood. Alternatively it commence with “ qit’a” , ‘a bridge’ ,which was popular in the case of descriptive and topical verses (prayers , chronograms,etc).

The Qasida (ode), which had the same rhyming patterns but which was longer and more strongly orchestrated, was usually employed in panegyrical poems, whether religious or profane.

The Mathnawi (narrative) is an epic or romantic poem in rhyming couplets , which can run to thousand of lines, a fairly short mathnawi ,which often commences wit ha plea for pardon but which can be used to treat any theme ,is called a Saqinama.

The Rubai(quatrain) with the rhyming pattern aaba , was often used. Overtime the juxta position of other forms became popular ,for instance , a number of ghazals would be connected by means of interim verses, which either changed or remained the same strophic poem .

This lead to the development of poems with five or six lien stanza s at most, each with its own rhyme. Verses with all kinds of themes were composed in this form, for instance “sarapa” “from head to foot” which were usually for description of beauty and “shahrashub”,’to excite the city people’ ,which might describe ‘heart-rendingly’ ,beautiful people or else cruel ones or it could deal with theme of artisans and their work or politics.

In the last lines of Ghazal and Qasidas, the poet would refer to himself by his nom de plume, which could either be given to him by his teacher or might be derived from his father’s Occupation.
• Hafiz ; he who knows the Quran by heart
• Urfi ,he whose father was a knight, who rode out in defense of law and order,urf.

Often specially in the early years the names were of elevated kind such as “Fayzi”,’touched by Grace of God’.

However over the course of the Mughal era ,these became increasingly pessimistic and melancholy such as ‘bedil’ (heartless ,dull),’Bikas’ ( friendless).
Sometimes the entire history of a piets family or a chain of events could be traced from these names: the poet Gul (Rose) names his pupil gulshan (Rose Garden) ,his pupil was Andalib (Nightingale) and his son was called Dard (pain –as felt by the nightingale when deprived of the rose)and Dard’s brother was called Athar “Trace Effect”.


Poetry in regional languages followed the traditional form of its place of origin.In Hindi and in early Sindhi ,the two line’ doa or sorath’ form was often used. In Pashto the ‘tappa and landey ‘form were often used ,rhymed distichs of 9+13 syllables, which had been introduced from Persian. There were also hybrid forms, especially in Sindh and in the Punjab : siharfi: thirty- letter poems ,are a kind of ‘Golden Alphabet’ :barahmasa “twelve month poems” express the longing of a lover for her beloved in a different way for each month of the year. Both types are found in varying long or short forms .

Popular poetry which was written down at a relatively late stage .was almost always intended to be sung, hence the frequent repetitions and the alliterations, of which singers are so fond..

------------------------
Source Book : The Empire of the Great Mughals by Annemarie Schimmel
------------------------