Meer Taqi Meer

Mir Muhammad Taqi (February 1723 – 20 September 1810), known as Mir Taqi Mir (also spelled Meer Taqi Meer), was an Urdu poet of the 18th century Mughal era in the Subcontinent and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu School of the Urdu '' ghazal'' and is often remembered as one of the best poets of the Urdu language. His pen name (''takhallus'') was Mir. He spent the latter part of his life in the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow.

Life

The main source of information on Mir's life is his autobiography ''Zikr-e-Mir'', which covers the period from his childhood to the beginning of his sojourn in Lucknow. However, it is said to conceal more than it reveals, with material that is undated or presented in no chronological sequence. Therefore, many of the 'true details' of Mir's life remain a matter of speculation.

Early life and background

Mir was born in Agra, India (then called ''Akbarabad'' and ruled by the Mughals) in August or February 1723. His grandfather had migrated from Hejaz to Hyderabad, then to Akbarabad or Agra. His philosophy of life was formed primarily by his father, Mir Abdullah, a religious man with a large following, whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with Mir throughout his life and imbued his poetry. Mir's father died while the poet was in his teens, and left him some debt. Mir left Agra for Delhi a few years after his father's death, to finish his education and also to find patrons who offered him financial support (Mir's many patrons and his relationship with them have been described by his translator C. M. Naim).Profile and poetry of Mir Taqi Mir on University of Chicago website
Retrieved 18 July 2020 He was given a daily allowance by the Mughal Amir-ul-Umara and Mir Bakhshi, Khan-i Dauran, who was another native of Agra.

Some scholars consider two of Mir's ''masnavis'' (long narrative poems rhymed in couplets), ''Mu'amlat-e-ishq'' (The Stages of Love) and ''Khwab o Khyal-e Mir'' ("Mir's Vision"), written in the first person, as inspired by Mir's own early love affairs, but it is by no means clear how autobiographical these accounts of a poet's passionate love affair and descent into madness are. Especially, as Frances W. Pritchett points out, the austere portrait of Mir from these masnavis must be juxtaposed against the picture drawn by Andalib Shadani, whose inquiry suggests a very different poet, given to unabashed eroticism in his verse.

Life in Lucknow

Mir lived much of his life in Mughal Delhi. ''Kuchha Chelan'', in Old Delhi was his address at that time. However, after Ahmad Shah Abdali's sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the ruler's invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets.

Mir migrated to Lucknow in 1782 and stayed there for the remainder of his life. Though he was given a kind welcome by Asaf-ud-Daulah, he found that he was considered old-fashioned by the courtiers of Lucknow (Mir, in turn, was contemptuous of the new Lucknow poetry, dismissing the poet Jur'at's work as merely 'kissing and cuddling'). Mir's relationships with his patron gradually grew strained, and he eventually severed his connections with the court. In his last years Mir was very isolated. His health failed, and the untimely deaths of his daughter, son and wife caused him great distress.

Death

He died of a purgative overdose on 21 September 1810, and was buried in Lucknow. The marker of his burial place is believed to have been removed in modern times when railway tracks were built over his grave. In the 1970s, a cenotaph was built in the vicinity of his actual burial place.

Literary life

His complete works, ''Kulliaat'', consist of six ''Diwans'' containing 13,585 couplets, comprising a variety of poetic forms: ''ghazal'', ''masnavi'', ''qasida'', ''rubai'', ''mustezaad'', satire, etc. Mir's literary reputation is anchored on the '' ghazals'' in his ''Kulliyat-e-Mir'', much of them on themes of love. His masnavi ''Mu'amlat-e-Ishq'' (The Stages of Love) is one of the greatest known love poems in Urdu literature.

Mir lived at a time when Urdu language and poetry was at a formative stage – and Mir's instinctive aesthetic sense helped him strike a balance between the indigenous expression and new enrichment coming in from Persian imagery and idiom, to constitute the new elite language known as ''Rekhta'' or ''Hindui''. Basing his language on his native Hindustani, he leavened it with a sprinkling of Persian diction and phraseology, and created a poetic language at once simple, natural and elegant, which was to guide generations of future poets.

The death of his family members, together with earlier setbacks (including the traumatic stages in Delhi), lend a strong pathos to much of Mir's writing – and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos and melancholy.

Mir and Mirza Ghalib

Mir's famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, was Mirza Rafi Sauda. Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Mir's supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa. It may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Mir was indeed a genius who deserved respect. Here are two couplets by Mirza Ghalib on this matter.

Ghalib and Zauq were contemporary rivals but both of them believed in the greatness of Mir and also acknowledged Mir's greatness in their poetry.

Famous couplets

Some of his notable couplets are:

At a higher spiritual level, the subject of Mir's poem is not a woman but God. Mir speaks of man's interaction with the Divine. He reflects upon the impact on man when God reveals Himself to the man. So the same ''sher'' can be interpreted in this way as well:

Other ''shers'':

Mir Taqi Mir in fiction

*Khushwant Singh's famous novel '' Delhi: A Novel'' gives very interesting details about the life and adventures of the great poet.
*'' Mah e Mir'' is a 2016 Pakistani biographical film directed by Anjum Shahzad in which Fahad Mustafa played Mir Taqi Mir.

Major works

* ''Nukat-us-Shura'', a biographical dictionary of Urdu poets of his time, written in Persian.
* ''Faiz-e-Mir'', a collection of five stories about Sufis & faqirs, said to have been written for the education of his son Mir Faiz Ali.Foreword by Dr. Masihuzzaman in Kulliyat-e-Mir Vol-2, Published by Ramnarianlal Prahladdas, Allahabad, India.
* ''Zikr-e-Mir'', an autobiography written in Persian.
* ''Kulliyat-e-Farsi'', a collection of poems in Persian
* ''Kulliyat-e-Mir'', a collection of Urdu poetry consisting of six diwans (volumes).
* ''Mir Taqi Mir Ki Rubaiyat''

See also

* List of Urdu poets
* Ghazal
*Mah-e-Meer

References

*Lall, Inder jit; Mir A Master Poet; Thought, 7 November 1964
*Lall, Inder jit; Mir The ghazal king; Indian & Foreign Review, September 1984
*Lall, Inder jit; Mir—Master of Urdu Ghazal; Patriot, 25 September 1988
*Lall, Inder jit; 'A Mir' of ghazals; Financial Express, 3 November

Further reading

* The Anguished Heart: Mir and the Eighteenth Century: 'The Golden Tradition, An Anthology of Urdu Poetry', Ahmed Ali, pp 23–54; Poems:134-167, Columbia University Press, 1973/ OUP, Delhi, 1991
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External links

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A Garden of Kashmir: the Ghazals of Mir Taqi MirDewaan-e-Meer (Online)Meer Taqi Meer's poetry at RekhtaZikr e Mir: Biography of poet in Hindi
on Scribd
The Meer Pages

Sher e Shor Angez Vol.2
on Scribd

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mir, Mir Taqi
1723 births
1810 deaths
People from Agra
Indian male poets
Urdu-language poets from India
18th-century Urdu-language writers
Urdu-language religious writers
Urdu-language writers from British India
Urdu-language writers from Mughal India
Urdu-language theologians
18th-century Indian poets
Poets from Uttar Pradesh
18th-century male writers