Mohammad Sanaullah Dar (25 May 1912 – 3 November 1949), better known as Meeraji was an Indian

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

, working only intermittently.

Early life

Born into a Kashmiri family of Gujranwala and named Mohammed Sanaullah Dar, he passed his childhood days in Kucha Sardar Shah, Mozang,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. His father, Munshi Mohammad Mahtabuddin, was a railway engineer, so his family had to often move from one place to another. He lived in

Kathiawar Kathiawar () is a peninsula, near the far north of India's west coast, of about bordering the Arabian Sea. It is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest and by the Gulf of Khambhat (Gulf of Cambay) in the east. In the northeast, it is ...

, Bostan ( Baluchistan),

Sanghar Sanghar ( sd, سانگھڙ; ur, سانگھڑ English: Sānghar) is a city in Sanghar District, Sindh, Pakistan. Sanghar is the headquarters of Sanghar District and Sanghar Taluka (a subdivision of the district). The driving distance of Sangher ...

and

Jacobabad Jacobabad ( ur, and sd, جيڪب آباد; formerly Khanger or Khangarh) is a city in Sindh, Pakistan, serving as both the capital city of Jacobabad District and the administrative center of Jacobabad Taluka, an administrative tehsil, subdi ...

. Meeraji began composing poetry, under the pseudonym of ''Sasri'', when he was at school. It was from his later encounter with a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

girl, Meera Sen, who was a daughter of an accounts officer serving in Lahore, that he fell deeply in love. This left a permanent trace in his life that he adopted his pen name on her name. Though brought up in affluent surroundings, Meeraji left his home and family and chose to lead the life of a homeless wanderer, mostly staying with his friends and making a living by selling his songs. Julien Columeau, a French novelist who also writes in Urdu and Hindi has authored a very unusual but engaging short novel on the life of Meeraji.

Literary life

Meeraji was associated with ''Adabi Duniya'' (Lahore), and later worked for

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. He wrote literary columns for the monthly ''Saqi'' (

) and for a short period helped editing ''Khayal'' (

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

). After

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

, he settled permanently in

. From his teenage days, Meeraji felt attracted towards

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and reg ...

. He often used

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

vocabulary in his poetry, prose and letters. He acknowledged his debt to the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

poet Amaru and the French poet

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

. He also translated certain works of the

poet, Damodar Gupta and of the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

poet,

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...

. Meeraji is considered to be one of the pioneers of symbolism in Urdu poetry, and especially introducing

Free Verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

. Along with N. M. Rashid, he was a leading poet of the group '' Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq'', which broke away from the classic convention of ''radeef'' and ', explored the rich resources of

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...

and

, rejected the confines of the socially "acceptable" and "respectable" themes, rejected the stranglehold of Persianised diction, and explored with sensitivity and skill, the hitherto forbidden territories of sexual and psychological states. He also wrote illuminating criticism of poetry and yearned to alter the expression of his age.

Works

Meeraji's literary output was immense but he published very little of his poetry during his lifetime. However,

Khalid Hasan Khalid Hasan (15 April 1934 – 5 February 2009) was a Pakistani journalist and writer. Author and editor of several books, in addition to being a regular columnist for a number of English-language Pakistani newspapers, he is best known for his ...

, in his article "Meera Sen's forgotten lover," records that during Meeraji's lifetime four collections of Meeraji's works were published by Shahid Ahmed Dehlavi, and one by Maktaba-e-Urdu, Lahore. His complete works ''Kulliyat-e-Meeraji'' appeared only in 1988 edited by Dr.

Jameel Jalibi Jameel Jalibi (Urdu: جمیل جالبی) was a noted linguist, critic, writer, and scholar of Urdu literature and linguistics from Pakistan. He also was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Karachi. Early life Jameel Jalibi was born Moha ...

.Dr Jameel Jalibi again edited the Kulliyat and published in 1994 from Lahore with all his remaining works. Another collection titled ''Baqiyat-e-Meeraji'' was edited by Sheema Majeed in 1990. A book titled "Iss Nazm Mein" containing Essays of Meeraji was published during his lifetime. The list of the works of Meeraji: # "Geet he Geet (songs) # "Meeraji ke Geet" (Poems) # "Meeraji ki Nazmen"(Poems) # "Teen Rang" (Poems) # "Iss Nazm Mein" (Criticism - Essays of Meeraji) # "Kulliyat-e-Meeraji" (Poems) compiled by Altaf Gauhar and published by Dr. Jameel Jalibi, Urdu Markaz U.K. # "Baqiyat-e-Meeraji" (Poems) edited by Sheema Majeed and published by Pakistan Books and Literary Sounds, Lahore. # "Intikhab-e-kalaam" # "Pratinidhi Shairy" # "Seh Aatishah (poems) # "Mashriq o Maghrib ke Naghmay # "Paband Nazmen (poems) # "Meera ji ki Nazmen Edited by Anees Nagi (poems) # "Nigar Khana (translation) # "Khemay ke aas Paas (translations)by Meera ji # "Nagri Nagri fira Musafir Ghar ka rasta Bhool Gaya -Sung By Ghulam Ali

Personality

Meeraji adopted a deliberately outlandish style in his dress, sporting long hair, a dagger-like mustache, oversize earrings, colorful headgear, an amulet and a string of beads around his neck.

Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi Mehr or Mihr may refer to: Persian names * Mehr, an alternative name for Mithra, a Zoroastrian divinity * Mehr (month), the seventh month of the year and the sixteenth day of the month of the Iranian and Zoroastrian calendars * Mehr's day, or ...

, his poet friend and former class fellow, recalled that the only time Meeraji trimmed his long hair was when he joined

, New Delhi.

Death

Akhtar ul Iman Akhtar ul Iman (12 November 1915 9 March 1996) was a noted Urdu poet and screenwriter in Hindi cinema, who had a major influence on modern Urdu nazm. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue in 1963 for ''Dharmputra'' and 1966 for '' W ...

, his poet friend, who was himself influenced by Meeraji and

Noon Meem Rashid Nazar Muhammad Rashed ( ur, ), (1 August 1910 – 9 October 1975) commonly known as Noon Meem Rashed ( ur, ) or N.M. Rashed, was a Pakistani poet of modern Urdu poetry.Poona Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

and Bombay, reported that his excessive drinking, cigarette-smoking, and sexual dissipation had drained away his strength and damaged his liver. Then, there came the additional agony of his psychic ailment, for which he had to be admitted to hospital where he was given electric shocks to cure him of his insanity -- a treatment which he dreaded. The end came at 4 p.m. on 3 November 1949, in King Edward Memorial Hospital in Bombay.

Thesis

* "Meeraji" a monograph on the Urdu poet written by Shafey Kidwai. * "Meeraji : Shakhsiyat aur Funn" - Doctoral dissertation of Dr. Rashid Amjad.A critical appraisal of the personality and art of Meeraji. http://www.sherosokhan.com/id828.html * "Meeraji aur Amli Tanqeed" published by Mah-e-Nau, Lahore in May, 1979. A study of Meeraji's methods of literary criticism.

References

{{Authority control 1912 births 1949 deaths People from Gujranwala Writers from Mumbai Punjabi people Urdu-language poets 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian male writers Urdu-language poets from India