GAZALS
While selecting a topic for my presentation in the forum, what at once surfaced onto my conscious mind is gazal, an art form deeply rooted in Persian literature. It is perhaps my special liking for this genre of poetry in Persian tradition or I would like to bring in to your mind something that would appeal to the aesthetic as well as the musical domain of the all gathered here and fill in your heart something I cannot express by mere words.
Gazals are poems. The word gazal derived from Arabic that means ‘taking to women’. Love is assumed to be the permanent state of gazal and from this background the lovers of gazals might have opted this word that has ‘talking to the beloved’ as its meaning. It also takes many other meanings from various other backgrounds. One such a meaning is evolved from the early Persian Muslim tradition in which the veil system was in strict observance that restricted the free movement and the liberty of young women as well as the opportunity of men to see and exchange words with them. In such conditions the declaration of love were lower tone and even not heard each other. All these take the lover and the beloved into a stressed state of affairs and turns out to be more of a manifestation of frustration than of consummation of love. Most of the times their love can not be reciprocated. So is the gazal has mysterious and highly symbolic undertone and etymologically gazal means ‘anguish of an arrowed deer’.
Gazal sailed to India in the 12th century with Mogul Emperors who not only brought the Persian culture but also the inevitable part of their arts, poetry and music. It was from this cross cultural mix the Urdu gazal came into being in India. It is believed that Ameer Kusru(1253-1395) was the first Persian poet who tried his hand first in Indian Gazals. It was Mohammed Khuli Kuthb, a sultan of Deccan who wrote gazals in Urdu for the first time and his visit in Delhi in 1700 marked the successful unification of the two schools of gazals.
In the later periods, the history of Urdu gazals in India received honour and publicity through Delhi and Luknow School of thoughts. In this Delhi school of thought comprise great poets such as Amarelle Khan Glib, Mere Take Mere, Bahadursha Safar, Mohammed Rafi Sauda, Momin Khan, Mohammed Ibrahim Souk etc and in Laknow Insha Alla Khan Insha, Khwajja Hyder Ali Athish, Juradh, Rangeen etc. In both of these, Delhi was par excellent.
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Classical Definition of Ghazal
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Ghazal in short, is a collection of Sher's which follow the rules of
'Matla', 'Maqta', 'Beher', 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif'. So to know what
Ghazal is, it's necessary to know what these terms mean.
To understand these terms easily , we will take an example.
1. koi ummid bar nahin aati
koi surat nazar nahin aati
2. aage aati thi haale dil par hasi
ab kisi baat par nahin aati
3. hum wahan hain, jahan se humko bhi
kucch hamaari khabar nahin aati
4. kaabaa kis muh se jaaoge 'Ghalib'
sharm tumko magar nahin aati
What is a Sher ?
It's a poem of two lines. This definition is deceptively simple.
Please note that, every Sher is a poem in itself ! A Sher does not
need, anything around it, to convey the message.
All the 4 stanzas in our example are independent poems, Sher's.
So Ghazal is necessarily a collection of two-line-poems called Sher.
[ So the Rafi solo "rang aur noor ki baaraat kise pesh karu" is NOT
a Ghazal, as every stanza is of 3 lines, and not 2. ]
What are other restrictions ? Many, and important ones.
[ Any collection of Sher's is not Ghazal. Some good examples are ; the
famous Mukesh song from Yehoodi, "yeh mera deewaanaapan hai" ; and the
title song of "dil apana aur preet parayi". Each stanza in these songs
can be considered as an independent Sher, but they are NOT Ghazal's.
To understand, why, we have to wait till 'Kaafiyaa, 'Radif'. ]
What is 'Beher' ?
'Beher' is the 'meter' of the Sher's. It can be considered as the
length of the Sher. Both the lines in the Sher *MUST* be of
same 'Beher'. And all the Sher's in one Ghazal *MUST* be of the
same 'Beher'. There are 19 (!!) kinds of 'Beher'. But in simple terms,
'Beher' is categorized in 3 classes. Short, medium, long.
[ The examples in [] are my additions, from Hindi Films. ]
Small :
ahale dairo-haram reh gaye
tere deewane kam reh gaye
[ Also Talat song, "dil-e-nadan tuze hua kya hai" ]
Medium :
umr jalwo me basar ho, ye zaruri to nahin
har shab-e-gam ki seher ho, ye zaruri to nahin
[ And by Gulzar, "ruke ruke se kadam, ruk ke baar baar chale" ]
Long :
ai mere humnashin, chal kahin aur chal, is chaman me ab apanaa guzaaraa nahin
baat hoti gulon ki, to seh lete hum, ab to kaaton pe bhi haq hamaaraa nahin
[ The filmfare winner, "Manzile apani jagah hai" !! Yes ! It IS a Ghazal.
And the Shayar is Prakash Mehra !! surprise , surprise !! ]
So Ghazal is a collection of Sher's of SAME 'Beher'.
What is 'Radif' ?
In a Ghazal, second line of all the Sher's *MUST* end with the *SAME*
word/s. This repeating common words is the 'Radif' of the Ghazal.
In our example, the 'Radif' is "nahin aati".
[ Sometimes, the Ghazal becomes known by its 'Radif'. eg. "jaraa
aahista chal" sung by Pankaj Udhas. On RMIM we all know one Ghazal by
the 'Radif' as "aahista aahista", don't we ? or is it 2 or 3 ? :-) ]
What is 'Kaafiyaa' ?
'Kaafiyaa' is the rhyming pattern which all the words before 'Radif'
*MUST* have.
In our example the 'Kaafiyaa' is "bar", "nazar", "par", "magar" etc.
This is a necessary requirement. Something which is followed even in
the exceptions to all these rules.
So Ghazal is a collection of Sher's of same 'Beher', ending in same
'Radif' and having same 'Kaafiyaa'.
[ That's the reason, why "yeh mera diwanapan hai" etc. are NOT Ghazals.
There is no common thing which can be called 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif'. ]
What is 'Matla' ?
The first Sher in the Ghazal *MUST* have 'Radif' in its both lines.
This Sher is called 'Matla' of the Ghazal and the Ghazal is usually
known after its 'Matla'. There can be more than one 'Matla' in a
Ghazal. In such a case the second one is called 'Matla-e-saani' or
'Husn-e-matla'.
In our example, the first Sher is the 'Matla'.
What is 'Maqta' ?
A Shayar usually has an alias ie. 'takhallus' eg. Mirza Asadullakhan
used 'Ghalib' as his 'takhallus' and is known by that. Other examples
are 'Daag' Dehlvi, 'Mir' Taqi Mir, Said 'Rahi', Ahmed 'Faraz' etc.
There is a Sher in a Ghazal, the last one, which has the Shayar's
'takhallus' in it.
[ A Shayar, can use the 'Maqta' very intelligently. He can "talk to
himself" like one in our example. I have lots of favourite Sher's
which are 'Maqta' of some Ghazal. Some gems are
koi nam-o-nishan puchhe to ai kaasid bataa denaa,
takhallus 'Daag' hai, aur aahiqon ke dil me rehte hai
and
jab bhi milte hain, to kehte hain, "kaise ho 'Shakil'",
iske aage to koi baat nahin hoti hai
The first one uses the meaning of the 'takhallus' to create the
magic, and the second one is just simple, simply beautiful. ]
To summarize, Ghazal is a collection of Sher's (independent two-line
poems), in which there is atleast one 'Matla', one 'Maqta' and all
the Sher's are of same 'Beher' and have the same 'Kaafiyaa' and
'Radif'.
EXCEPTIONS AND IMP. POINTS TO NOTE
==================================
1. Ghazal is just a form. It is independent of any language.
eg. in Marathi also, there can be (and there are) good Ghazals.
2. Some Ghazal's do NOT have any 'Radif'. Rarely. Such Ghazal's
are called "gair-muraddaf" Ghazal.
3. Although, every Sher, should be an independent poem in itself,
it is possible, that all the Sher's are on the same theme. What
famous example can be other than "chupke chupke raat din aasun
bahaanaa yaad hai".
4. In modern Urdu poetry, there are lots of Ghazal's which do
NOT follow the restriction of same 'Beher' on both the lines
of Sher. [ My example in 'Maqta', the Sher by Shakil, is one. ]
But even in these Ghazal's, 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif' are present.
5. The restriction of 'Maqta' is really very loose. Many many
Ghazal's do NOT have any 'Maqta'. [ I think 'Maqta' was used in
the earlier times, as a way to keep the credit. But since this is
traditional, many Ghazal's do have a 'Maqta' just for the sake of it.
Sometimes the name of the Shayar comes unnaturally in the last
Sher of the Ghazal. ]
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So that's my long essay on Ghazal :-)
I hope it helps in clearing some doubts, and I also hope
that atleast for some, the information was interesting and new.
- Abhay.
Ghazal rudaad hai naakaamiyon ki,
Ghazal mehrumiyon ki daastaan hai |
Ghazal riste hue zakhmon ka marham,
Ghazal ek chaaraa-e-dard-e-nihan hai |
Ghazal ka husn hi hai, husn-e-aalam,
Ghazal ka noor hi noor-e-jahan hai |
- Jagdish Bhatnagar 'Hayaat'
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