THe poetry of Badi Malka Jaan

[nagesh]

I recently received a copy of the book "My name is Gauhar Jaan", by
Vikram Sampath. Gauhar Jaan was one of the first Indian musicians to
record her performances on vinyl. Her bandish's are widely sung,
though she may not be very well known today. Her mother, BaDi Malka
Jaan, was apparently a well-known Urdu poet of her time. I though
Alupers may find information regarding her poetry of interest.

Mohamed Wazeer of Ripon Press, Calcutta, had this to say about baDi
Malka JAn's compositions:

Bandish meiN khoobiyaaN haiN, maani meiN shokhiyaaN haiN
kyoN na ho is sukhan ke ahl-e kamAl tAlib?
maglub banke hAtif bola "Wazeer" mujhse
hai raNg-e shAyari meiN MalkA ka rang ghalib

Here is one sher of Malka's that caught my attention:

dekh kar teg-e sitam yeh bad du'A deta hUN maiN
nUr mit jAye ilAhi deedA-e sayyAd ka

The accompanying translation is:

Seeing the sword of atrocities that my captor is using to torment me,
All I can do is curse that the evil captor loses the light of his
eyes.

Two additional shers, whose translations made little sense to me:

pAsbAn haiN deedA-e Laila ilAhi khair ho
Qais kA sAyA khaDa hai pardaE-e mehmil ke pAs

sakhtiyAN ki zauf ki shiddat ne itni hijr meiN
sANs lene se bhi Ajiz hai kalejA dil ke pAs.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Regards,

Nagesh

[Rajiv Chakravarti]

Nagesh sahab:

I have, in my possession, a copy of an old manuscript with Malka-jaan's poetry (deevaan, 1898 - Calcutta) -- which is only ~110 pages long, with a very difficult to read "deebaacha" (preface), with some words undecipherable (to me, at least).

You may be interested in knowing that a friend of mine locally has taken upon himself the job of "re-publishing" the deevaan of Malka jaan very soon (possibly in the next few months). I am currently helping with proof-reading the newly typed version and I should be done in the next few days.

From what I have read of her poetry so far, the main genre is pretty much in the classical vein (as probably expected). Interestingly, the majority of the Ghazals use the "vulgar" pronuciation of the taKhallus (nom de plume) "Malka. " The pedantic/dictionary/proper "Malaka" is used as well -- but in a very few instances.

I also was surprised to see a few Ghazals with "liberty" (euphemistic) with metre. The soon to be re-printed book will be as close to the original printed version I have, save changing to current-day writing (Ex: replacement of the hay to do.chashmi hay for words like khulti, or replacing the "half-yay" like old-style character, etc.)

If anyone is interested, I will update them on the progress/time-line of the re-print, which will be published in Pakistan.

Regards,
RC

[Naseer]

On Mar 22, 2:52 pm, Rajiv Chakravarti <rajiv.chakrava...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Just a small point, Rajiv SaaHib. The correct word is "malikah" and
not "malakah".

Naseer

[Afzal A. Khan]

On 3/22/2013 6:21 PM, Naseer wrote:
> On Mar 22, 2:52 pm, Rajiv Chakravarti <rajiv.chakrava...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> Nagesh sahab:
>>
>> I have, in my possession, a copy of an old manuscript with Malka-jaan's poetry (deevaan, 1898 - Calcutta) -- which is only ~110 pages long, with a very difficult to read "deebaacha" (preface), with some words undecipherable (to me, at least).
>>
>> You may be interested in knowing that a friend of mine locally has taken upon himself the job of "re-publishing" the deevaan of Malka jaan very soon (possibly in the next few months). I am currently helping with proof-reading the newly typed version and I should be done in the next few days.
>>
>> From what I have read of her poetry so far, the main genre is pretty much in the classical vein (as probably expected). Interestingly, the majority of the Ghazals use the "vulgar" pronuciation of the taKhallus (nom de plume) "Malka. " The pedantic/dictionary/proper "Malaka" is used as well -- but in a very few instances.
>>
>> I also was surprised to see a few Ghazals with "liberty" (euphemistic) with metre. The soon to be re-printed book will be as close to the original printed version I have, save changing to current-day writing (Ex: replacement of the hay to do.chashmi hay for words like khulti, or replacing the "half-yay" like old-style character, etc.)
>>
>> If anyone is interested, I will update them on the progress/time-line of the re-print, which will be published in Pakistan.
>>
>> Regards,
>> RC

>

> Just a small point, Rajiv SaaHib. The correct word is "malikah" and
> not "malakah".
>
> Naseer

Let us imagine that she was a very 'farishta~sifat' KHaatoon.

Waise shaa'iroN ko "talaameez-ur-Rehman" bhi kaha gaya hai.



Afzal

[nages...@yahoo.com]

It is so nice to get a response after such a long time - I was caught up in that magic spell of anticipation that is konwn as desire. Unexpected gifts that are given suddenly after a long period are so pleasurable.

Many thanks, Rajiv Sahib. I look forward to seeing the book in print.

Nagesh

[vij...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, August 28, 2010 5:42:50 AM UTC+1, nagesh wrote:
.

>
> Two additional shers, whose translations made little sense to me:
>
> pAsbAn haiN deedA-e Laila ilAhi khair ho
> Qais kA sAyA khaDa hai pardaE-e mehmil ke pAs
>
> sakhtiyAN ki zauf ki shiddat ne itni hijr meiN
> sANs lene se bhi Ajiz hai kalejA dil ke pAs.
>
> Any comments would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nagesh

Nagesh sahib, aadaab-o-tasliimaat.

I can't make much sense of the first one but will give the second one a shot.

Firstly, I think it should be 'saKhtiiaN *kiiN*' and '*itniiN* hijr meN'.

The she'r is about he effect of hijr and how it leaves dil-o-jigar of aashiq in a state of helplessness. i.e. Such was the intensity of frailty/fragility that I was subjected to by hijr, that it not only weakened my heart but also rendered the neighbouring 'jigar'/'mind' out of breath with weakness/helplessness.

Regards,

Vijay

[Rajiv Chakravarti]

Thank you Naseer saahab for the response. I will just point you to the entry in Steingass, where malaka and malika are both used.

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.6:1:6485.steingass

[Rajiv Chakravarti]

Nagesh sahab -- I'll pass on any updates on the book, if I run across them myself.

Regards,
RC

[Naseer]

On Mar 23, 9:25 pm, Rajiv Chakravarti <rajiv.chakrava...@gmail.com>

> http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.6:1:6485.s...

Rajiv SaaHib.

Here is an entry from Steingass.

A ملکة milkat, Property, possession; king- dom, royalty;--malakat,
malaka (v.n. of ملك), Possessing; possession, rule; an acquired habit
or principle;--malikat, ma- lika, A queen; quickness of apprehension,
strength of intellect.

Forget about Steingass for a moment. Let's take a look at The Hans
Wehr Dictionary, 4th edition pp 1081-1082.

mulk = reign/rule

milk = property

malik = king :feminine, malikah.

malak = angel (no feminine)

Naseer

[Naseer]

Vijay SaaHib, I believe "itnii" is correct and "itniiN" is wrong.

Naseer

[nages...@yahoo.com]

Many thanks for your comments, Vijay Sahib. Since this topic seems to have attracted more attention, I thought I would give a more complete description of the book. The title is "My name is Gauhar Jan," the author is Vikram Sampath, and the publisher is Rupa.

According to the book, Akbar IlAhAbAdI is said to have composed the following verses regarding Gauhar JAn:

"Aj akbar Kaun hai duniyA mEN Gauhar ke siwA
sab khudA ne de rakhA hai use, ek shauhar ke siwA"

"adA hai, husn hai, sin hai, sabhi jauhar hai ai Gauhar
magar ye aik kami hai ki tu rakhti nahiN shauhar."


On the sher you have so kindly explained, the translation in the book is: "The separation from my loved one has inflicted innumerable torments on my heart. The hardships I have faced due to this are uncountable. THe have left me weak and exhausted to even take a breath."

THe book comes with a CD, which I have still not played in its entirety.

Regards,

Nagesh

[vij...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, March 24, 2013 12:14:02 AM UTC, Naseer wrote:

> Vijay SaaHib, I believe "itnii" is correct and "itniiN" is wrong.
>
>
>
> Naseer

Thanks Naseer sahib. You are right of course. I have struggled with this all my life (because of my Panjabi background, no doubt). I remember being corrected by a friend before on:
'mushkileN *itniiN* paRiiN mujh pe..'

Nagesh sahib, could you please also let's have the translation of the first she'r?

I must say that although life and times of this poet seem intriguing, her poetry, going by what you have made available, leaves my underwhelmed. In today's world, even Akbar Ilaahabaadi's dedications sound somewhat coarse.


Best regards,

Vijay

[nages...@yahoo.com]

Vijay Sahib:

The first sher was

pAsbAn haiN dIda-e lailA ilAho khair ho
qais ke sAyA khaDA hai pardA-e mehmil ke pAs.

The translation provided is "Love is a two sided relationship. Quoting from the story of the legendary lovers Laila and Majnu, Malka says that while Majnu risked his life and tried to get close to Laila who was in her howdah surrounded by his enemies, her sight too kept a protective cover of him all the time."

I don't understand how her "ight too kept a protective cover of him all the time." Is this an allusion to some aspect of that great romance that I am ignorant of? Or is there some mundane explanation.

With apologies for typos and poor transliteration to the many Sahibs who have helped me out;

Nagesh

[Molina Singh]

Dear Rajivji,
It will be very kind of you if you can update me more about this book. I just finished reading 'my name is gauhar jaan' by Vikram Sampath. I am a kathak dancer and plan to do a production on life of the famous Gauhaar jaan , however i felt that the angst and pathos of a courtesans life can be best understood and depicted through her mother Badi Malka Jaans poetry. I am more than willing to pay for this and will be eagerly waiting for a response from you.
Warm Regards.
molina

[RC]

If you can read slightly dated Urdu script, I
have no issues sharing her published work with
you - Please forward me your Id, if you are still
interested. I am not sure if you can get the "angst"
from the work as it pertains to dance, but I'll
leave that decision to you.

Regards,
RC

[Molina Singh]

[Molina Singh]

Dear Rajivji
I have replied to your mail and also have given an alternate email id.
Thanks for being so kind . But still to be sure molin...@rediffmail.com and molina...@gmail.com
warm regards.
Molina

[sonia...@gmail.com]

Has the revised book of Deevaan published? Sri Chakraborty, can I get your contact number as I am desperate to collect one cooy and wish to see the original Deevaan!
My email id is sonia...@gmail.com

Kindly revert back.
High regards.
Sonia Roy
A classical vocalist.

[RC]

The revised book has indeed been published by someone I know here, but I would NOT recommend it by any means due to textual omissions and errors. I have uploaded the 1896 deevaan here:

https://issuu.com/rchakravarti/docs/deevaan-e-malakajaan

You can read the manuscript online.

RC
(PS: Chakravarti* is the spelling of my surname).

[Devansh Sharma]

Hi,I want to read the deewan-e-malaka jaan. But it showing that the access is restricted. Please send me a copy or any method by which I can access it. I am indeed a fan of retro classical music and literature.