Urdu Poetry Genres
A.Pavan
Ghazal, Qasida, Ruba'i, Marsiya, Masnavi, and Qat'a. However, there are
many ways to look at the issue of genres. In particular, this question may
be considered from the synatctic or the semantic points-of-view. Some
genres are characterised completely by their form, others by their subject.
Over time, however, these aspects have become entangled for historical
reasons. Usage, context and metaphor are important in all poetry, but
especially so in Persian and Urdu, where it is literally almost impossible
to understand the meaning of a verse without knowing the implicit metaphors
created by this thousand year old tradition. Quite often, then, it is this
underlying context which distinguishes one genre from another, even though
many of them might share the same external form.
NOTE: Classical genres insist that all lines be in the same metre and
of equal length (except for the mustazaad).
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POETIC GENRES IN URDU
1) Qasida: Probably the oldest of the genres in Urdu poetry, it is
directly descended from the classical Arabic tradition of qasida,
which goes back more than 1500 years. Originally an ode with a
wide variety of subject matter, the qasida gradually acquired
a rather strict form and connotation in the hands of early Persian poets.
These poets, associated with courts, made a living from their art --- mainly
by writing panegyrics to their patrons. Thus, over time, "qasida" came to
mean panegyric (occasionally satire too). The qasida consists of couplets
in the same metre, with the rhyme scheme aabacada..... The number of
couplets is expected to be high --- more than 25 at least. The poem is
divided into three parts: a general introduction that may include
almost anything, a panegyric part, and the part where the poet broaches
the delicate (but important!) matter of reward. The most famous qasida
writers in Urdu were Sauda (18th century) and Zauq (19th century). For
obvious reasons, this genre has fallen out of fashion.
2) Ghazal: By far the most popular genre in Urdu poetry, the ghazal
is said to have originated when 10th century Persian poets separated
the introductory part of the qasida and made it a distinct form in
its own right. The ghazal consists of couplets in the same metre,
with the rhyme scheme aabacada... There can be multiple rhyming couplets
at the beginning, and each of these is called a "matla'". The last
couplet usually contains the poet's name, and is called the "maqta'".
It is common to expect an odd number of couplets in ghazals, though
it is not mandatory. Each couplet is semantically independent, though
it is quite common to find a series with a coherent theme. These latter
are called "qat'a-band". Traditionally, ghazals had love as their main
subject. Because of mystical symbolism, it is usually possible to read
ghazals at several levels, and "love" could refer to mundane desire or
mystical love of God --- exclusively or simultaneously. In a millennium
of Persian and Urdu poetry, the ghazal has acquired a richness that is
almost incomprehendible. Its major exponents in Urdu have been Vali,
Meer, Sauda, Dard, Aatish, Momin, Zauq, Ghalib, Dagh, Ameer, Hali, Hasrat,
Jigar, Faani, Firaaq, Faiz and Nasir Kazmi, among thousands of other
very accomplished poets. In the last few decades --- particularly since
Hali --- the scope of ghazal has expanded to include the expression of
personal experience, moral opinion, political and social ideas, and
philosophical thought --- notably by Iqbal. Through the institution of
the "musha'ira" --- gatherings where many poets read their poetry, and
might attract crowds of thousands ---, and through musical rendition,
the ghazal has become a part of common cultural experience in large
sections of Sub-Continental people.
3) Qat'a: This is a poem with one theme, consisting of couplets in
the same meter, and with a rhyme scheme abcbdbeb...... It is more or
less the default form of non-ghazal poetry in Urdu.
4) Masnavi: A poem with couplets in the same meter and rhyme scheme
aabbccdd....., the masnavi has usually been the form of choice for long
didactic or epic poetry. This is because the rhyme scheme is very
unrestrictive (since each couplet has different rhymes), and gives
the poet great freedom to say almost anything. Over the years, certain
metres have come to be reserved for the masnavi. The most famous of
masnavis is, of course, the Masnavi of Rumi (Maulavi), which is
regarded as one of the four supreme books in classical Persian literature
(the others are Firdausi's Shahnameh, Sa'di's Gulistaan, and the Divaan
of Hafiz), and is an incomparable expression of mystical and moral
fervour. The Shahnameh too is a masnavi. In Urdu, the most famous
masnavi is "Sehr-ul-bayaan" by Mir Hasan (18th century), followed
by the "Gulzaar-e-Naseem" of Pandit Daya Shankar Naseem (19th century).
Most other poets also wrote some masnavis. Iqbal was very fond of this
form, and used it throughout his book "Javid Nameh", and in his famous
Urdu poem "Saqi Nama". His famous books "Asrar-e-Khudi" and "Rumooz-e-
Baikhudi" are also in this form.
5) Ruba'ee: The ruba'ee consists of four lines of equal length, and
the rhyme scheme aaba. Traditionally, certain metres are reserved for
the ruba'ee, and four-liners outside these metres are regarded as
qat'as rather than ruba'ees. This genre is extremely well-suited to
epigrammatic statements and aphorisms. The most famous exponent of
this form was, of course, the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. In Urdu, the
ruba'ee was popular with most classical poets, but has relatively
few adherents now. The ruba'ees of Mir Anees (19th century) and
Josh Maleehabadi (20th century) are famous. Here is an example
from Josh:
Ghunchay, teri baikasee pe dil hiltaa hai:
Bus, aik tabassum ke liyay khhiltaa hai!
Ghunchay ne kahaa ke iss chman mein baba
Yeh aik tabassum bhi kisay miltaa hai?
6) Marsia (elegy): Strictly speaking, marsia can be any elegy, and can
have any of the traditional forms. However, the word is used almost
exclusively for elegies lamenting the massacre of Imam Hussain (the
prophet Muhammad's grandson) and his family at Karbala (in Iraq). These
elegies were traditionally written in stanzas of 6 lines with the
rhyme scheme aaaabb (see musaddas below), though some are not in
this format. By *far* the greatest poet in this genre was Mir
Anees of Lucknow, generally regarded as one of Urdu's supreme poets.
He raised it to such heights that it has become nigh impossible to
improve on his marsias. Because the Karbala incident is of central
importance to Shi'a observance, the marsia is still very much alive
and quite popular among poets today. Among non-religious marsias,
Hali's marsia of Ghalib is very famous.
7) Hamd: This is a poem in praise of God. There is no restriction of
form, but the qat'a is generally preferred.
8) Naa't: This is a poem in praise of the prophet Muhammad. Here too,
there is no restriction of form. Any classical poet worth his salt
had to write a few of these to get anywhere, but the most famous
exponent of this form was the Persian poet Jaami. In Urdu, the
naa'ts of Ameer Minai, Mohsin Kaakorvi and Ahmad Raza Khan are
among the most popular. One of the best-known naa'ts in Urdu was
actually written by a Hindu poet of the 20th century --- Pandit
Hari Chand Akhtar.
9) Manqabat: This is a poem praising some religious figure, particularly
the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali. There is no restriction of form.
10) Nauha: This is a poem of lamentation, especially associated with
the Incident of Karbala. It differs from the marsia in its extremely
sorrowful mood (the marsia is actually quite heroic in tone).
11) Salaam: This is a poem addressed to the prophet Muhammad or one of his
family, blessing them and describing their high spiritual position.
12) Tareekh: A short poem (which could even be one line), commemorating
an event (usually birth, death or wedding), and containing a designated
piece whose letters add up to the date of the event under a well-known
system of letter-value correspondence used in Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
Writing tareekh was one of the major functions of a court poet, and a lot
of history has been traced just through these verse fragments.
13) Hajv (Satire): Sometimes grouped with the qasida, the hajv has
generally been regarded as a distinct genre. Its most famous exponent
in Urdu was Mirza Sauda (18th century), who was also arguably the
greatest of qasida poets in the language. The language he uses in some
of his satires is so colourful that its dissemination on this net is
certain to incur the wrath of the net police.
14) Musallas: This is poem with stanzas of three lines each. The rhyme
scheme may be either aaa bbb ccc ...., or aaa bba cca .... The name
derives from "th-l-th", the Arabic root for 3.
15) Murabba': This is a poem with stanzas of four lines each, and
the rhyme scheme aaaa bbbb .... (or aaaa bbba ccca ....). The word
"murabba'" comes from "r-b-'" --- the Arabic root for 4.
16) Mukhammas: This is a poem with stanzas, each consisting of 5 lines.
The rhyme scheme is usually aaaaa bbbba cccca ....... Excellent
examples of this can be found in the poetry of Nazir Akbarabadi (18th
century), e.g. his poems "Sab ThaaTh paRa reh jaavay gaa jab laad chalay
gaa banjaaraa", "RoTiyaan", "Barsaat ki bahaarain" etc. A famous stanza
from "RoTiyaan" goes:
Poochhaa kisee ne yeh kisi kaamil faqeer say,
"Yeh mehr-o-maah haq ne banaaye hain kaahe kay?"
Voh sun ke bola, "Baba, khudaa tujh-ko khair day,
Hum to na chaand samjhe na sooraj hain jaantay:
Baba hamain to yeh nazar aatee hain roTiyaan!"
The word "mukhammas" derives from "kh-m-s" --- the Arabic root for 5.
17) Musaddas: This too is a poem with stanzas, each consisting of 6
lines. The rhyme scheme is aaaabb ccccdd eeeeff .... The most famous
example of this form in Urdu is the Musaddas of Hali --- a book-length
poem about the rise and decline of Muslim civilization, written by
Altaf Hussain Hali, a famous poet of the late 19th century and a
pupil of Ghalib's. Other famous poems in this style are "Shikvah"
and "Javaab-e-Shikvah" by Iqbal. The former begins:
Kyun ziyaan-kaar banoon, sood-faraamosh rahoon?
Fikr-e-fardaa na karoon, mehv-e-gham-e-dosh rahoon.
Naalay bulbul ke sunoon aur hama-tan-gosh rahoon.
Hamnavaa, mein bhi koi gul hoon ke khaamosh rahoon?
Jur'at-aamoz meri taab-e-sukhan hai mujh-ko:
Shikva Allah se khakam-ba-dahan hai mujh-ko!
For historical reasons, most marsiyas (elegies about the Karbala Incident)
are written in musaddas form, but this is not universally true. Musaddas
is best seen as a distinct genre, used for relatively long poems of topical
content. The word "musaddas" is derived from "s-d-s", the Arabic root for 6.
18) Tarkeeb-band: This is another form used widely for poems with a
coherent theme, especially if several aspects of it are to be treated
in succession. It consists of stanzas of arbitrary length --- typically
5 to 11 couplets. Each stanza has the rhyme scheme abcbdbeb....zz.
Rhymes may change from stanza to stanza. Typically, a sub-theme is developed
in each stanza, and the final rhyming couplet provides a resolution of sorts,
such as an aphorism or a quote from some other poet. Iqbal is the best-known
exponent of this form in Urdu. His famous poems "Khizr-e-raah", "Tulu-e-Islam"
and "Shama aur Sha'ir" are in the form of tarkeeb-band.
19) Tarjee'-band: This form too is used for poems with one theme. The poem
consists of stanzas similar to those in the tarkeeb-band, but the last
couplet is the *same* for all stanzas, and is closely connected to the
penultimate one. As in the tarkeeb-band, the final couplet has rhyming
lines. Nazir Akbarabadi wrote many famous poems in this genre, though
most of them have unusual rhyme schemes, e.g. aaaazz bbbbzz ... or
aaaaaaaazz bbbbbbbbzz ....
20) Shehr-aashob: This is a purely semantic genre, covering poems that
lament some event or situation, e.g. the sacking of a city by invaders,
the decline of a culture, the occurance of some natural calamity etc.
This form, like the qasida and hajv, has fallen out of favour in recent
decades. It was basically the product of an age when invasions, plagues,
wars and seiges were common occurances, and still held direct meaning
for individuals. Its decline in these times of technology and nuclear
weapons is understandable. Sa'di's shehr-aashob about the sack of Baghdad
by the Mongols is considered a masterpiece of Persian poetry. Most Urdu
poets of the 18th and 19th century wrote shehr-aashob --- for obvious
reasons!
21) Vaasokht: This is a poem addressed to the poet's beloved, complaining
of her/his indifference or cruelty, and frequently threatening dire
consequences for the poet's own life. This genre is firmly rooted in
the rather decadent tradition of love poetry that developed in the
courts of Persia and Muslim India. As with the ghazal, there have been
attempts in recent years to broaden the horizons of vaasokht and
include modern issues. Faiz wrote a vaasokht protesting political
injustice and his own mistreatment by the government. It begins:
Such hai, hameen ko aap ke shikvay bajaa na thhay.
Bay-shak sitam janaab ke sub dostaana thhay.
Haan, jo jafaa bhi aap ne ki, qaayiday se kee!
Haan, hum hi kaar-band-e-usool-e-vafaa na thhay!
22) Mustazaad: In this form, there are complete lines or couplets,
with a short piece added to each. The addition usually rhymes with its
parent line/couplet, but may instead rhyme with previous additions.
There is a great deal of latitude in the specific form in this genre.
It has a strong pedigree, going back to Rumi who used this form with
great success. Almost all classical Urdu poets have tried their hand
at this. An example is the mustazaad by Bahadur Shah Zafar, posted on
SCI/SCP a few of weeks ago by Dinesh Prabhu.
23) Raikhtee: This form is one of the most bizarre and difficult to
explain. Unlike the rest of Urdu poetry, which is written in the
masculine first person, this genre uses the feminine --- even though
almost all of its exponents were men! It was invented in Lucknow
during the golden age of that colourful and deliciously decadent
culture, mainly as a courtly pastime to amuse the highly
intellectualized and literate elite of the city. Not only was the
feminine gender used, but the language employed was that used exclusively
by women in that culture --- very idiomatic, full of references to
clothes, dressing up, secret passions, catty gossip, domestic jealousies
and such things as men thought were the epitome of feminity. Two poets
who became famous as raikhtee specialists were Sa'aadat Yaar Khan Rangeen
and Jaan Sahab. Many raikhtee poets used feminine pen-names, and poems
typically used language well beyond the norms of decency in our more
puritanical age!
24) Hazal: This genre is explicitly dedicated to the expression of
crudeness and indecency well outside the normal bounds of social
acceptability. Like raikhtee, it was developed mainly in the court
at Lucknow as a means of amusement. Certain poets specialized in this
genre, but their works are considered to be of historical significance
only.
25) Sihraa: This is a poem written on the occasion of a wedding, and is
usually characterised by a repetition of the word "sihraa" in the rhyme.
Ghalib and Zauq wrote famous sihraas on the wedding of Prince Javaan Bakht,
Bahadur Shah Zafar's son. The last line of Ghalib's sihraa, "Daikhhen keh
day koi iss sihray se badh kar sihraa" (Let's see if anyone can write a
better sihraa than this) was taken very personally by Zauq. Since the
latter was then the Emperor's "ustaad", Ghalib had to apologize for
his boast. Sihraas are still written, though they are not quite as
popular as before.
26) Do-baitee: This is a short poem of four lines (two couplets), usually
written in non-Persianised language. Its derivation is obviously from Hindi.
27) Geet: This form derives from Hindi too, and typically uses Hindi metres
and diction. The metrical structure and rhyme scheme can be quite complex, and
allows a lot of flexibility. Like the ghazal, the geet is usually a vehicle
for love poetry. However, the ghazal conventionally uses the masculine first
person, while geet uses the feminine (regardless of who writes it). The
beloved is masculine in both cases. The feminine first person is, of course,
quite common in Hindi poetry (bhajan, thumri etc.), but not in Urdu.
28) Nazm-e-Mu'arra (blank verse): Introduced by Abdul Haleem Sharar, a
noted novelist of the early 20th century, nazm-e-mu'arra has lines of
equal metrical length, but no rhyme --- very much like Shakespeare's
or Milton's blank verse. The experiment was not too successful, though
there are some excellent plays in this genre in Urdu.
29) Nazm-e-Aazaad (free verse): Here, the structure and the rhyme scheme
are both completely flexible. Lines can be of different length, though
they are usually in the same metre. Some lines need not rhyme with anything.
The nazm-e-aazaad is very similar to English poems like Wordsworth's Ode
in structure. The form was pioneered in Urdu by Meeraji and N.M. Rashid
in the 40's and 50's. Much of modern non-ghazal poetry is in this genre,
which lends itself wonderfully to Urdu. Faiz' famous poems "Intisaab",
"Sar-e-vaadi-e-Seena", "Heart Attack", "Tum Miray Paas Raho" etc. are in
this form.
30) Nasree Nazm (prose poetry): This form, derived from the Western
genre of prose poetry, abandons metre and rhyme, retaining only a
sort of internal rhythm. In actual fact, the removal of constraints
makes it more *difficult* to write profoundly than vice-versa,
and encourages triviality. There is much chaff in this genre in Urdu, but
there is also some genuinely good poetry. However, this form is still
not very popular among the connoiseurs of Urdu literature.
31) Sonnet: This is just the English sonnet form used for an Urdu poem.
Like the English version, it has 14 lines, with varying but regular rhyme
schemes (e.g. abba abba cdcdcd, or abba cddc effe gg). It was introduced
into Urdu by N.M. Rashid around 1945. It has not, however, been very
popular at all.
Regards,
Pavan
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