Q - Anarkali
Kammu
a fantasy . Is the original book available .
k
surjit singh
We have discussed this many times. Just a legend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarkali
There is a scholarly article here
Kammu
Thanks for the links Prof .
k
Asif
I have always been fascinated by and interested by Anarkali's legend.
Thanks for the link. I just finished reading the second link. I know
many scholars regard Anarkali's story as pure fiction. However, I
look at the whole thing as a possibility. It is very much possible
that Jahangir fell in love, that he fell in love with a courtesan in
the royal court, that he rebelled against Akbar about this affair, and
that Akbar had her buried alive. All these thing were entirely
possible. Jahangir indeed was of rebellion nature, as the history
proves. When I visited Orchha (a historical town near Jhansi, UP) in
the '90s I saw the Jehangir Palace that Maharaja of Orchha had built
for him during the prince' stay there. In those days Jahangir was
angry with Akbar and had left the capital to live in Orchha for a few
years. The tourist guide and local folks, whom I talked to, mentioned
Anarkali as a real love in Jahangir's life.
My mother talks about seeing Anarkali's tomb in Lahore and all those
inscriptions mentioned in second link. She says that local people of
Lahore also talk of Anarkali as a real historical person.
Legends have their ways of passing down generations after
generations. How much truth is therein depends on how you look at
other factors and evidences, e.g. local belief. I tend to believe she
was a real woman whom Jahangir loved.
Anyway, talking about Anarkali, when I first saw Mughal-E-Azam (1960)
I was very impressed by the story telling, acting performances, and
Naushad's music in it. The song sequence 'pyaar kiya to darna
kya' (or was it some other song) begins with Madhubala uncovering her
face, looking at Jahangir seated next to Akbar, and then biting a
corner of her lips in a very sensuous style before she starts
singing. I found her lip-biting ada very cute and stunning. I asked
seniors in my family if a courtesan in those days was so daring as to
so openly bite lips like that. They said it was just high drama;
Anarkali could not have done it in Akbar's presence. The song was
very well filmed though and remains the main attraction of the film.
I am sure the song, where she bits her lips, is 'pyaar kiya to darna
kiya'. Can someone please confirm it? I have the film's DVD that I
am going to watch again this weekend. They do not make films and
songs like that anymore.
Asif
Kammu
Sukesh
This following is worth reading
Historical Fiction and Style: The Case of Anarkali
Alain Desoulieres
http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/22/08DesoulieresAnarkali.pdf
Regards
Sukesh
Asif
I just checked the song (with Madhubala biting her lips) on YouTube.
It is 'mohe panghat pe', not 'pyaar kiya to'. Look at here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJOkkUOU7UQ&feature=related
She is just peerless in this song.
Asif
Kammu
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Pl. clarify who first wrote it ?
sAYYID iMTIāZ ʿaLī tāJ,
OR
Abdul Halim Sharar
surjit singh
Legends just arise, there origin is shrouded in myths! As to who put
down the Anarkali legend in print first, the current indication is S.
H. Latif, as mentioned in the pdf cited in this thread:
Latif, Syad Muhammad. 1892. Lahore, Its History, Architectural Remains
and Antiquities. Lahore: New Imperial Press. Reprint edition. Lahore:
Oriental Publishers & Booksellers, 1981.
Taj wrote the DRAMA based on the legend and (I am not sure how
reliable the Sharar article is, no references) possibly Sharar put it
down in a textbook, but his I have not seen his name mentioned
anywhere else (I have books on the history of Hindi and Urdu) and that
is probably because no comprehensive history of the legend has been
written yet.
Kammu
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Thanks . Perhaps some knowledgable in Urdu
can throw a little more light on this . I have no knowledge
of the language .
k
surjit singh
I am knowledgeable in Urdu :)
Narsingh
I just finished reading the article by Desouliers (all 32 pages). Most
of it discusses the language used by Sayyid Imtiaz Ali Taj. However, I
did note a few items of interest, quoted below (all CAPS with my
question/comments in standard sentence format):
“LEGEND HAS IT THAT THE NEW (AND STILL GRIEVING) EMPEROR JAHANGIR HAD
A MAGNIFICENT MAUSOLEUM BUILT IN HER MEMORY SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER HER
TRAGIC DEATH. THE ‘MONUMENT’ IS STILL STANDING AND IS VERY FAMOUS, AS
IS ANāRKALī HERSELF, BUT MODERN HISTORIANS CONTEND THAT THE FAMOUS
MONUMENT IS NOT HER TOMB.”
Then whose tomb is it?
––-
“ON THE TOP [of the tomb] ARE INSCRIBED THE 99 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, AND
ON THE SIDES IS ENGRAVED THE FOLLOWING PERSIAN COUPLET, COMPOSED BY
JAHANGIR, HER ROYAL PARAMOUR:
[the Persian couplet omitted; translation follows]
AH! COULD I BEHOLD THE FACE OF MY BELOVED ONCE MORE,
I WOULD GIVE THANKS UNTO MY GOD UNTIL THE DAY OF RESURRECTION.
ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE SARCOPHAGUS, BELOW THE NINETY-NINE ATTRIBUTES
OF THE DEITY, IS THE INSCRIPTION:
MAJNUUN SALIIM AKBAR
“THE PROFOUNDLY ENAMOURED SALIM, SON OF AKBAR” SALIM BEING THE NAME OF
JAHANGIR WHEN A PRINCE.”
If not Anarkali, who is Jahangir talking about?
–––––––––-
“THE DATE GIVEN IN LETTERS AND FIGURES IS 1008 A.H. (1599 A.D.), WHICH
REFERS TO THE DEATH OF ANARKALI. ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE
SARCOPHAGUS, ABOVE THE WORDS ‘IN LAHORE,’ IS ANOTHER DATE, 1024 A.H.
(1615 A.D.), WHICH IS THE DATE OF THE BUILDING OF THE TOMB. AKBAR DIED
ON THE 13TH OCTOBER 1605, AND THUS THE BUILDING WAS COMPLETED TEN
YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.
What do these dates refer to?
Narsingh
Kammu
There is no smoke with out fire .
Ay baad-e-saba kissa sun , yahan so rahi hai Anarkali .
k
Shekhar
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A fascinating thread which could only appear on RMIM. I stand in awe
of our nettors who provide such a wealth of information, first-hand
experiences and scholarly references, and raise intriguing queries.
Shekhar
surjit singh
Please read the autobiography of Jehangir here
http://www.archive.org/details/tuzukijahangirio00jahauoft
and let us know if he talks about the subject of Anarkali.
Kammu
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The book is only about his rule , not love affairs .
Does the book ever mention of Nurjehan and how he married her ?
No . It doesn't dare to . It's strictly a private affair .
k
surjit singh
Not a private affair, according to the legend, he rebelled, that is
not a private thing.
Of course, if you have convinced yourself that the story is true,
nobody can do anything about it :) Abdul Halim Sharar says he cooked
it up. Taj says it is a legend. What are k's reasons (and credentials)
for his unreasonable belief? Only k knows!
jo jaana buujha kara soye huye ho.n unhe.n to Khuda Khudaa bhii
nahii.n jagaa sakataa, mujha naachiiza kii kta bisaata hai. Hats off
to you, Sir!
Kammu
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I understand it's a fantasy based on some small
incidence which had little or no bearing .
Something like making a mountain of a mole .
Regards ,
k
Narsingh
are:
1. Whose tomb (popularly called Anarkali' tomb) is it in Lahore?
2. Was there ever a woman named Anarkali and, if so, who was she?
Narsingh
Asif
I would like to add one more questions (with sub-questions):
Why did Jahangir not talk about everything (from his life) in his
biography? Why just seemingly political aspects of his life? I have
not finished his biography yet, but I would be interested in knowing
what kinds of food he loved, what were his hobbies and what he did in
free time, what places he visited in his lifetime, what buildings and
monuments he built :-), what wars he lost, what he could not win or
achieve because of opposition from Akbar :-), whom in royal family and
court he liked and disliked, which women he married and which ones he
kept in his harem, how many children he produced, etc?
surjit singh
This article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarkali
says that the Anarkali Bazar, named after her is at least 200 years
old. So I guess somebody cooked up or greatly exaggerated the story
around 1810 or so.
Khantha
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These links give some more details but do not resolve the issue.
http://dawn.com.pk/weekly/images/archive/050501/images13.htm
http://www.ualberta.ca/~rnoor/tomb_anarkali.html
http://lahore.metblogs.com/2006/12/01/lahores-3rd-gift-to-the-world-anarkali-bazaar/
http://v-s-gopal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/02/what-is-the-truth-about-anarkali.htm
M khantha
surjit singh
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> http://v-s-gopal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/02/what-is-the-truth-abou...
>
> M khantha
I don't know what kind of 'proof' is acceptable.
The first person to put the story in a dramatic form says it is a
legend. Another person who may written a story in class text book says
he made it up. And scholarly research into contemporary history has
failed to find any mention of her. As far as the tomb is concerned, we
cannot even know today who is buried where, forget about the
historical period:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061105745.html
surjit singh
I had heard about Sharar as a novelist. Never heard that he cooked up
the Anarkali story. So I dug some more. To my delight I found a Ph. D.
by an English Professor Sahiba from Multan, Pakistan. Here it is
http://eprints.hec.gov.pk/435/1/193.html
She discusses in detail the works of Sir Walter Scott and Abdul Halim
Sharar and compares them. Unfortunately she does not say anything
about him concocting the Anarkali story, so the jury is out. To my
further delight, I found that the Higher Education Commission has made
available lots of research going back to the thirties or earlier:
surjit singh
OK. Found the scholarly work about the tomb that I was looking for
HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE OF MUGHHAL MONUMENTS IN LAHORE
Author
F.M. Anjum Rehman
Institute/University/Department Details
Department of History/ University of the Punjab
http://eprints.hec.gov.pk/1579/1/1458.HTM
Read pages 245 onwards for a discussion of the tomb.
Executive Summary: Story fake (a Britisher may have originated it!),
some female is buried, name Anarkali comes because an anar garden
existed already in that place!
Asif
I just finished reading pages 245 to end. On page 251 the author does
mention "Anarkali's tomb". Where in this book did you read that the
story is fake and a Britisher invented it, that the name Anarkali
comes because of a anar garden previously existing there, and so on?
If "some female" is buried there, how come nobody has been able to
figure out who she was? All the tombs that I have seen and read about
have a definitive history about who is buried there, including the
tomb under discussion. What are you suggesting by saying that "some
woman is buried there." The tomb is pretty big and beautiful, and in
Lahore no less. How can local people forget the name of the person
buried there in mere 400 years?
surjit singh
Doctorate level references have been provided. Please read and draw
your own conclusions, if you disagree.
Afzal A. Khan
Maybe, someone can invoke the Right To Information Act !!
Afzal