Dagh Dehlvi: the poet of the Urdu of Delhi’s Red Fort

In the tradition of Urdu ghazal, there is one poet who has neither Ghalib’s thought nor Mir’s pain. Yet his language is so sweet and his manner of speech so graceful that, a century on, his verses are the first to be recalled at gatherings. He is Dagh Dehlvi: raised in the Red Fort, a pupil of Zauq, master poet at the courts of Rampur and Hyderabad, and standard-bearer of the language he proudly called “Urdu”:

Urdu is its name, we know it well, O DaghAll Hindustan is abuzz with the fame of our tongue

Life and times

Nawab Mirza Khan, who wrote under the pen name Dagh, was born in Delhi on 25 May 1831. His father, Nawab Shamsuddin Khan, was the ruler of Firozpur Jhirka. He was hanged in 1835 in the case of the murder of William Fraser, the British Resident in Delhi. Dagh was four years old at the time. His mother, Wazir Khanum, later married Mirza Fakhru, a son of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Dagh was thus brought up inside the Red Fort, among the Mughal princes. There he acquired the refined Delhi idiom that became the hallmark of his poetry. There too he became a pupil of Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq, the king’s master poet.

Mirza Fakhru died in 1856. The following year, the upheaval of 1857 ruined both the Red Fort and Delhi. Dagh had to leave the fort. According to Rekhta, he reached Rampur soon after 1857, where he became attached to the court of Nawab Yusuf Ali Khan and, after him, Nawab Kalb Ali Khan. The Rampur period, which lasted from 1857 until 1887, was the height of his poetry. His first collections, “Gulzar-e-Dagh” and “Aftab-e-Dagh”, were compiled there. There too took place his literary contest with Amir Minai, the stories of which are preserved in biographical accounts.

After the death of Nawab Kalb Ali Khan, Dagh left Rampur. He spent some years in Delhi and other cities, and around 1888 reached Hyderabad Deccan. There he was appointed master poet to the Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, received a title and a large stipend, and his fame spread across India. During the Hyderabad years his pupils numbered in the hundreds. The young Muhammad Iqbal of Lahore also took guidance from him for some time by letter. “Mahtab-e-Dagh” and, after his death, “Yadgar-e-Dagh” are collections from this period. Dagh died in Hyderabad on 17 March 1905 and was buried there.

Style

The greatest quality of Dagh’s ghazal is its language. He is regarded as the last major representative of the refined Urdu of Delhi: idiom, proverb and the style of everyday speech, with few difficult words and much clarity. Reading his verse, one feels that someone is talking to you:

Who would trust you any moreWho would wait for you every day

His second quality is muamla bandi, the depiction of dealings between lover and beloved: complaints, promises, meetings and the breaking off of meetings. The theme is old, but Dagh brings to it such playfulness and irony that a verse produces both laughter and a sting:

What a fine veil, they sit pressed against the screenThey neither hide fully nor come into view

Critics have said that Dagh’s verse lacks depth of thought, and this is not untrue. But Dagh did not claim depth. His claim was to language and tone, and in that field his standing remains secure to this day.

Selected verses

What a blunder, to trust your promiseAll night I awaited doomsday

Your leaving in anger has taken my lifeBetter not to have come than to come like this

When talk of grievance began“Aap” became “tum”, and “tum” became “tu”

There is an excuse for coming, and they do not call me eitherThey do not tell me why we have stopped meeting

It is no game, O Dagh, tell your friendsThe Urdu language comes only gradually

Senses, wits, strength and power, Dagh, are all goneNow I too am about to go, the baggage has left

Explanation of the verses

“What a blunder, to trust your promise…” By believing your promise, I made a blunder. The whole night passed in waiting as if for doomsday.

“Your leaving in anger has taken my life…” Your going away in anger has taken my life. It would have been better not to come than to come like this. A simple and perfect example of muamla bandi.

“When talk of grievance began…” When a quarrel starts, the tone slips from “aap” to “tum”, and from “tum” to “tu”. There may be no better verse on the three levels of address in Urdu.

“There is an excuse for coming, and they do not call me either…” They neither come nor call, and do not even give the reason for ending the meetings. Later ghazal poets adopted this manner of complaint widely.

“It is no game, O Dagh, tell your friends…” Dagh, tell your friends this is no game; the Urdu language comes slowly, through years of practice. It is a declaration of Dagh’s pride in the language and his mastery of it.

“Senses, wits, strength and power, Dagh are all gone…” Wits, senses and strength have all gone. The baggage has left, and now I too am about to go. Seeing death as a traveller’s baggage is typical of Dagh’s light touch.

Influence and legacy

Dagh’s influence spread through his pupils. In the Rampur and Hyderabad years his circle of pupils was so large that many later Urdu poets came from this line. Jigar Moradabadi, a famous ghazal poet of the twentieth century, is also regarded as an heir to Dagh’s style. Iqbal’s discipleship by correspondence has been mentioned by Iqbal’s own biographers, and Iqbal also wrote a poem on Dagh’s death.

After Dagh, “the Dagh style” became a term in Urdu: clear language, everyday idiom, muamla bandi and playfulness. Later criticism called this style limited, but singers and listeners liked it most. Dagh’s ghazals have been sung by the great singers of the subcontinent. He holds another rank in the history of the Urdu language: he was the last master of the Delhi language that ended with the Red Fort, and of which we get a glimpse today only in his verses.

To readers: Which verse of Dagh is recited most often in your gatherings? Write to us. Selected verses will be published with your name.

In the next instalment: The second period of the classical poets will begin: Wali Deccani, Sauda, Dard, Momin, Zauq, Fani and Jigar.