The Raaga Room

The lineage of ghazals holds a profound significance, encapsulating emotions of joy, sorrow, love, and spiritual longing. A maestro in this art, emphasizes the importance of meaning, thought and the human touch in ghazals, cautioning against artificiality.

“The thought content of ghazals must be meaningful, related to life, it’s emotions of joy and sorrow. It must have the human touch, it should not be phony” - Jagjit Singh

What is a Ghazal?

Ghazals beautifully express melancholic longing, love, heartbreak, and spiritual longing.

However, like a romance that culminates in marriage and becomes slightly clinical, because it becomes more about who does the dishes, the definition of a ghazal is also clinical. A ghazal is a poem consisting of rhyming poems called bayt or sher. For a poem to be called a ghazal, it should have no less than five and no more than fifteen couplets or sher. When a poem exceeds fifteen sher, it becomes a qasidah or an ode. Each sher ends with the same rhythmic pattern and must have the same meter.

The concepts of matla, qafiya, takhallus, and maqta make a ghazal.

Matla - the first sher that establishes the rhyme scheme.

Qafiya - the rhyme which immediately precedes the radeef,

Radeef - the repeating common words in a ghazal.

Takhallus - the pen name of the poet.

Maqta - when the poet mentions his or her pen name in the last sher of the ghazal, that last sher is the maqta.

In the matla of the ghazal ‘ishq meñ ġhairat-e-jazbāt ne rone na diyā’, written by Sudarshan Faakir, the words jazbaat and baat exemplify the qafiya or rhyming pattern. The qafiya usually appears at the end of the second line. The radeef is the common refrain shared in both lines of the concluding couplet and can be seen in every concluding line of the sher in the ghazal. In this instance, ‘rone na diya’ serves as the radeef and the radeef repeats in every sher of the ghazal.

matla:

ishq meñ ġhairat-e-jazbāt ne rone na diyā

varna kyā baat thī kis baat ne rone na diyā

Sher 2:

aap kehte the ki rone se na badleñge nasīb

umr bhar aap kī is baat ne rone na diyā

Lastly, the final sher, only if inclusive of the poet’s nom de plume or takhallus, is called a maqta. Faakir’s final couplet includes his takhallus, thus making it a maqta.

maqta:

ek do roz kā sadma ho to ro leñ 'fākir'

ham ko har roz ke sadmāt ne rone na diyā

History of Ghazals

The origin of ghazals can be traced back to Arabia in the late 7th Century. Nasib is an erotic prelude to a qasida or ode and ghazals were first developed as nasibs. Ghazals by Umar Ibn Abi Rabiah of the Quryash tribe of Mecca are among the oldest. According to some researchers, Umar belonged to an affluent political family within the Quryash tribe but being a romantic, he distanced himself from politics. He fell in love with Turrayya whose family also belonged to the same tribe. Turraya’s family was not too impressed with Umar’s quixotic ways and decided to get Turrayya married to someone else. Umar suffered from losing Turrayya and his poetry stemmed from his suffering but the loss of Turayya did not hamper his quixotic lifestyle and despite the pain he continued his many love affairs.

Even though the ghazal form originated in Arabia, its appeal was not confined to the region. It became a popular form of poetic expression in many parts of the world. In Spain ghazals were written in Arabic and Hebrew and in West Africa ghazals were written in Hausa and Fulfulda. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, Persian ghazal writers like Abdulla Jaffar Rudaki, Shadi Shirazi, Jalauddin Rumi and Hafeez Shirazi made the Persian version of the ghazal the new standard. During this period the format and style of ghazal writing matured to the form we are now more familiar with. While ghazals continued to stay true to the erotic and romantic themes of the original versions from Arabia, during this time a religious theme was also emerging.

Ghazals originated in Arabia and matured in Persia and because Persian was the predominantly spoken language in Central Asia and India, this form of poetic expression found its home in the Indian subcontinent (the Indian subcontinent at that time included the current regions of India, and Pakistan). Ghazals in India can be traced back to the 13th century and the credit mostly goes to Amir Khusrao, however the use of Urdu as a language for ghazals can be seen in the late 16th and 17th century and by the 18th century Urdu became the predominant script.

Until the early 70s, in India, ghazals were written and consumed only by the elite. Access to these gems, for us non-Urdu speaking philistines, was next to impossible. Even though some Hindi language movies would every now and then include a ghazal in their soundtrack, it was Jagjit Singh who brought ghazals to the masses. By the 80s, ghazals started to find a footing in mainstream Hindi movies like Umraojaan, Arth, and Daddy.

Today the ghazal form of poetry has also found a place in the English speaking part of the world. Adrienne Rich, John Hollander and Robert Bly in America, Jim Harrison, John Thompson, Phyllis Webb and Douglas Barbour in Canada, and Judith Wright in Australia are just a few of the many poets who have experimented with this medium of expression.

The intriguing history of ghazals endures, and even in the midst of evolving musical trends, these poetic expressions maintain a steadfast fan base. Those who delve into the captivating history and nuanced beauty of this art find it to be a soul-searching experience.

I will leave you with my favorite sher from “Ranjish Hi Sahi” by Ahmed Faraz.

maana ke mohobbat ka chupana hai mohobbat

chupke se kisi roz jatane ke liye aa

ranjish hi sahi, dil hi dikhaane ke liye aa

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