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MOHAMMED QULI QUTAB SHAH
(1565-1611) |
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Sultan Mohammed Quli Qutab Shah, son of Ibrahim Qutab Shah, was the ruler of the state of Golconda, and founder of the city of Hyderabad. He was a contemporary of emperor Jalal-ul-din Akbar, and was, like Akbar, a liberal, kind-hearted ruler, a lover of peace and amity, and a patron and promoter of the fine arts of poetry, music and architecture. More than that, he was a great poet, the author of a rich collection of nearly 50,000 couplets, comprising ghazals, nazms, masnavis, qasidas, rubaies and qitas. It is now generally agreed that Quli Qutab Shah, rather than Wali Deccany, was the founding father of Urdu poetry. He may also be called the architect of Urdu language which he built by blending together Persian and Hindi, with a sprinkling of words and phrases drawn from Punjabi, Arabic, and local Deccany dialects. He, however, saw to it that the new product remained close to the language of common speech. He may truly be called the poet of the people who has written poems to celebrate the popular Indian festivals such as Holi, Diwali, Eid, Basant, the New Year Day, and the like. But he was basically, a lover and a poet of love. A man of romantic temperament, his privileged position as a ruler allowed him easy access to the society of women, and it was this amorous involvement with the fair sex that inspired the poet in him. In a series of poems he has chosen to dwell upon the graces and charms of his twelve mistresses who are remembered by such endearing names as "Piari", "Gori", "Nanhi", "Sanwli", "Chhabeeli", etc. Two of these nazms, "Piari", and "Gori", are also included in this anthology. Both these poems are written to praise the beauty of the poet's mistresses, and to persuade them to surrender their wealth of beauty at their lover's feet. It is interesting to recall that the city of Hyderabad founded by him was first named "Bhag Nagar", after the name of his beloved, Bhag Mati.
The third poem of this selection, Basant, relates to the Indian festival of spring, when the young and old give themselves up to the sprit of jollity, and sprinkle colours on each other with gay abandon. The fourth poem, Barsaat, describes the poet's amorous gambols against the background of the cloud-fillled skies. All these poems are frankly sensuous and romantic, and all of them end with the praise of the Prophet, which, incidentally, points to the twin aspects of the poet's personally: the romantic and the religious.
It may also be noted that all these poems are written in the metrical pattern of the ghazal, which may be represented as aa, ba ca, da, and so on.
Excessive drinking and a sensual way of life told heavily on Qutab shah's health, and he died at the comparatively young age of 47. But he'll be remembered for his pioneering role in the development of Urdu poetry, and for founding the historic city of Hyderabad.
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