Urdu literature has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. While it tends to be heavily dominated by poetry, the range of expression achieved in the voluminous library of a few major verse forms, especially the ghazal and nazm, has led to its continued development and expansion into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana. Being the national language, Urdu literature is mostly popular in Pakistan. Additionally, it enjoys substantial popularity in India and is widely understood in Afghanistan. Urdu is finding interest in foreign countries primarily through South Asians.
Urdu literature may be said to find its provenance some time around the 14th century in North India amongst the sophisticated gentry of Persian courts. The presence of the Muslim gentry in a largely Hindu India, while clearly acknowledged, did not so nearly dominate the consciousness of the Urdu poet as much as did the continuing traditions of Islam and Persia. The very color of the Urdu language, with a vocabulary almost evenly split between Sanskrit-derived Prakrit and Arabo-Persian words, was a reflection of the newness of cultural amalgamation and yet the insistence on retaining what was best and most beautiful about the lands of Afghanistan and Persia.
A man who exercised great influence on the initial growth of not only Urdu literature, but the language itself (which only truly took shape as distinguished from both Persian and proto-Hindi around the 14th century) was the famous Amir Khusro. Credited, indeed, with the very systematization of northern Indian classical music, known as Hindustani, he wrote works in both Persian and Hindavi, frequently engaging in ingenious mixes of the two. While the couplets that come down from him in are representative of a latter-Prakrit Hindi bereft of Arabo-Persian vocabulary, his influence on court viziers and writers must have been mighty, for but a century after his passing Quli Qutub Shah was seen to take to a language that may be safely said to be Urdu. Urdu literature was generally composed more of poetry than of prose. The prose component of Urdu literature was mainly restricted to the ancient form of long-epic stories called Dastaan often originally written in Persian. These long-epic stories would deal with magical and otherwise fantastic creatures and events in a very complicated plot.
Urdu literature may be said to find its provenance some time around the 14th century in North India amongst the sophisticated gentry of Persian courts. The presence of the Muslim gentry in a largely Hindu India, while clearly acknowledged, did not so nearly dominate the consciousness of the Urdu poet as much as did the continuing traditions of Islam and Persia. The very color of the Urdu language, with a vocabulary almost evenly split between Sanskrit-derived Prakrit and Arabo-Persian words, was a reflection of the newness of cultural amalgamation and yet the insistence on retaining what was best and most beautiful about the lands of Afghanistan and Persia.
A man who exercised great influence on the initial growth of not only Urdu literature, but the language itself (which only truly took shape as distinguished from both Persian and proto-Hindi around the 14th century) was the famous Amir Khusro. Credited, indeed, with the very systematization of northern Indian classical music, known as Hindustani, he wrote works in both Persian and Hindavi, frequently engaging in ingenious mixes of the two. While the couplets that come down from him in are representative of a latter-Prakrit Hindi bereft of Arabo-Persian vocabulary, his influence on court viziers and writers must have been mighty, for but a century after his passing Quli Qutub Shah was seen to take to a language that may be safely said to be Urdu. Urdu literature was generally composed more of poetry than of prose. The prose component of Urdu literature was mainly restricted to the ancient form of long-epic stories called Dastaan often originally written in Persian. These long-epic stories would deal with magical and otherwise fantastic creatures and events in a very complicated plot.
Notable Urdu Afsana writers of 19th and 20th century include:
- Munshi Premchand
- Saadat Hasan Manto
- Ali Abbas Hussain
- Hayatullah Ansari
- Krishan chander
- Rajinder Singh Bedi
- Ismat chughtai
- Upendranath Ashk
- Mumtaz Mufti
Munshi Premchand
Saadat Hasan Manto
Ali Abbas Hussain
Krishan chander
Rajinder Singh Bedi
Ismat chughtai
Upendranath Ashk
Mumtaz Mufti
Notable Urdu Novelist of 19th and 20th century include:
- Deputy Nazir Ahmad
- Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar
- Maulana Abdul Halim Sharar
- Aziz Ahmed
- Balwant Singh
- Rqi
- Qurratul-ain Haider
- Bano Qudsia
- Ashfaq Ahmed
- Shaukat Thanvi
- Fatima Surayya Bajia
Qurratul-ain Haider
Bano Qudsia
Ashfaq Ahmed
Fatima Surayya Bajia
Urdu Poetry
Urdu poetry reached is peak in the 19th century. The well-developed vessel of poetry has turned out to be the ghazal which has by far exceeded all other forms of Urdu poetry by its quality and quantity within the cosmos of Urdu.
Notable Urdu Poets of 19th and 20th century include:
- Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer
- Mir Babar Ali Anis
- Mirza Ghalib
- Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq
- Dagh Dehlvi
- Altaf Hussain Maulana Hali
- Akbar Allahabadi
- Hasrat Mohani
- Hafeez Jalandhari
- Majeed Amjad
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz
- Nasir Kazmi
- Ibn-e-Insha
Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer
Mir Babar Ali Anis
Mirza Ghalib
Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq
Dagh Dehlvi
Altaf Hussain Maulana Hali
Hasrat Mohani
Hafeez Jalandhari
Majeed Amjad
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Nasir Kazmi
Ibn-e-Insha
No comments:
Post a Comment