Deccani mushaira regales

A recent mushaira regaled audience with its Deccani shayeri

Hyderabad and mushairas are made for each other. But this one was the most captivating of all. Reason, it was conducted in the language of the people. Yes, the musahaira was organised in chaste Deccani, the lingua franca of the erstwhile Nizam domain, and predictably drew bahutich applause.

Though widely spoken, Deccani today remains only an oral language. But time was when great poets, including Hyderabad's founder, Sultan Mohd Quli Qutb Shah, chose it as a medium of poetic expression. For the first time perhaps, the rich literary heritage of Deccani was unveiled when a tamseeli mushaira (mock concert) was held recently at the Salar Jung Museum. It was sponsored by the Centre for Deccan Studies. The credit of course goes to Dr. Jaweed Kamal of Aiwan-e-Fankar, who wrote and directed the mushaira. The melodic commentary by Dr. Humaira Sayeed was a treat.

Period costumes

What added to the appeal were the period costumes donned by the poets, complete with flowing beards and long hair. The audience was transported back to the Quli Qutb Shah's darbar with the traditional masnad ( seat of cushions) and khandeel (lantern) in place. The Deccani shayeri filled with distinctive lexical features like tume (you), sacchi bole (rightly said ), tumna tawajje chahata hoon (seek your attention) regaled the audience. It was Quli Qutb Shah himself who set the ball rolling with these verses:

Meri saunli man ki pyari dise

Ke rang roop main kaunli naari dise

He was followed by well known Deccani poets Mulla Khayali, Nusrati, Mulla Wajhi, Syed Miran, Shaikh Ahmed Gujarati, Wali Mohammad. Though a tad difficult to pronounce, the artistes didn’t falter and the audience too had no trouble understanding the Deccani poetry. The poetry of Asadulla Wajhi (sung by Waheed Pasha Qaudri) was touching. Syed Meeran’s shayeri superbly recited by Dr. Moin Amar Bamboo had the audience in splits. The latter recited Rekhti, a genre of Urdu poetry also called auraton ki zaban . Here the male poets employ women’s idioms, mannerism, double entendres and accents. Sample the verse:

Sajan aawen to parde se nikal kar bhaar baithoongi

Bahana karke motiyon ka proti haar baithoongi

The mushaira ended with Quli Qutb Shah's famous prayer which he made while laying the foundation of Hyderabad:

Mera shahr logan se mamoor kar

Rakhyia joon tun darya mein min Ya Sami

(Oh Lord, fill my city with people as Thou hast filled the river with fish).

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in The Hindu

Dated December 14,2015