When asked how many poets were there in Dilli, Mir replied, “Dilli has two and a half poets, I am one, Sauda is another while Mir Dard is a half poet”. Mir called Dard a half poet because he was a ghazal poet and in the 18th century, Urdu poets also wrote Masnavi, Qasida, Hijv, Rubaiyat and a lot more.

This was stated by C M Naim during a jam-packed session, Mir Shakhsiyat Aur Shaeri, on the greatest Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir. This enthusiasm of audience also showed how much interest people take in classical Urdu poetry.

America-based Urdu scholar C M Naim further said the selection of Mir’s ghazals had limited the focus on Mir as he had written a lot more than just ghazals.

“He has written three long Masnavis and three long Shikarnamay as well because he used to accompany Nawab Asifuddaula whenever he went to Sri Lanka for hunting. Mir also wrote a poem on his cute cat.” One could not have any idea of the personality of a poet without going through all of his (or her) works,” he said.

Raising a question to the trend of evaluating works of a poet through his life, Mr Naim added that the personality (life) of a poet and his works should be kept apart, adding there was a problem in Urdu critics that they confused works of a poet with his personality.

Talking about lunacy of Mir (as he used to see an image in the moon), Mr Naim said there were many versions of his lunacy. In his autobiography, Zikr-i-Mir, he has written that he suffered a lot of unfair treatment, and got psychotic and a woman looked after him and arranged his treatment.

“In his Masnavi, Mir exaggerated his lunacy even more. It’s hard to say whether Mir had really lost his mind or he used this madness as a conceit in his poetry,” said Naim while expressing his skepticism about the matter.

Poet Zehra Nigah had a different view. She said it’s hard to keep the life of a poet and his works separate as many verses reflect his life.

“Mir was mercurial which is evident in many of his verses. He was not a sycophant which was his quality as well as a shortcoming.”

Mir’s language was an important aspect of his poetry with an influence of Arabic and Persian, Ms Nigah said.

“I once asked Ziauddin Shakaib in London that why there were many couplets of Mir on boys. He replied that Mir used to write verses on many people. Once sitting on the stairs of Jama Masjid, Dilli, he asked for water to a Maashqi (water carrier), who requested him to first say a couplet on him and Mir did that.”

She said Mir had verses against Muslim scholars, Muftis and the government and even wrote about quitting Islam but it’s strange nobody charged him of apostasy and there was no fatwa against him either.

“There are so many such couplets of Mir and Sauda that if I recite them here, I am afraid I would be put behind bars,” added.

Urdu poet and teacher Khurshid Rizvi said Mir used the lingua franca in his poetry whose themes were also related to the common man. “He writes about the pain which everybody experiences in his life.”

Muhammad Hussain Azad had played an important role in making Mir’s lunacy talk of the town and nobody could differ with him, Rizvi said.

Poet Amjad Islam Amjad said last three centuries of Urdu poetry belonged to three poets; 18th century was of Mir, 19th of Ghalib and there was nobody like Iqbal in the 20th century.

“Mir influenced everybody from his contemporary Sauda to Nasir Kazmi.”

About a century before Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital and when the world did not know of Marxism, Mir had written a couplet which explained the whole concept, Amjad said, quoting Mir, “Ameerzadon say Dilli key mat mila kar Mir/ keh hum ghareeb huay hein inhi ki daulat sey”.

Aitzaz Ahsan describes the hard times that Mir’s Dilli faced while being ravished by Muslim invaders from the north, including Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, saying such conditions must have turned Mir lunatic.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016