MIR Taqi Mir (1722/23-1810) is undoubtedly one of the greatest poets of Urdu and is ranked among such greats as Ghalib and Iqbal. Some critics even believe Mir is the best of the best.
It was Moulvi Abdul Haq and Jafer Ali Khan Asar Lakhnavi -- and later on Muhammad Hasan Askari -- who instilled Mir’s greatness into readers’ minds. And then Shamsur Rahman Farooqi with his monumental work on Mir made us realise Mir’s poetic genius.
But do we have an authentic and definitive version of Mir’s Urdu poetry? The answer is a definitive no. The reason is numerous typos stubbornly persist in most of the published works, especially the ones printed with commercial motives. Secondly, some famous couplets attributed to Mir are not included in any edition, especially the one that begins with Kya bood-o-baash poochho ho poorab ke saakino, as quoted by Muhammad Husain Azad in Aab-e-Hayat. Thirdly, some verses attributed to Mir and included in some editions of his divan are not his creation.
Compiling and editing a definitive version of Mir’s Urdu divan would require a large number of original manuscripts, which seems a Herculean task as these manuscripts are housed at different museums and libraries across the subcontinent and some are in England. Getting access to manuscripts preserved at British Museum would perhaps be easier than the ones in India, considering today’s political situation.
Let us have a quick look at some published versions of Mir’s Urdu poetry. Mir’s Urdu divan has been published umpteenth times, but barring selections and commercially produced editions, only edited versions based on research, are discussed here:
Calcutta edition (1811)
The first ever Urdu divan of Mir Taqi Mir was prepared and published at Fort William College, Calcutta, in 1226 Hijri/1811 AD, or just a year after Mir’s death. Its compilation was supervised by Kazim Ali Jawaan. It is still considered an authentic version but scholars disagree as some calligraphic errors had crept in. It is quite rare and a copy is preserved at Karachi’s Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu.
Naval Kishor edition (1868)
Naval Kishor, the famous publisher, had done great service to Urdu literature by publishing literally thousands of Urdu titles in 19th century and many of them would have vanished or remained unpublished without Naval Kishor’s press in Lucknow. But it is a common complaint that Naval Kishor’s books were not without calligraphic errors. It is incomplete and does not include Mir’s elegies.
Aasi edition (1941)
Though published by Naval Kishor, this 1941 edition of Kulliayat-e-Mir is much better. To compile this edition, Abdul Bari Aasi had consulted three incomplete manuscripts of Mir’s divan preserved at Naval Kishor. Aasi added two masnavis and two ghazals, which were until then not part of the divan. He also added many stanzas in a poem eulogising Hazrat Ali (RA) and rearranged a few pieces.
Ibadat edition (1958)
Dr Ibadat Barelvi edited an edition of Kulliyaat-e-Mir and published it from Karachi. It includes three masnavis, of which two were discovered by Gian Chand and one by Khwaja Ahmed Farooqi. But Dr Ibadat has relied heavily on Aasi’s edition.
Abbasi edition (1968)
Zill-e-Abbas Abbasi compiled Mir’s Urdu divan. Published by Taraqqi-e-Urdu Bureau, Delhi (renamed as Qaumi Council for Promotion of Urdu language), this edition, named Kulliyaat-e-Mir: divan-e-Ghazaliyaat, has ghazals only and is based, largely, on Calcutta edition.
Allahabad edition (1972)
Published by Ram Narain Lal Beeni Madhu from Allahabad, with an intro by Prof Ehtisham Husain, this edition has some unpublished masnavis and marsiyas (elegies). But Jameel Jalibi has stressed the need for reassessing some elegies attributed to Mir in different editions as he thinks not all of them are originally written by Mir. Typos in this edition are numerous and a few verses have been left out, perhaps by calligraphic oversight.
Dr Kashmiri edition (1973)
Dr Akber Hyderi Kashmiri said the Calcutta edition of Mir’s Urdu divan (1811) was incomplete and, hence, all the other versions based on it, too, are incomplete. But he admitted that Calcutta edition did not include any couplet that did not belong to Mir. Dr Kashmiri himself had edited Mir’s Urdu divan. Titled Divan-e-Mir (Nuskha-e-Mahmoodabad) and published from Srinagar in 1973, it is based on a manuscript preserved at Raja Sahib Mahmoodabad’s personal collection. The manuscript is quite rare and important from research point of view as it was handwritten in 1203 Hijri/1788-89 AD, which means during the lifetime of Mir. This has made it more reliable. Despite the fact that it is a rare manuscript, Dr Kashmiri’s work did not get much appreciation from experts for certain reasons.
Faiq edition
The complete poetic works of Mir named Kulliyaat-e-Mir were compiled and edited by Kalb-e-Ali Khan Faiq and published by Lahore’s Majlis-e-Taraqqi-e-Adab in six volumes in 1970s and 1980s. It is one of the better editions.
Mir Taqi Mir died on September 20, 1810 in Lucknow.
Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2021
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