NO matter how strange it may sound, the fact is though Urdu was born in North India, its earliest written literary pieces, whether in prose or poetry, were created in South India.
The word ‘Deccan’ literally means ‘south’ and Deccan is recognised as the cradle of earliest literary pieces of Urdu. The first ever written literary work in Urdu — that is, discovered so far — is Masnavi Kadam Rao Padam Rao, research studies show. It was written between 1430 AD and 1435 AD by Fakhr Deen Nizami, in Deccan. Based on Hindu mythology, Kadam Rao Padam Rao discusses mystical issues figuratively.
But it took about 200 more years for Urdu prose to develop: Urdu’s first literary prose work is Sabras and it was penned in the year 1635 — in Deccan. In those days Abdullah Qutb Shah ruled Golconda, Deccan. On his order Mulla Asadullah Wajhi (1580-1640), a poet at his court, wrote Sabras, which is an allegorical tale that apparently describes the tussle between husn (beauty) and ishq (love). But it has some subtle ideas, too.
Since Sabras is an allegory its characters and even places are symbolic representation of a deeper meaning. Certain abstract qualities, such as love, wisdom, courage and honour, are personified to convey moral values and Sufi thoughts. Basic theme of Sabras is search for aab-i-hayaat, or elixir of life, which is ultimately found with much trouble and struggle, not to mention many twists and turns in plot.
According to Wajhi, aab-i-hayaat is nothing, as is explained in the end, but utterance or discourse, say, a word spoken. But Wajhi has not been able to explain this as explicitly as Fattahi Nishapuri did in his Persian work, the original tale on which Sabras is based, says Moulvi Abdul Haq. He was the first scholar to have edited and published this centuries-old work, adding some 50 years to history of Urdu literature, which was further pushed back by Jameel Jalibi when he discovered and published Padam Rao Kadam Rao.
As discussed by Moulvi Abdul Haq in his intro to Sabras, published by Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu in 1932, Wajhi has borrowed the idea from Husn-o-Dil, or beauty and heart, a mystical and allegorical tale in prose written by a 15th-century Persian poet Muhammad Ibn-e-Yahya Sibak Fattahi Nishapuri.
Fattahi had written this tale in versified form under the title Dastoor-i-Ushshaaq in 1436. As put by Jameel Jalibi, it became so popular that Fattahi re-wrote it in ornate prose and then again presented it in another of his work Shabistan-i-Khayal in 1439. It even inspired some Turkish poets to replicate it. Some 400 years later, Shabistan-i-Khayal was translated into English and German, too.
So, no wonder it inspired Wajhi and he wrote the story in Urdu prose, closely following the original tale. But nowhere has Wajhi mentioned Fattahi’s work and has claimed to be the originator of the story. But Wajhi must be credited for penning Urdu’s first literary prose work as before him all Urdu had in prose were religious works or treatises on Sufism and they lacked literary touch.
The language used in Sabras is now almost 400 years old. Its orthography is much different from what we are used to see today and one of the reasons is that in Deccan many Urdu words were pronounced slightly differently. Secondly, some words used in the tale are strange since they are originally from languages spoken in Deccan, especially Telugu, and are not part of Urdu’s standard vocabulary. Interestingly, words of Persian origin as well as local or Hindi words found their way into this vocabulary side by side, thereby giving significant cues to local culture and societal trends.
Sabras is in prose but reader often comes across sentences ending in rhyming words as was in vogue in those days. Despite a language that sounds a bit unfamiliar today, the tale is readable and an occasional aphoristic expression lights up the text with terse truth. Considering the era in which Sabras was written — some 400 years ago — Wajhi deserves all the kudos for writing a language that was not only considered to be standard Urdu in those days, but it was appreciated for its literary merits and is comprehensible even today, save for words from local Deccani dialects.
Jameel Jalibi has much praised Wajhi not only for the historical importance that Sabras has, but also for Wajhi’s ability for turning Deccani Urdu into a literary Urdu that served as a model for the generations of writers. Jalibi has rightly pointed out that writing of Sabras was a turning point in history of Urdu prose.
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2022
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