Khuda-e-SukhanMir Taqi Mir (Urdu: ??? ??? ???) (born 1723 - died September 21, 1810), whose original name was Muhammad Taqi (Urdu: ???? ???) and takhallus (pen name) was Mir (Urdu: ???) (sometimes also spelt as Meer Taqi Meer), was the leading Urdu poet of the eighteenth century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the principal poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal and remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry often remembered as Khuda-e-Sukhan (god of poetry). Legendary Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir passed away, [The Times of India], Rajiv Srivastava, TNN, Sep 19, 2010, 05.58am IST
Born in Agra, India (called Akbarabad at the time), ruled by the Mughals at the time. He left for Delhi, at the age of 11, following his father's death. His philosophy of life was formed primarily from his father, whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with him through his life and imbued his poetry. At Delhi, he finished his education and joined a group of nobility as a courtier-poet. He lived much of his life in Mughal Delhi. Kuchha Chelan, located in famous grain market Khari Baoli, in Old Delhi was his address at that time. However, after Ahmad Shah Abdali's sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the king's invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets.
"Na bud o bash pucho Purab key sakinon
Hum ko gharib Jan ke Hans Hans pukar ke
Dehli jo aik shehr tha alam e intekhab
Rehte the muntakhib hi Jahan e Rozgar ke
Jisko falak ne loot kar barbaad kar diya
Hum rahnay walay hain us ujray diyar key"
Mir migrated to Lucknow in 1882 and remained there for the remainder of his life. He died, of a purgative overdose, on Friday, 21 September 1810.
His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of six diwans containing 13,585 couplets, comprising all kinds of poetic forms.
Mir's literary reputation is anchored on his ghazals. Mir lived at a time when Urdu language and poetry was at a formative stage - and Mir's instinctive aesthetic sense helped him strike a balance between the indigenous expression and new enrichment coming in from Persian imagery and idiom, to constitute the new elite language known as Rekhta or Hindui. Basing his language on his native Hindustani, he leavened it with a sprinkling of Persian diction and phraseology, and created a poetic language at once simple, natural and elegant, which was to guide generations of future poets.
After his move to Lucknow, his beloved daughter died, followed by his son(either Mir Faiz Ali or Mir Kallu Arsh), and then his wife. This, together with other earlier setbacks (including his traumatic stages in Delhi) lends a strong pathos to much of his writing - and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos and melancholy.
What Mir was practicing was probably the “Malamati” or “Blameworthy” aspect of the Sufi tradition. Using this technique, a person ascribes to oneself an unconventional aspect of a person or society, and then plays out its results, either in action or in verse. He was a prolific writer. His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of 6 dewans, containing 13,585 couplets comprising all kinds of poetic forms: ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire, etc.
What Mir was practicing was probably the “Malamati” or “Blameworthy” aspect of the Sufi tradition. Using this technique, a person ascribes to oneself an unconventional aspect of a person or society, and then plays out its results, either in action or in verse. He was a prolific writer. His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of 6 dewans, containing 13,585 couplets comprising all kinds of poetic forms: ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire, etc.
Mir's famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, was Mirza Rafi Sauda. Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Mir's supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa. It may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Mir was indeed a genius that deserved respect. Here are two couplets by Mirza Ghalib on this matter.
Shaikh Imam Bakhsh Nasikh of Lucknow, a disciple of Meer.
Khushwant Singh's famous novel A Novel gives very interesting details about the fictional life and adventures of the great poet. His fictional memoirs and confessions, especially those about his illicit relations with elite women, mainly with the wife of the aristocrat Rias Khan who employed him as tutor to teach his children, are not only very entertaining but also provide a lot of insight into his mind and heart.
C. M. Naim. Zikr-i-Mir, The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet: Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir(1723—1810), Translated, annotated and with an introduction by C. M. Naim, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.
Anna Suvorova. Masnavi: A Study of Urdu Romance. Karachi: OUP, 2000 (about love poems of Mir)