Post by Raj KumarPost by NaseerRaj Kumar and Irfan SaaHibaan, aadaab.
Is this in your view "siNghaar" or "siNgaar" or are both of them valid in Urdu poetry? Which of these two words would be your choice when composing your own poetry?
Naseer
I don't know if I'll ever have the need to use this word in my poetry, even so here are my comments regarding this word.
As you might have already checked, Platts has "siNgaar" but no "siNghaar". Now you'll have to tell us what other dictionaries say.
[yeh rubaa'iyaaN sab ki sab jamaaliyaati yaa "siNghaar ras" ki haiN], exactly in the manner Sauda had used this word,
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nigaah-e-Qais, tirii dastaras ko maan gaye
kahaaN kahaaN se mazaameeN churaaye haiN kyaa kyaa!
jaisa k maiN ne uupar nishaan-dehi kii hai, iiraani aur hidustaani anaasir ka haseen imtizaaj Urdu Ghazal ke mizaaj meN rachaa basaa hai. is ke saath hi aihd-e-vasta ki Hindi yaa bhakti ras ki shaa’iri meN Krishan ji, Raadha aur gopiyoN ki ruumaani rivaayaat (jinheN Suur Daas, Meera Baa’ii aur Ras Khaan jaise shaa’iroN ne ‘celebrate’ kiyaa hai) aur maGhribi Hindi, Avadhi aur Braj-bhaasha ki shaa’irii ka ‘eroticism’ aur is ki ‘sensuality’ bhi in hindustaani anaasir ke aham ajzaa-e-tarkeebi haiN. dakkani Ghazal ke azeem sho’araa Quli Qutb Shaah, Vajahi, Ghavvaasi, Nusrati, Ali Aadil Shaah Saani, Haashimi Beejapuri, Vali Dakkani aur Siraaj ki GhazloN meN yeh hindustaani anaasir apne kamaal par nazar aate haiN. Dilli ke shaa’iroN meN Meer aur Saudaa ki kuchh GhazloN aur Meer Hasan ki masnavi meN bhi yeh hindustaani pehlu maujood hai. albatta, is ke ba’ad aahista aahista iiraani anaasir Urdu Ghazal par Ghaalib aa jaate haiN. albatta, unneesaveeN sadii meiN Dayaa Shankar Naseem ki gul-bakaavali aur beesaveeN sadii ke avaa’il meN Chakbast Lakhnavi ki GhazloN meN yeh hindustaaniyat phir se namuudaar hoti hai aur, hamaare aihd meN, Firaaq Gorakhpuri ke kalaam meN apni poori aab-o-taab ke saath jalvaa-figan hoti hai.
Amriika ke Ghazal-go sho’araa meN, Raj Kumar Qais voh vaahid shaa’ir haiN jinhoN ne Ghazal ke hindustaani miTTi se is ta’alluq ko apni GhazloN meN numaayaaN maqaam diyaa hai aur yihii voh cheez hai jo in ki aur Firaaq ki shaa’irii meN ba-qadre mushtarik paa’ii jaati hai. is ke ilaava, Qais ki GhazloN meN Hindi aur Sanskrit kavitaa ka eik aham unsur “shriNgaar ras” un ke lahje aur maahaul ko doosre Ghazal-go sho’araa se mumtaaz kartaa hai.
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1. jin lafzoN ki baat ham kar rahe haiN, un ka 'muul mantra' yeh lafz hai: shriNgaar.
2. Platts meN yeh lafz maujuud hai; yihii nahiiN bal-k un ke haaN lafz sriNgaar bhi hai. It is interesting that for the meaning of the word sriNgaar Platts directs us to both siNgaar and shriNgaar.
3. While the meaning of siNgaar is more like "saj-dhaj", shriNgaar is inclined towards love, affection and eroticism.
4. I wonder if my poetry qualifies to be considered as "shriNgaar ras ki kavitaa"; I don't think I could have been that bold! :-)
5. Mo'azzam sahib ne jo raaye meri shaa'iri ke baare meN di hai, un se zaahir hota hai k mujh meN kuchh baat to hai ---- magar aap haiN k mujhe "aiveN ai" samajhte haiN. :-)
Raj Kumar***
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*Dr. Mo’azzam Siddiiqi earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Berkeley, California, where he specialized in the study of Near-Eastern and South-Asian languages. Following that, he worked with the “Voice of America” where he directed various linguistic divisions over a period of 22 years. Since his retirement from the VoA, Dr. Siddiiqi has been teaching Urdu poetry, Urdu literature and sufiism at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
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muHtaram Raj Kumar and Irfan SaaHib, aadaab.
I am indebited to you, Raj Kumar SaaHib, for the time you have taken to respond to my query. Frankly, I don't know why you would n't use the word siNgaar/siNghaar when composing your poetry! Won't you feel like describing the solah-siNgaar/siNghaar of your beloved sometimes?:-)
In terms of dictionaries, Platts, Fallon, Nurul LuGhaat, and Sarmaayah-i-Zabaan-i-Urdu (Jalal Lakhnavi) only have siNgaar whereas Urdu LuGhat and Farhang-i-Asifiyyah has both. Irfan SaaHib has indicated that he has never come across "siNghaar" in Urdu poetry. Urdu LuGhat is a good dictionary for providing sources of words and Rekhta too is a good source to serve the same purpose. The latter gives many occurrences of usage of the word "siNghaar" by Urdu poets but out of those, perhaps Nazm Tabatabaa'ii is the most well known
xvud jo Gham haiN to aa'inah HairaaN
kis Ghazab kaa siNghaar kar baiThe
The oldest occurrence of this word according to Urdu LuGhat is in "sab-ras" by Mulla Vajhi written in 1635.
himmat-i-mardaaN kaa siNghaar, himmat-i-SaaHib-dardaaN kaa udhaar
Vali Dakkani has also used this word..(1707)
raushan hai baat yih kih avval saadah-lauH thii
baxshe haiN us ke muNh soN siNghaar aarsii ke ta'iiN
Daya Shankar Naseem (1811-1845) in his Gulzaar-i-Naseem says...
ruuH afzaa ko siNghaar kar ke
maHv us kii hu’ii jo pyaar kar ke
Rasheed Hassan Khan, a renowned Urdu scholar in his commentary on this book, discusses this word...He has used several manuscripts, e.g Nusxah-i-matba3-i-MasiiHaa’ii (He), Nusxah-i-Chakbast (kaaf), Nusxah-i-Shirazi (shiin), Nusxah-i-Qazi Abdul Waduud (qaaf)...
siNghaar (shi3r no: 1475)...He, kaaf, shiin meN "siNghaar" hai. qaaf ke matn meN "siNgaar hai aur Haashiye par "siNghaar" likhaa hu'aa hai. Nur, Urdu LuGhat, Sarmaayah-i-Urdu, Fallon aur Platts ke luGhaat meN sirf "singaar" hai. sirf Asifiyyah meN "siNghaar"bhii hai magar us ke taHt likhaa hu'aa hai, "dekho siNgaar". is se ek baat to yih ma3luum hotii hai ki mu'allif ke nazdiik murajjaH shakl "siNgaar" hai aur duusrii baat yih bhii ma3luum hotii hai kih is kii ek shakl "siNghaar" thii zaruur. nusxah-i-He aur kaaf meN "siNghaar" kaa honaa isii par dalaalat kartaa hai. isii binaa par is imlaa ko bar-qaraar rakkhaa gayaa hai..."
Contrary to the above, both "siNgaar" and siNghaar are found in Urdu LuGhat. They both appear to be synonymous although there seem to be more entries under "siNgaar". siNgaar-haar is a plant with white petals and yellow stalks used to extract a yellow dye whence we get "haar-siNgaar" in the sense of "make-up". There is a verb "siNgaarnaa" which means "saNvaarnaa/aaraastah karnaa".
You (Raj Kumar SaaHib) have alluded to Firaq Gorakhpuri's "ruup".. 1947 edition where under the title, one finds "siNghaar-ras kii rubaa3iyaaN".
I found two rybaa3iis where the word used is "singaar" (page 129 and page 188). However on page 237, one rubaa3ii has the word "siriNgaar" and the meaning of the word in the footnote is given as "siNghaar".
I have a feeling that the word "siNghaar" is not common if not altogether absent in Hindi literature. The conclusion that I have arrived is this and it is not too dissimilar to the one you have reached. The original Sanskrit word in question is "shriNgaar" whose more colloquial pronunciation is "sriNgaar" (Just like Urdu speakers say Siri Lanka for Shri Lanka/Siri Nagar for Shri Nagar). Then the next stage of the metamorphosis was siNghaar > siNgaar.
शृङ्गार śṛṅgāra शृङ्गार sriṅg-âra a. handsome, fine (rare); fine garments, finery (also of the ornamental trappings of an elephant); sexual love; erotic sentiment in a poem (it is of two kinds, sambhoga- and vipralambha-sri
शृङ्गारित śṛṅgārita शृङ्गारित sriṅgâr-ita den. pp. adorned; -in, a. id.; beautifully dressed; enamoured; erotic.
If we exclude the elephant connection:-), we can see that it had a dual meaning. It's sexual love as well as fine garments/adorned/beautifully dressed. In Urdu, it seems that both siNgaar/siNghaar have been reduced to a woman's make-up and their sexual/romantic/sensual content has been forgotten in modern times. Well, at least, until Firaq's rubaa3iis in the form of his book "ruup" !
Naseer