Bekhud Badayuni
Encyclopedia
Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Siddiqui (Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

/Arabic: محمّد عبدالحي صدیقی‎), writing under the pen-name Bekhud Badayuni (Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

/Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

: بےخود بدایونی), was one of the leading Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It is customary for Urdu poets to assume a pen-name (takhallus) that can be employed as a pun in the final couplet of every ghazal
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

, often combined with a second name that denotes the poet's place of origin. In this case, "Bekhud", the pen-name means beside oneself (with joy or grief), out of one's mind; in ecstasy, transported, enraptured, intoxicated; senseless, delirious, commonly used in the context of spiritual ecstasy, and is paired with "Badayuni", which indicates ties to the city of Badayun.

History

Bekhud Badayuni's most recent biographer was the late Dr. Asad Ahmad of Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University ,is a residential academic university, established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Mohammedan Angelo-Oriental College and later granted the status of Central University by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1920...

's Urdu Department. Most of the biographical details in this article draw on Dr. Ahmad's work, which in turn was informed by the work of prior biographers including the great Hasrat Mohani
Hasrat Mohani
Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a romantic poet of Urdu language, journalist, politician, parliamentarian and a fearless freedom fighter of Indian Sub-continent . His real name was Syed Fazl ul Hasan. He was born in 1875 at Mohan in Unnao district of U.P...

.

Bekhud Badayuni was born on September 17, 1857 into Badayun's prominent Siddiqui
Siddiqui
Siddiqui, is a Muslim family name, found in the South Asia and the Middle East. Shaikh is an additional title used occasionally by Siddiqui/Siddique to signify their Arab heritage...

 family, known for its leadership in the areas of Islamic scholarship, mysticism (tasawwuf or "Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

"), and literary pursuits. He was a descendant of the first Caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word   which means "successor" or "representative"...

, Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...

; an intermediate ancestor, Hameeduddin Mukhlis, immigrated to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 from Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 in the late 13th century during the reign of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban, and was the brother of Shaikh Saadi Shirazi, one of the seminal and most-quoted poets of Persian literature. Balban appointed Hameeduddin qadi
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...

-ul-quddat
(literally "judge-of-judges", or Chief Justice) and granted him an extensive landholding in Badayun, at the time one of the key cities of the Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

. It is also reported that Hameeduddin presented Saadi's two major works, Golistan and Bostan, as a gift to Prince Muhammad Shaheed (Balban's favorite son, and patron - along with Balban - of the great poet, musician, and mystic Amir Khusro
Amir Khusro
Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...

).

Life

Bekhud trained and qualified as a lawyer, and spent time practicing law in Muradabad and Shahjahanpur
Shahjahanpur
Shahjahanpur is a municipal board, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Uttar Pradesh, India.-History:During the reign of Shahjahan, Mughal forces demolished the city of Kant...

. Tiring of the practice of law, he eventually entered into government service, serving as a high official first in the princely state of Sirohi
Sirohi
Sirohi is a city in southern Rajasthan state in western India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sirohi District, and was formerly the capital of the princely state of the same name. Nearest railway station to Sirohi is Sirohi Road station.-Geography:...

 (in Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

), then in the princely state of Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...

, where he spent the remainder of his days. He died in 1912 in Badayun.

Influences

Bekhud initially entered the tutelage of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali, Ghalib's most renowned protege; it was under Hali's guidance that Bekhud chose his pen-name. Around 1879, concurrent with the publication of Hali's Musaddas-e-Hali (considered the beginning of the modern age of Urdu poetry) and Hali's shift in focus away from traditional forms and subjects of poetry, Bekhud left Hali and became the disciple of Nawab Mirza Khan Daagh Dehlvi, the last of the great poets of the erstwhile Mughal court. Upon Daagh's death, many of his numerous disciples clamored for the honor of being his jaa-nasheen (successor to his title and reputation as the greatest living Urdu poet); in his own memoirs, Bekhud expresses disgust over the self-promoting manner in which many of Daagh's disciples vied for the honor, and himself chose to remain aloof from the squabbling. Despite Bekhud's own reticence, Dr. Asad Ahmad quotes a well-known anecdote relating that Daagh, when asked to name his jaa-nasheen, replied, "Bekhud-ain [the two Bekhuds]", referring to Bekhud Badayuni and Bekhud Dehlvi (a fellow student of Daagh).

Poetry

Much of Bekhud's poetry has fallen out of contemporary discourse, for a variety of reasons. In part, this circumstance is due to Bekhud's own reticence and limited publication of his works - he did not publish his collection of poetry (diwan
Diwan (poetry)
-Etymology:The English usage of the phrase Diwan Poetry comes from the Arabic word diwan , which is loaned from Persian means designated a list or register. The Persian word derived from the Persian dibir meaning writer or scribe...

) until 1910 (two years before his death) despite having compiled the bulk of it as early as fifteen years prior. Biographers and critics have speculated that even this late publication of Bekhud's work occurred primarily to combat the plagiarism and misappropriation of his poetic works by other poets (since, short of publication, oral transmission is the primary medium for Urdu poetry). Bekhud's residence in Jodhpur, isolated from the main centers of Urdu literature in Delhi and Lucknow, also limited the circulation of his work and provided the opportunity for some of Bekhud's contemporaries in the centers of literature to pass his work off as their own. For this reason, much of his work has grown unfamiliar to the current generation of Urdu speakers, despite having been integral to any serious poet's or critic's study of Urdu poetry until late into the 20th century. At the same time, several of his works have been mis-attributed to Bekhud Dehlvi or other poets of his time.

Published works

Hosh-o-Khirad ki Dukaan [The Shop of Sense and Wisdom] (1889) (هوش و خرد کی دکان)

Sabr-o-Shakeeb ki Loot [The Plundering of Patience and Forbearance] (1889) (صبر و شکيب کی لوٿ)

Marraat-ul-Khayaal (Diwan) [The Mirror of Thoughts] (1910) (مراﺓ الخيال)

Afsaanah-e-Bekhud [The Tale of Bekhud] (Year?) (افسانه بےخود)

Selected Ghazals

Below are a few examples of Bekhud Badayuni's ghazals, though he also wrote in several of the other genres of classical Urdu poetry.

[This first ghazal is often mis-attributed to Bekhud Dehlvi]

dard-e-dil mein kamii na ho jaaye درد دل میں کمی نہ ہو جاﮰ

dosti dushmanii na ho jaaye دوستی دشمنی نہ ہو جاﮰ

kehte ho koi ham ko dil kyoon de کہتے ہو کوئي ہم کو دل کیوں دے

kaheen sach much yahi na ho jaaye کہیں سچ مچ یہی نہ ہو جاﮰ

tum meri dosti ka dum na bharo تم مری دوستی کا دم نہ بهرو

aasmaan muddaii na ho jaaye آسماں مدعی نہ ہو جاﮰ

kaj-adaayi teri ada Thehri کج ادائي تری ادا ٹهہری

meri naiki badi na ho jaaye میری نیکی بدی نہ ہو جاﮰ

baiThta he hamesha rindon mein بیٹهتا ہے ہمیشہ رندوں میں

kaheen zaahid walii na ho jaaye کہیں زاہد ولی نہ ہو جاﮰ

hashr par deed kyoon uthaa rakkhi حشر پر دید کیوں اٹها رکهی

honay vaalii abhi na ho jaaye ہونے والی ابهی نہ ہو جاﮰ

apni khu-e-wafaa se darta hoon اپنی خوﮰ وفا سے ڈرتا ہوں

aashiqi bandagii na ho jaaye عاشقی بندگی نہ ہو جاﮰ

kaheen bekhud tumhari khud-daari کہیں بےخود تمهاری خودداری

maane’ bekhudi na ho jaaye مانع بےخودی نہ ہو جاﮰ
--

be-rukhi be-ittanaaii ho chuki بےرخی بےاعتنائي ہو چکی

aao man-jaao, laRaaii ho chuki آﺆ من جاﺆ لڑائي ہو چکی

ab mera dil bhi mukaddar ho gaya اب مرا دل بهی مکدر ہو گیا

ab meri unh ki safaaii ho chuki اب مری ان کی صفائي ہو چکی

jin ko paas-e-khaatir-e-sayyad he جن کو پاس خاطر صیاد ہے

un aseeron ki rihaaii ho chuki ان اسیروں کی رہائي ہو چکی

ab to mil jaao ke saarey shehr mein اب تو مل جاﺆ کہ سارے شہر میں

shuhrat-e-naa-aashinaaii ho chuki شہرت نا آشنائي ہو چکی

zulf kehti he dil-e-betaab se زلف کہتی ہے دل بےتاب سے

mere pphandon se rihaaii ho chuki میرے پهندوں سے رہائي ہو چکی

zauf ke haathon qadm uthte naheen ضعف کے ہاتهوں قدم اٹهتے نہیں

un ki mahfil tak rasaaii ho chuki ان کی محفل تک رسائي ہو چکی

tum mein khuu banda-nawaazi ki naheen تم میں خو بنده نوازی کی نہیں

ae buton tum se khudaaii ho chuki اے بتو تم سے خدائي ہو چکی

o wafaa dushman jafaajuu tand-khuu او وفا دشمن جفاجو تندخو

ho chuki bas be-wafaaii ho chuki ہو چکی بس بےوفائي ہو چکی

ab to bekhud se bhi parda hai unhe اب تو بےخود سے بهی پرده ہے انهیں

behijaabi khudnumaii ho chuki بےحجابی خودنمائي ہو چکی
---

abru kaa tasawwur thaa shamsheer nazar aaii ابرو کا تصور تها شمشیر نظر آئي

geysuu ka khayaal aaya zanjeer nazar aaii گیسو کا خیال آیا زنجیر نظر آئي

yaan fasl-e-bahaaraan ko taqreeb khazaan dekha یاں فصل بہاراں کو تقریب خزاں دیکها

tamheed kharaabii kii taameer nazar aaii تمہید خرابی کی تعمیر نظر آئي

ham apne hii haathon sey jaan apni ganwaa bethey ہم اپنے ہی ہاتهوں سے جاں اپنی گنوا بیٹهے

jab maut key aaney mein taakheer nazar aaii جب موت کے آنے میں تاخیر نظر آئي

sang-e-dar-e-jaanaan par kii naasiya fursaaii سنگ در جاناں پر کی ناصیہ فرسائي

itnii ke muqarrar kii tahreer nazar aaii اتنی کہ مقدر کی تحریر نظر آئي

main mahw-e-tajallii hoon mujh ko to zamaaney mein میں محو تجلی ہوں مجه کو تو زمانے میں

har shakl mein teri hii tanveer nazar aaii ہر شکل میں تیری ہی تنویر نظر آئي

kuch aur na baRh jaaye miya’aad aseeri kii کچه اور نہ بڑه جاﮰ میعاد اسیری کی

kyoon mujh ko rihaaii kii tadbeer nazar aaii کیوں مجه کو رہائي کی تدبیر نظر آئي
---

zamaaney par to na qaaboo kabhi chalaa na chaley زمانے پر تو نہ قابو کبهی چلا نہ چلے

idhar hii phir na chalein ham jidhar zamaana chaley ادهر ہی پهر نہ چلیں ہم جدهر زمانہ چلے

woh khizr-e-raah hai mera jo raah gum kar dey وه خضر راه ہے میرا جو راه گم کر دے

woh gum-shudah hoon ke jis kaa kaheen pata na chaley وه گمشده ہوں کہ جس کا کہیں پتہ نہ چلے

woh haath hein jo na uthein kabhi dua key liye وه ہاته ہیں جو نہ اٹهیں کبهی دعا کے لیے

zabaan woh hai jo dum-e-arz-e-mudda’a na chaley زباں وه ہے جو دم عرض مدعا نہ چلے

woh zeest zeest hai mar mar kai jo guzartii ho وه زیست زیست ہے مر مر کے جو گزرتی ہو

woh dard dard hai jis par koii dawaa na chaley وه درد درد ہے جس پر کوئي دوا نہ چلے

agar hai manzil-e-maqsad kii justajuu bekhud اگر ہے منزل مقصد کی جستجو بےخود

woh chaal chal ke terey saath zamaana chaley وه چال چل کہ ترے ساته زمانہ چلے

See also

  • Urdu poetry
    Urdu poetry
    Urdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....

  • List of Urdu language poets
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