CONSTRUCTING A LITERARY HISTORY, A CANON AND A THEORY 97 by Durga Parshad Nadir. For further information see Farman Fatihpuri 1964. The circumstances of Gunna B egam' s death are narrated by Sa 'adat Yar Khan Rangin in Khush ma 'rikah-e zeba (1846), edited by Shamlm Inhonvl, p. 710. On Sharan, see Badayuni 1883:32. 38. "India" here means Northern India, hi medieval geography, only the area north of the river Narmada was considered "Hind." 39. "Rekhtah" means, among other things, "mixed." Urdu was often calledRekhtah in Delhi, from the eighteenth century onwards. Until about the third quarter of the nineteenth century, rekhtah also meant "a poem in the language called rekhtah." Rekhtah was also a style of Urdu poetry; in this style, current till about the end of the seventeenth century, Urdu and Persian were freely mixed. 40. Fannan Fatihpud (1964:295) says that Safa Badayuni, in his ShamJm-e sukhan h iffah-e avval (1872), expounded the same theory about the origin of Urdu as Azad did in Ab-e hayQt, and regrets that Azad did not acknowledge or even mention Safa Badayuni. But it seems to me that the view about Braj Bhasha being the mother of Urdu was quite commonly held in those days, and Azad didn't regard it as anyone's property. 41. The word here, mubtazal, "everyday" in its original Arabic sense, had also acquired by Azad's time the meaning of "contemptible, base, degenerate." Platts gives these meanings in his dictionary (1884). Since in modem Urdu the original Arabic sense is almost entirely lost, most readers would now interpret Azad' s words here in the pejorative sense. 42. Fancy medieval mirrors were mounted on large pictures, orpictures were painted around them. 43. Azad uses the loaded wordpSk, which means "undefiled, pure, chaste." 44. Governor General of India, 1828 -3 5. "To pay for a pontoon bridge over the Yamuna at Agra— costing more than the forbidden Rs. 10,000—he sold off some marble lumber from a ruinous bath in Agra Fort, and had the Great Gun of Agra (a Mughal weapon reputed to have once fired a shot to Fatehpur Sikri 24 miles away) melted down: this started a long-lived canard that he had wanted to sell off the Taj Mahal."The Great Gun was, however, so sturdy and of such dense material that "it had to be blown up before it could be melted down." See Rosselli 1974:283. I am indebted to Dr. Shushil Srivastava of Allahabad University for bringing this book to my notice. 45. Also, both were exclusively marSiyah poets. A marSiyah is a longish poem lamenting the death, in battle, of Husain, the Prophet's grandson. Azad was a Shi'a; Shi'a are the sect among Muslims who ritualise the lament for Husain. Double symbolism, perhaps, in choosing these two poets with whom to terminate the tale? 46. They were: Amir Mina'i (1828-1900), pupil of Asar, who himself was a disciple of Mushafi; Anvar Dihiavl (1847/8-85), disciple of Zauq, then of Ghalib; Dagh (1831-1905), disciple of Zauq; Hall (1837-1914), disciple ofGhalib; Z amin 'All Jalal (1834-1909), disciple ofRashk, who himself was a disciple of Nasikh; Khurshid 'AH Nafis (1819-1901), son and disciple of Anis; and Zahir Dinlavi (1825-1911), disciple of Zauq. This list, though compiled by me from personalknowledge of the eminence of the seven poets mentionedhere, isnotadhominem. Anvar, Nafis, and Zahir are somewhat in the shadow at present, but Amir, Jalal, Dagh, and Hall are still quite prominent. Hall, of course, has his primary place as a modernist and reformer. But his position as a classical poet also is quite secure. 47. Azad mentions Shaikh Muhammad Isma'Il's death quite casually, giving no hint of the circumstances. In the context of Isma'iFs and his joint efforts to put together a complete collection of Zauq' s poems .hesays only that the ghadr—that is, sedition or treason, a term used by the English, and by "loyal" or cautions Indians—suddenly broke out: "No one was any longer mindful of anyone else. It is a matter of regret that along with his biological offspring Khalifah Muhammad Isma'il, his spiritual offspring [of poetry] also departed this world" [554].