[Reader-list] Zebunnisa's tear

[Lehar ..]

here is a gem.. from a woman all but fogotten..bearing
lessons more powerful than words..

----
Subject: Zebunnisa's tear

She was the progressive Sufi daughter of the
conservative Aurangzeb..
Zeb-un-Nissa studied not only Arabic but also Persian,
mathematics, and
astronomy, under the chief scholars of the realm. She
was closer to her Sufi
aunt Jahanara, who dispapproved of her father..
and wrote some exquisite verse..in Persian..She is the
reminder of a time
when Indian women were accopmlsihed in the arts and
sciences and lived
relatively independent lives, regradless of the
intrigues at court..Zeb was
unfortunate enough to be born at the the coutrt of the
most conservative
Mughal ruler..she retains her indepedence regardless
of it all..

When Zeb-un-Nissa was 21 years old, her father seized
the throne from his
father, Shah Jahan. Zeb-un-Nissa never married,
although some tradition
gives her an unwanted engagement and various love
affairs. She had her own
court, to which scholars and poets came; at least some
of her own
poetry---in Persian and in Arabic---appears to be from
this earlier period
of her life. She established a library and had
classical Arabic and Sanskrit
texts translated into Persian. She also built numerous
astronomical
observatories, schools and sarais.

Aurangzeb was a conservative Sunni and, once in power,
became increasingly
severe in his requirements for the observance of his
interprattions of
Islamic law. However, his eldest sister Jahanra was a
Sufi, a Moslem who
gave less emphasis to religious ritual and more to a
personal devotion to
Allah. Perhaps through the influence of her aunt,
Zeb-un-Nissa eventually
also chose the path of devotion. The Sufis held only a
marginal place in
Aurangzeb's society, but unless they allied themselves
with Aurangzeb's
opponents, they were tolerated.
Her poetry, written under the pen-name "Makhfi" ("the
hidden one")
circulated among her contemporaries; 22 years after
her death over 400 poems
were collected and published in Persian as the
Diwan-i-Makhfi. Most of the
poems are ghazals, the poetic form used to declare
human love.

there are many legends about how aurganzeb tried to
stop her poetry and
astronomy.. but to no avail..

"I bow before the image of my Love,"
--------------------------------------------

[Here love rejects both Moslem and Hindu convention:]

No Muslim I,
But an idolater,
I bow before the image of my Love,
And worship Her.

No Brahman I,
My sacred thread
I cast away, for round my neck I wear
Her plaited hair instead.          [p.22]

----
Zubeunnisa's tear
Aurangzeb grew weary of her fame and renown through
the land and decided to
teach her a lesson.
He invited Nasser ALi, a handsome Persian noble to his
court a contest with
his daughter. Ali was one of the most Arden suitors of
Zebunnisa..and one of
the best poets in the land. but he decided to take the
challenge.( he was
later brutally murdered at Auranngzeb’s behest due to
his love for Zeb)
The challenge was that Ali would recite the first
misra/line of a sher.. and
Zeb would have to complete it within three days.. if
she failed she would
have to renounce her poetry forever.
Aurangzeb had instructed Ali to compose such a
difficult sher that no one in
the kingdom could complete it. Ali went ahead and
composed the follwing
sher:

Durre ablaq kase kam deeda maujud
Rare it is to find a black and white pearl..

When Zeb heard this she was distressed.. no one seemed
to able to help her
.. indeed ..where would one find a black and white
pearl, let alone compose
a sher on it..
She felt humiliated and crushed.. a poet as
accomplished as her not being
able to complete one sher..
At the end of three days.. and still no sher..She
preferred to die than give
up her poetry, so she prepared for her last moments by
calling her best
friend. a beautiful kaneez girl (some sources say she
a  Hindu girl she was
in love with) to her quarters.
As Zeb prepared to eat her own diamond ring, her
beautiful friend clung to
her and wept profuse tears of distress..
As she was wept, Zeb began to smile..and clasped to
her breast and said..
Weep no more, dear one.. for I have found the second
misra of the sher.
She summoned Aurangzeb immediately to her palace.. he
came rushing,
expecting to see a defeated and forlorn Zeb .
I have your sher Majesty, she said: and recited
recited
Durre ablaq kase kam deeda maujud
Rare it is to find a black and white pearl..
and then..
Bajus ashqe butane surma aabud
Except the surma mingled tear of a beauty

Needless to say, she never gave up her poetry..

---
Zeb's mirror

Zebunnissa was the daughter of the Moghul Emperor
Aurangazeb. She was not
only beautiful and charming but a great scholar and a
poetess. She was an
ardent lover of Indian Culture.

Once, Aurangazeb gave her a beautiful mirror as a
birthday gift. Zebunnissa
loved the mirror very much. One day her maid was
holding the mirror to her
while Zebunnissa was combing her hair after her bath.
The mirror just
slipped from the hand of the maid and broke into
pieces. The maid was
mortally afraid. She knew that the mirror was a
precious gift, given to the
princess and how much she loved the mirror. The maid
was prepared to accept
any punishment her princess may give her. She fell at
her feet. But the
princess very calmly said with a smile. "Get up. I am
glad the instrument of
flattery is broken. Why worry over the broken mirror?
Even this body to
which all these articles cater is liable to damage and
destruction". Is this
not a lesson in detachment?

Source: Chinna Katha II, 208

http://www.tl.infi.net/~ddisse/zebunn.html#anchor148244

Many of Zeb-un-Nissa's poems are clearly expressions
of her Sufi belief,
expressing personal praise of and devotion to Allah.
With others it is
difficult to tell whether the love described is human
or divine or a mixture
of both. Only a fraction of her poetry has yet been
translated into English,
but what we have reveals her vision of love---of
whatever kind.

d) "When from my cheek," adaptated Sarojini Naidu to
Zeb-un-nissa's lines
THE SONG OF PRINCESS ZEB-UN-NISSA IN PRAISE OF HER OWN
BEAUTY
(From the Persian)

WHEN from my cheek I lift my veil,
The roses turn with envy pale,
And from their pierced hearts, rich with pain,
Send forth their fragrance like a wail.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=NaiGold.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=26&division=div2

----
Today's Beautiful Gem: `Things of Love' by
Zeb-un-Nissa Makhfi (1638-1702),
translated by Willis Barnstone.

"Though I am Laila of Persian romance,
my heart loves like ferocious Majnun.
I want to go to the desert
but modesty is chains on my feet.
A nightingale came to the flower garden
because she was my pupil.
I am an expert in things of love.
Even the moth is my disciple!"


NOte from transaltor:
one has two close relatives as poets in the immediate
family,
one would consider himself very fortunate and even
blessed. But,
not so in the case of Emperor Aurangazeb! He branded
his brother
Dara Shikoh as a heretic and got him executed. He did
not approve
of his daughter Zeb-un-Nissa's love towards a court
noble and got
him too executed. As for Zeb-un-Nissa, he didn't kill
her, but he
imprisoned her. She was a talented poet among the
women of her
time and wrote lyrical songs and ghazals.


----
She had a gargen at Lahore. She had great love for
Lahore. Addressing the
waterfall in the Shalimar Garden she sang:

“O waterfall why are you lamenting,

            And what grief wrinkles your face?

            What was your pain, that all through the
night

            You were striking your head on the rocks
and crying?’



Some of her poems have been rendered into English and
published in the
“Wisdom of the East” series.   The editors also tell
that Zeb-un-Nissa died
in 1689 at Lahore and was buried at Nawankot, Lahore.
Jadu Nath Sarkar has
shown that Zeb-un-Nissa died at Delhi on 26th May 1702
and was buried in the
garden of ‘Thirty Thousand Trees’ outside the Kabuli
gate. When the railway
line was laid out at Delhi her tomb was demolished,
and the cofflin and the
inscribed tombstone were shifted to Akbar’s mausoleum
at Sikandara, Agra.




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