: ‘Temple Lamp’: Mirza Ghalib’s poem on Banaras is an ode to the ancient city’s cosmopolitan heritage #IndiaNEWS Banaras is a palimpsest of layers of devotion, history, and culture of India;

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‘Temple Lamp’: Mirza Ghalib’s poem on Banaras is an ode to the ancient city’s cosmopolitan heritage #IndiaNEWS
Banaras is a palimpsest of layers of devotion, history, and culture of India; each layer separated by the faith and beliefs of devotees, residents, and visitors. It is the city of Shiva and, indeed, referred to as India’s spiritual capital. It is also a city of lamps and light, life and death. It is a city where people come for moksha – as poet / translator Maaz bin Bilal writes in the Introduction to his translation of Mirza Ghalib’s Persian masnavi (long poem), an ode to Banaras, Temple Lamp – originally Chirag-e-Dair. The city that Bilal describes as often being a metonym for India today has historically been examined mostly in the light of Sanskrit devotional literature and scriptures, so that its many other facets lie forgotten today.Cosmopolitan historiesIn Temple Lamp, we get a glimpse of a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city, not just through the translation of the poem, but also from Ghalib’s correspondence with his friends about Banaras, which has been painstakingly collected and collated by Bilal. We get, too, a glimpse into Ghalib the person, “enhanced by his spiritual beliefs, Persianate cosmopolitanism, and the composite and syncretic ethos he held as a Hindustani from Delhi who had friends, fans, disciples, and patrons who were Hindu, Christian, and Muslim.�As Bilal writes in...Read more

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