Friday, September 27, 2013

Amir Khusro of India

Several years ago yours truly got interested in Amir Khusro.
That is a big name in the history of letters in India.
A man who used several languages with ease.
Avadhi, Brij Bhasha, Persian.
Wrote a book each in the style of all the great poets of Persian language before his times.
So much so that his contemporary poet from Persia, Hafiz of Shiraz, became jealous and wrote:

Shakar Shikah Shawand
Humein Tootiyaan-e-Hind
Zeen Qand-e-Parsi Ba
Bangala Mi Rawad

After this Persian sweet
Reaches Bengal (India)
All the parrots will
Start talking sweet

Khusro might not be superior to any one of those greats of Persia in their respective fields but combining his works together one comes to the unmistakable conclusion that he bested them all.

That is no mean achievement.

But then, according to Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar, is single handedly responsible for the birth of two languages- Hindi and Urdu.

So yours truly was mesmerized by Khusro and wanted to build a web page on him.

This was never to be.

Another Alig already had a web page on Khusro and had done the job rather thoroughly.