Sunday 15 January 2017

Forgotten Sozkhwan Granddaughters of 'Insha'



INSHA ALLAH KHAN 'INSHA'

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi
Preeti Awasthi deserves appreciation for doing what Imami scholars should have done. While working on her thesis titled ‘Awadh-a Congenial Home for Nurturing Arts-in Historical Perspective of Painting  and Music (1722-1856)’ from department of Medieval and Modern Indian History, University of Lucknow ,she traced a number of forgotten female’ Sozkhwans’ and mentioned them in a separate chapter.
Before submission of her thesis in 2014,no one was literally aware about three sisters namely  Muhammadi Begum, Haideri Begum and Nanhi Begum and their tremendous popularity as excellent sozkhwans. During the reign of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the trio commanded great popularity and respect as Sozkhwans and their performance guaranteed success of majalis(Muharram mourning assemblies).Wajid Ali even married Nanhi Begum in view of her expertise in sozkhwani.

Preeti has also mentioned another noteworthy feature about the three sisters.  She has revealed that they were the grand daughters of eminent Urdu poet Syed Insha Allah Khan Insha .The poet was born in Murshidabad in 1756.Later on ,he moved to court of Lucknow.He was a multi-talented polyglot and was the author of the first grammar of the Urdu language, Darya-e-Latafat. Information about his descendants was scant before Preeti brought to light his granddaughters as great Sozkhwans. In Awadh kingdom, Sozkhwani had flourished as a popular art and an integral part of Muharram Majalis.For want of research,a number of marsiyago and sozkhwans remain forgotten and the blogger will strive to write about them as and when he gets details from the sources available to him. (References available on request. Photo Courtesy-Google Images).

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