Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
Cultural tales of bygone era
The ‘Awadh Symphony’ made its appearance when most needed. It brings back the resplendent Awadh just when the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb is standing on the threshold of time gasping for breath. Well stocked with an absorbing narrative based on facts, the book takes us back, to a time when people shared and cared for each other.
Guzishta Lucknow was a great document which appeared in 1926 after it had already appeared in the Urdu paper ‘Dilgudaz’ as a column written by Abdul Halim Sharar. Another prominent book which had captured the history and culture of the times was Mirza Jafar Husain’s ‘Qadeem Lucknow ki Akhri Bahar’ published in the early 1980s. Like the other two books, ‘Awadh Symphony’ is bound to be a significant guide for serious scholars.
Author Aslam Mahmud has gone into great details about Dastangoi which has reappeared again. People in and around Lucknow enjoy the performance but know little about the Dastans, except that it is all about magic and sorcery. This book makes the reader aware of the popular Dastans. Few know that Dastan-e-Amir Hamza was in 46 volumes and was locally created, not in Persia. Gulshan-iNaubahar composed by Sheikh Mohammad Baksh Mahjoor and ‘Fasana-eAjaib’ by Mirza Rajab Ali Baig Suroor were also written in Lucknow.
Mahmud has very indulgently written about the customs and traditions of Lucknow, like marriages, festivities and melas. He has entered the field of fashion, identified the solah-singhars of women. Surprisingly, he has also gone into the Life of Muslim women and their rights, which is not a subject limited to Awadh. The art, craft and painting, indoor and outdoor games are all there. The cuisine is another area on which he has devoted ample attention.
Much has been written about the talents of tawaifs, but Mahmud has also shown their plight in the colonial period also when all grades of courtesans were labelled as sexworkers. I am impressed by his deep study of Bajanama of Amar Nath Sharma which revealed the earliest gramophone recording of Gauhar Jan.
The author has rightly concentrated on Moharram which is the identity of Lucknow and a true reflection of the multicultural aspects of the Ganga-Jamuni ethos. The battle of Karbala has inspired poets to compose elegies. Mahmud has dwelt on the Marsiyagos of Awadh particularly on Anis and Dabir, the two great poets who took Marsiya to great heights.
The author has quoted and referred from diverse and myriad sources and the book is indeed a reflection of the rich bibliography. No doubt that it is destined to live a long life!
The writer is Padma Shri and first Muslim woman to join the civil services through the IAS examinations. She is also the author of the book ‘Fida-e-Lucknow’.