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" The tavern of the manifestation of realities: "
Hajnalka Kovacs
M. Alam
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1103727
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| Doc. No
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TLpq1447023341
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| Main Entry
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Hajnalka Kovacs
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M. Alam
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| Title & Author
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The tavern of the manifestation of realities:\ Hajnalka KovacsM. Alam
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| College
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The University of Chicago
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| Date
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2013
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| student score
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2013
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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273
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| Abstract
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My dissertation provides an introduction to the poetry and mystical thought of Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1644-1720), perhaps the foremost representative of the so-called "Indian style" of Persian poetry, through the study of his first long narrative poem, Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am ("The Greatest Ocean," 1667). In this poem, composed in the form of a saqinamah (poem to the cupbearer), Bedil illustrates, with the symbolism of wine, the Unity of Being behind the multiplicity of the phenomena. I discuss the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am from generic, thematic, and stylistic points of view, applying the dual approach of close reading of the poem and intertextuality. I argue that Bedil redefined the bacchanalian saqinamah genre by giving the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am a well-defined structure which is rooted, on the one hand, in traditional Islamic cosmology, and in Ibn al- Arabi's system of metaphysics, on the other. In this context I examine how the conventional elements of the saqinamah genre and stories and discourses of both Islamic and Indic origin are integrated within the conceptual framework of the poem. In particular, I discuss Bedil's adaptation of the tale of King Lavana, a tale that originates in the popular Hindu philosophical work Yogavasisht[dotbelow]ha. I argue that in the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am, in keeping with the emphasis in the saqinamah genre on the transformation of the self, the tale of King Lavan[dotbelow]a serves to underscore not so much the notion that the world is an illusion and a mental construct as the need for purifying the heart so that it can reflect the One Reality. Finally, I show how Bedil deployed the convention of meditations on the art of speech/poetry to address, by way of a unique, poetic approach to Ibn al- Arabi's ontology, the dilemma of the ontological necessity of speech versus the epistemological problem of the ineffability of Reality. The dissertation establishes the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am not only as a unique transformation of the saqinamah genre in the late Mughal period but also a highly original poetic treatment of a synthesis of the theoretical Sufism of Ibn al- Arabi's school and ideas derived from the Indian religious and cultural milieu. With this work I aim to fill one of the many lacunae in Bedil studies, as well as to contribute to the growing literature of the critical reappraisal of the Safavid-Mughal poetry.
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Bidil, `Abd al-Qadir
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Language, literature and linguistics
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Masnavi Muhit-i a`zam
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Mystical thought
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Poetry
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Social sciences
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