Articles By Anisur Rahman

Anisur Rahman (b.1950) is a poet, translator and literary critic. Formerly a Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi. He is currently Senior Advisor at Rekhta Foundation, the world’s largest website on Urdu language, literature, and culture. He has worked and published in the areas of Comparative, Translation, Urdu, and Postcolonial Studies with special reference to the literatures of South Asia, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He has to his credit four books authored by him, six edited/co-edited volumes, and two collections of Urdu poetry in English translation. Professor Rahman has also been an academic administrator. He has served as Head, Department of English; Dean, Students Welfare; Director, Centre for Coaching and Career Planning; and Registrar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He has been a Shastri Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2002) and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA (2007).

rekhtablog urdu poetry blog meer

Qissa Kahaani Banaam More Naama

The stories of human-animal love are not too rare. Here is an atypical story of love between a queen and a peacock told by no less a master craftsman than Meer Taqi Meer (1723-1810). This verse- narrative known as More Naama has survived through two centuries and has been acknowledged as an exemplar of Meer’s skill of telling a tale in a poetical framework which is allegorical in nature and far reaching in appeal

urdu, books, e-books

Gulshan-e-Ishq

It is almost impossible to say for sure when the story of prince Manohar and princess Madhumalti was told first and by whom. It may be safe to surmise that it is essentially a travelling tale that reached different people through folklorists. Supposedly, Sheikh Manjhan was the first to write this story in Hindi under the title of Madhumalti sometime in the mid-sixteenth century. During different periods of history, this story was written and re-written at least nine times in Persian and thirteen times in Urdu with different titles.

parrot, urdu, myna, story, tale, ancient, kahaani

Tooti Naama

Traced back to a canonical Sanskrit source—Saptashati—the stories of a parrot and a myna have reached larger sections of readers through Persian, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Rajasthani, Bangla, and Urdu languages in India and English, French, German, and Czech languages elsewhere. There are at least six retellings available in Persian and eight in Urdu.

stories, vikram, vetaal

Wondrous Literary Narratives

Literary narratives are known to have a latent relationship between their oral and written forms. Two analogous Indian narratives–Singhasan Batteesi (Thirty-Two Tales of the Throne) and Baitaal Pacheesi (Twenty-five Tales of Baital)–that have passed from the oral to a variety of written forms over a long period of time may be mentioned in this context.

Satyavan and Savitri: the story of love’s victory over death.

Satyavan and Savitri: the story of love’s victory over death

Traced back to the Mahabharata, here is a story that Rishi Markandeya narrated to Raja Yudhishthira. The story which praises the virtues of a zealous woman and a devoted wife is that of Savitri who figured in Devi Bhgwat Purana and also became the subject of several literary compositions in the East and the West.

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