| About Baher |
| As some of you have asked here is a something about meters (bher) used in urdu Ghazals. I hope it proves useful to some of you who write poetry and for all the rest that enjoy reading it. I have taken some care in preparing this and if by chance have stated something that is not accurate please bring it to my attention. If something is not clear please let me know. I'll do my best to expound it again. There are 36 meters used in Urdu poetry. 15 out of these have extended forms which are permitted with the main form in the same ghazal. The meters themselves consist of feet. Only 20 feet are used to create this 36 meters. Example of a meter: MAFUL FAILAT MAFAIL FAILUM Here - MAFUL, FAILAT, MAFAIL AND FAILUM are the four feet of the meter. (The name of the feet are derived from Arabic root 'fial' (to do) but has no meaning. ) By using the number 1 (one) to indicate long syllables and the number 2 (two) to indicate short syllables the meter can be broken down as follows: MAF U L FA I LA T MA FA E L FA I LUN 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 This meter also has an extended form. In the last feet FAILAT is acceptable in place of FAILUN Examples of ghazals in this meter: Mai zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya .....(Sahir) 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 MAI ZIN d GI ka SAA th ni Bha TA ch LA ga YA Words can span across feet - Example ZINDAGI is spread across MAFUL and FAILAT Long vowelled letters can be considered as short vowelled as "KA" (a common occurrence I have seen is with the word MERI (Mine) where it can be scanned as 2, 2 both with long vowels or as 1 2 with ME as short and RE as long or as 1 1 where both ME and RE are shortened.) ta phir na intezar mai neend aaye umar bher Aana ka aahad kar gaya aaya jo khawb mei .......(GHALIB) 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 TA PHIR na IN ta ZA r mai EEN DAAY e UM r BHER Here D of NEEND is extended to 2 because of the AA sound following it of AAYE. We find this in a lot of verse. Recent example was a ghazal posted by Raj Sahib. 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 AA NA ka AHA d KAR ga ya AA YA jo Khaw b Mei Here ya of gaya a long vowel has been shortened. But say if we had words like 'Phir' or 'hum' they cannot be broken down PH and IR (1 , 1) because when we say the word we do it as one and not as two separate letters. Same holds true for hum. In the same ghazal the sher "Muj tak kab unki bazm me aata tha daur-a -jam" is an example of the extended meter. Jam is broken down as JA (2) and M (1) for the last two. Other exampels - guzara hai aaj ishq mei hum us makam se Nafrat si ho gayi hai mohabat ke nam se- Shakil(?) Duniya ne teri yaad se begana kar diya Tuzase bhi dil pharab hai gam rozgar ke -- Faiz Milte hai zindigi mai mohobat kabhi kabhi hoti hai dilbaro ki inayat kabhi khabi -- Sahir In my opinion this is a meter that has been extensively used. This meter is considered of medium difficulty. ( the 36 meters are classified by some in terms of difficulty- Easy, medium, and hard) Some other meters: Easy meters: (if there is anything like it!) / indicates extended form in place of ie 2/2 means 2 1 is ok to use in place of 2 ) 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2/21 Mohobut ke rahoo mei chalan sambhal ke yahan jo bhi aaya gaya haat mal ke ....(Sahir) 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 - Muje teri mohobat ka sahara mil gay hota agar tufa nahi aata kinara milgaya hota 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2/2 1 - kaha zalim ne mera haal sunkar wo is geene se mar jaya to aacha....(Daag) 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 / 2 1- koi din gar zindagani aur hai hamne apna dil me thani aur hai ...(Ghalib) 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 / 2 1 - sab kaha kuch lalo-o-gul mai numayan ho gayi khak mai kay surate hongi ke pinahan ho gayi....(Ghalib) 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 (paata paata bhutta bhutta... )--- (Meer) I'll list all the meters in the next post. One interesting thing about the last one. Mir has used it with great success in many of his ghazals but Ghalab and Iqbal have not written any thing using it!!! A matter of temprament (did not suit their style), I think. Notes by: PRINCE SYED BILAL ARMAAN Presented by: NEHA SHARMA NEXT SITE MAP BACK |
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