Jafar Zatalli: Exposing fake propriety of those in power

Raziuddin Aquil 

Mir Muhammad Jafar Zatalli, who lived in the second half of the seventeenth and the first decade of the eighteenth century, is often dismissed or ignored by modern scholars for his alleged vulgarity. Nevertheless, he enjoys the distinction of being the first major Urdu literary figure who attempted to redraw the boundaries of what was considered permissible in literature. Belonging to a Sayyid family of Narnaul, in Haryana, Jafar Zatalli addressed issues of morality, particularly among the Mughal elite, including the princes and nobles. His writings have often been overlooked as mere laffazi or facile eloquence of little value. He even represented himself as a zatalli or idle talker, as we can see from his takhallus or nom de plume. Yet, no historian of Urdu language and literature can afford to ignore Zatalli and his work.

Contrary to the indifferent attitude of the historians of medieval India towards him, it is important to note that Zatalli heralded a linguistic turn of sorts by publicly exposing the rampant duplicities of Mughal society through his satire and poetry of protest, which were in a no holds barred language—an idiom that was hitherto restricted to the oral domain. He wrote of love and sex in a way that no one had done before him in Mughal India. His oeuvre also pre-dated the poetry of love and/or self-flagellation over unfulfilled desire, ghazal, which subsequently emerged as the dominant form in the next generation, though satire in Urdu also grew into an important trope for resistance and protest in north India in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Zatalli, however, wrote during the period when the poets were still mixing Persian and Urdu expressions in their compositions. Their language was called rekhta—gibberish or mixed language. The eighteenth-century sophistication of Urdu language had not yet come about and an accomplished ustad like Siraj-ud-Din Ali Khan-i-Arzu (1687–1756) was yet to emerge. Khan-i-Arzu corrected and polished the language of many Urdu poets who flocked to Delhi, and some of them went on to be counted amongst the all time greats—Mir Taqi Mir, Muhammad Rafi Sauda and Khwaja Mir Dard come to mind immediately.

As mentioned earlier, Jafar Zatalli’s compositions, both prose and poetry, are amongst the earliest examples of rekhta or early Urdu. Even as he used established Persian literary conventions, he often departed from tradition to showcase his mastery of Urdu. Therefore, in many instances, his work reads like a mixed language. Sometimes, a couplet in Persian is followed by another in Urdu. In yet another case, one line of a couplet is in Persian, and the next in Urdu. Also, Persian and Urdu expressions are sometimes used in the same line, providing a spectacular example of literary and cultural appropriation.

Though the Urdu that has come down to modern times took its mature shape only in the early eighteenth century during the period of Mughal decline, Zatalli’s Urdu prose and poetry serve as interesting early examples of literary exercises in this language, executed with considerable finesse. His juxtaposition of a large vocabulary of Indic words, phrases and proverbs with Persian expressions shows the ease and flair with which he was able to transcend the barriers of language and culture.

Jafar Zatalli compiled his compositions from across a variety of literary genres in his Kulliyat (collected works), Zatal-nama, during the latter half of Aurangzeb’s reign, that is, the last quarter of the seventeenth century. It is possible that Zatalli’s work was subsequently edited and updated by the poet himself or by some later poets and writers. Even if some portions of the work were possibly falsely ascribed to Zatalli, it is significant that the themes covered by the poet as well as his language and form were of interest to the Urdu-reading public. In addition, he was clearly imitated by his contemporaries and certainly by later poets, including several well-known literary figures from the first half of the eighteenth century. However, none could surpass Zatalli in crudeness and in his carefree knitting together of phrases from backgrounds as diverse as theological and virtuous Arabic, polished and deceptive Persian, and rustic and direct Hindustani. Some examples of such usage will be noted below in the samples of his compositions. See, for instance, on Kam Bakhsh screwing a goat:

zahe shah-e wala guhar kam bakhsh

ke ghachchi buz kard pichchi wa pakhsh

(Well done! Jewel of the prince, Kam Bakhsh

The little opening of the goat is ruptured into a gaping hole).

Zatalli also wrote an outrageous Gandu-nama on the reign of Aurangzeb's son and successor, Bahadur Shah:

hukm-e qazi, muhtasib za’il shude 

dil badhakar gand marawwa kheliye

pir se aur baap se, ustad se

chhup-chhupakar gand marawwa kheliye

In the first couplet, the poet exposes the extent of sexual transgressions (in this case, ‘gand marawwa’ or ‘anus-sex’) that occurred despite the presence of the qazis (Muslim judges) and muhtasibs (censor officials), whose powers were in decline (za’il shude). In the second one, he points out how this was done, playfully, away from the gaze of (chhup-chhupakar) the father (baap), teacher (ustad) or the religious guide (pir). 

By contrast, on the powerful Aurangzeb himself, he wrote a qasida celebrating his rule and marsiya on his death. In his eulogy (Dar tarif Aurangzeb), the poet extolled the extraordinary bravery and steadfastness of Aurangzeb, which created a flutter (khalbali) in the Deccan (zahe dhak-e aurangshah-e bali/dar aqlim-e dakkhan pari khalbali). Another couplet projected Aurangzeb as an exceptional warrior who could stand on the battlefield like an unmoveable mountain (mahasur, joddha, bali be-badal/chu al-burz qaayam, chu parbat atal).

On the other hand, his rivals in Deccan such as Sikandar Hasan, ruler of Bijapur, Abul Hasan Tana-Shah, ruler of Golconda and Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji, among others, are belittled as insignificant creatures. Zatalli reserved his worst comments for Sambhaji’s agent, Pratap, whom he addressed with the rhetorical remark, che jhant ast partab ibn-ul-hammar, which refers to Pratap as an ass or son of a donkey and dismisses him as male pubic hair. 

In this context, Zatalli also attacked Aurangzeb's sons who, according to him, not only complicated the proper and efficient management of the Deccan campaigns, but also spoiled the whole project (hame kar-o-baar-e pidar bhand kard). In particular, the poet pointed to their relentless propensity towards sex and wrote that chatting and fantasizing about the wet vagina or anus were a round-the-clock obsession for them (rahe raat din gaand ke zikr mein/be-lahu luab chut ki fikr mein).

Understandably, the butt end of his jokes were also women. Zatalli claimed, in a composition that highlights a traditional saying, that the penis can never subdue the vagina, despite all the controlling powers of society (suni baat mayen pir fartut se/ke lauda na jita kabhi chut se). (Remember: Polite company calls for purity of tongue and to block out offensive speech, a normative text would recommend plugging your ears with your fingers. Gossip, lies, insults and all kinds of unbridled speech were considered abhorrent and dishonourable; so too were displays of anger, haughtiness and bravado). Zatalli wouldn't care.

However, realising that his literary transgressions and relentless attacks on Aurangzeb's sons meant violations of established norms of conduct, Zatalli warns himself to be careful and refrain from offending his own powerful patrons. Incidentally, Kam Bakhsh and Bahadur Shah were among those who had offered patronage to Zatalli. Witnessing the terrible struggles between the sons of Aurangzeb for the Mughal throne and revealing the anxieties caused by the political crisis, Zatalli concluded his elegy on the emperor by warning himself of the consequences of his remarks in the changed scenario: baya, jafar, sukhan ra mukhtasar kun/ze daur-e mukhtalif dar dil hazar kun (literally: come on, Jafar, cut short your utterances; the time has changed, keep it to your heart).

Eventually, Zatalli paid with his life for criticising Farrukh-Siyar's penchant for killing his opponents by smothering them using a leather-belt. The poet was similarly asphyxiated by the order of the emperor,  badshah-e tasme-kush farrukh-siyar, king Farrukh-Siyar, who kills by the leather-belt. It is possible that the ruler was affronted not so much for being condemned as a ‘tasme-kush’, but for the poet’s mocking his unjust rule, when he had just sat on the throne (1713-19). As one early biographer of Zatalli recorded, ‘mizaj-e padshah barham gasht, ishan ra be-jannat farastaad' (‘The emperor was outraged; he, the poet, was dispatched to heaven!’).

Parts of a couplet he had himself composed gives the year of his death:

‘haveli’ chhod, yu bola zatalli

'andheri gor mein latkan lage paag’

Computing the numerical equivalent of the second line (andheri gor mein latkan lage paag or ‘the legs were hanging in the dark grave’) as well as leaving out the numbers derived from the word haveli (mansion; haveli chhod: a mansion which was to be vacated), the year of Zatalli’s execution is poetically arrived at AH 1125 (1713).

The poet identified himself as: 'lallu pattu, walad indhan jangli, mutawattin andher nagri, mulazim-e sarkar-e chaupatabad’ / a loquacious sycophant and son of a wild beast, who lived in andher nagri (literally, city of darkness) and worked in the service of the ruler of chaupatabad (a ruined or despicable habitation), which is such a powerful metaphor for the deteriorating grandeur of the city of Shahjahanabad, Delhi. Indeed, the Bindaas poets, satirists and comedians have continuously called out the moral and ethical bankruptcy of those who occupy the seat of power in Delhi. For me, Jafar Zatalli is exceptional in his expertise of making a mockery of the fake propriety of those in power.

[Reference: Zatalli's Kulliyaat, Zatal-nama, used here is prepared by one of the most accomplished editors of Urdu literary classics, Rashid Hasan Khan, published by Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind)].

Extracted from my book, The Muslim Question: Understanding Islam and Indian History (Penguin).