Tariq Akbar's video: akhtar shirani: o deis se aaney waley: reading :

The Poet: Muhammad Dawood Khan محمد داود خان , popularly known as Akhtar Shirani اختر شیرانی (takhallus اختر Akhtar), was born on 4 May 1905 in Tonk ٹانک, a princely state in British India (later absorbed into the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, India). His ancestors were Afghans افغان of the Shirani شیرانی tribe who had come to India with Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi سلطان محمود غزنوی and had stayed back in Tonk. He was son of Allama Hafiz Mahmood Shirani علّامہ حافظ محمود شیرانی , a scholar and teacher who had started teaching at the Islamia College, Lahore, Punjab, in 1921. In 1928 he moved to the Oriental College, Lahore. Allama Shirani was a teacher of Persian and a researcher. He wrote an important book about the origins of Urdu by the title پنجاب میں اردو Punjab Mein Urdu (1928) in which he showed that Urdu originated in Punjab. Young Dawood moved to Lahore at a very young age and lived there throughout his life. He did his منشی فاضل Munshi Fazil in 1921 and ادیب فاضل Adeeb Fazil in 1922 (degrees in Arabic and Persian) from Oriental College, Lahore. Despite the efforts of his father, he could not continue his education and became a full time poet. His teacher in poetry ( استاد ustad) was Maulana Tajwar Najibabadi مولانا تاجور نجیب آبادی , a well respected personality in literary circles of Lahore who published literary magazines. In Akhtar Shirani's life there was a succession of tragedies. His young son Javed Mahmood جاوید محمود died, his close friend Mirza Shuja Khan مرزا شجاع خان committed suicide, his son in law Naziruddin Shirani نذیر الدین شیرانی was accidently drowned. That made him turn to alcohol. He used to live with his father in a small room on Fleming Road. His condition was so sad that once Shorish Kashmiri شورش کاشمیری (a well know literary, political, and social figure of Lahore) wrote that it was better not to see him, since one would be so depressed. He passed away in Lahore on 9 September 1948, and is buried there. His father had passed away 2 years earlier. Akhtar Shirani is considered one of the main pillars of the modern romantic Urdu poetry. He was called شاعرِ رومان shaair-e romaan (the poet of romance). His poetry influenced many important poets of Urdu. His best known collections of poetry include صبحِ بہار Subh-e bahaar (1945), اخترستان Akhtaristan (1946), لالہِ طور Laala-e Toor (1946), طیورِ آوارہ Tayur-e Aawarah (1946), and شہناز Shahnaz (1946). He had been editor for the literary magazines ہمایوں Humayun (1923-24), انتخاب Intikhab (1925-26), بہارستان Bahaaristan (1926-27), خیالستان Khyaalistan (1930-32), and رومان Romaan (1935-39). He also wrote columns for dailies ہمدرد Hamdard and زمیندار Zamindar by Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar مولانا محمد علی جوہر and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan مولانا ظفر علی خان respectively. The poem downloaded here is about ریاست ٹونک Tonk State. Tonk District is currently in Rajasthan State, about halfway between New Delhi and Ahmedabad. There are several references in the poem to Tonk State. The river mentioned here is دریائے بناس the Banas River, which winds around the north of Tonk city. The villages mentioned are بھانچی Bhanchi village (tehsil تحصیل ٹونک Tonk) and ککراج خورد Kakraj Khurd village (tehsil تحصیل پیپلو Peeplu), where Akhtar Shirani's father (Allama Hafiz Mahmood Shirani) had property. Hafiz sahib passed away in Tonk State in 1946 and his grave is in village Kakraj Khurd, at the bank of Banas river. Jami masjid جامع مسجد Tonk and Annapurna ان پورنا mandir are also mentioned. Tariq Akbar, MBBS, PhD طارق اکبر 24 December 2016