Harbans Bhalla (1930-1993) was born in Parsur, now in Sialkot dist of Pakistan. After Partition in 1947 he moved to India . A prolific writer who has more than 14 books published to his credit in various languages . Harbans Bhalla was a scholar in Persian , Shahmukhi and Urdu language and had a quest for achieving the pinnacle of these languages. He started a unique feat of penning down the longest ever book in a poetic form and has authored the longest ever poetry written comprising of 70,000 verses or rhymed couplets titled Peelay Pattar . A total of 1,40,000 lines with more than 15 lakh words . He took fourteen years to complete this work. Thus broke a 10th century record of 60 thousand
verse poetry in the name of Phirdousi or Ferdowsi who took 35 years to write Shâhnameh . Peelay Pattar is a poetry touching a vast variety of topics.
About Ferdowsi's magnum opus Shahnama
Shāhnāmé, or Shāhnāma (Persian) (alternative spellings are Shahnama, Shahnameh, Shahname, Shah-Nama, etc.) is an enormous poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD and is the national epic of Iran. The Shāhnāmeh tells the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world up until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.
Aside from its literary importance, the Shāhnāmeh, written in almost pure Persian unmixed with adoptions from Arabic, has been pivotal for reviving the Persian language after the massive influence of Arabic. This voluminous work, regarded by Persian speakers as a literary masterpiece, also reflects Persia's history, cultural values, ancient religions (Zoroastrianism), and profound sense of nationhood. Ferdowsi completed the Shâhnameh when national independence had been compromised. While there are memorable heroes and heroines of the classical type in this work, the real, ongoing hero is Persia itself. It is thus an important book for Iran.
This book is also important to the remaining 200,000 Zoroastrians, because the Shâhnameh traces the history of Zoroastrian religion from its beginnings up to the defeat of the last Zoroastrian king by Arab invaders.
Illustrated copies of the work are among the most sumptuous examples of Persian miniature painting. Several copies remain intact, although two of the most famous, the Houghton Shahnameh and the Great Mongol Shahnameh, were broken up for sheets to be sold separately in the 20th century. A single sheet from the former (now Aga Khan Museum) was sold for £904,000 in 2006. [1] The Bayasanghori Shâhnâmeh, an illuminated manuscript copy of the work (Golestan Palace, Iran), is included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register of cultural heritage items.
There is an ongoing controversy among scholars about the sources of the Shâhnameh. Ferdowsi's epic is probably based mainly on an earlier prose version which itself was a compilation of old Persian stories and historical facts and fables. However, there is without any doubt also a strong influence of oral literature, since the style of the Shahnameh shows characteristics of both written and oral literature. Some of the characters of the Epic are of Indo-Iranian heritage, and are mentioned in sources as old as the ancient Avesta and even the Rig Veda. The Shâhnameh itself was written in Pahlavi Persian, which at the time was looking towards a bleak end.
The Shâhnameh of Ferdowsi, an epic poem of over 50,000 couplets, is based mainly on a prose work of the same name compiled in the poet's earlier life in his native Tus. This prose Shâhnameh was in turn and for the most part the translation of a Pahlavi work, a compilation of the history of the kings and heroes of Persia from mythical times down to the reign of Khosrau II (590-628), but it also contains additional material continuing the story to the overthrow of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the middle of the 7th century. The first to undertake the versification of this chronicle of pre-Islamic and legendary Persia was Daqīqī-e Balkhī, a poet at the court of the Samanids, who came to a violent end after completing only 1000 verses. These verses, which deal with the rise of the prophet Zoroaster, were afterward incorporated by Ferdowsi, with due acknowledgments, in his own poem.
Ferdowsi started his composition of the Shahnameh in the Samanid era in 977 A.D and completed it around 1010 A.D. during the Ghaznavid era.[4].
The Shâhnameh recounts the history of Persia, beginning with the creation of the world and the introduction of the arts of civilization (fire, cooking, metallurgy, law) to the Aryans and ends with the Arab conquest of Persia. The work is not precisely chronological, but there is a general movement through time. Some of the characters live for hundreds of years (as do some of the characters in the Bible), but most have normal life spans. There are many shāhs who come and go, as well as heroes and villains, who also come and go. The only lasting images are that of Greater Persia itself, and a succession of sunrises and sunsets, no two ever exactly alike, yet illustrative of the passage of time.
Father Time, a Saturn-like image, is a reminder of the tragedy of death and loss, yet the next sunrise comes, bringing with it hope of a new day. In the first cycle of creation, evil is external (the devil). In the second cycle, we see the beginnings of family hatred, bad behavior, and evil permeating human nature. Shāh Fereydūn's two eldest sons feel greed and envy toward their innocent younger brother and, thinking their father favors him, they murder him. The murdered prince's son avenges the murder, and all are immersed in the cycle of murder and revenge, blood and more blood.
In the third cycle, we encounter a series of flawed shahs. There is a Phaedra-like story of Shāh Kay Kāūs, his wife Sūdāba, and her passion and rejection by her stepson, Sīyāvash.
In the next cycle, all the players are unsympathetic and selfish and evil. This epic on the whole is darker over all than most other epics, most of which have some sort of resolution and catharsis. This tone seems reflective of two things, perhaps: the conquest of the Persians by the Arabs, and a reflection of the last days of Persian Zoroastrianism. The old religion had been fraught with heresies, and somehow Zoroaster's optimistic view of man's ability to choose had become life denying and negative of this world. There is an enormous amount of bad luck and bad fate in the stories.
It is only in the characterizations of the work's many figures, both male and female, that Zoroaster's original view of the human condition comes through. Zoroaster emphasized human free will. We find all of
Ferdowsi's characters complex. Nobody is an archetype or a puppet. The best characters have bad flaws, and the worst have moments of humanity.
Ferdowsi was grieved by the fall of the Persian empire and its subsequent rule by Arabs and Turks. The Shahnameh is largely his effort to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days and transmit it to a new generation so that they could learn and try to build a better world.[5]. Though formally Muslim, the Shahnameh nevertheless has a certain anti-Arab and anti-Turk bias[6].
Shâhnameh and its impact on Modern Persian
After Ferdowsi's Shâhnameh, a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of the Persian language. Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on Ferdowsi's Shâhnameh, but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity.
Some experts believe the main reason the Modern Persian language today is more or less the same language as that of Ferdowsi's time over 1000 years ago is due to the very existence of works like Ferdowsi's Shâhnameh which have had lasting and profound cultural and linguistic influence. In other words, the Shâhnameh itself has become one of the main pillars of the modern Persian language. Studying Ferdowsi's masterpiece also became a requirement for achieving mastery of the Persian language by subsequent Persian poets, as evidenced by numerous references to the Shâhnameh in their works.
The Shâhnameh has 62 stories, 990 chapters, and some 60,000 rhyming couplets, making it more than seven times the length of Homer's Iliad, and more than twelve times the length of the German Nibelungenlied. There have been a number of English translations, almost all abridged. Mathew Arnold produced one of the first English translations of the story of Rostam and Sohrab[7].
In 1925, the brothers Arthur & Edmond Warner published the complete work in nine volumes, now out of print. A recent translation by Dick Davis [8] has made this epic poem accessible for English speakers. The translation is a combination of poetry and prose, although it is not the complete translation of the Shahnameh.
Synopsis
The Shâhnameh is an impressive monument of poetry and historiography, being mainly the poetical recast of what Ferdowsi, his contemporaries, and his predecessors regarded as the account of Iran's ancient history. Many such accounts already existed in prose, an example being the Shâhnameh of Abu Mansur Abd-al-Razaq. A small portion of Ferdowsi's work, in passages scattered throughout the Shâhnameh, is entirely of his own conception. Added to the vivid descriptions of various scenes and phenomena, these occasional comments expresses his reflection on life, his religious and ethical beliefs and his admiration of virtue, his praise for his patrons, and his references to the sources he used. The rest of the work is divided into three successive parts: the mythical, heroic, and historical ages.
The mythical age
After an opening in praise of God and Wisdom, the Shâhnameh gives an account of the creation of the world and of man as believed by the Sasanians. This introduction is followed by the story of the first man, Keyumars, who also became the first king after a period of mountain dwelling. His grandson Hushang, son of Sīyāmak, accidentally discovered fire and established the Sadeh Feast in its honor. Stories of Tahmuras, Jamshid, Zahhāk, Kawa or Kaveh, Fereydūn and his three sons Salm, Tur, and Iraj, and his grandson Manuchehr are related in this section. This portion of the Shâhnameh is relatively short, amounting to some 2100 verses or four percent of the entire book, and it narrates events with the simplicity, predictability, and swiftness of a historical work. Naturally, the strength and charm of Ferdowsi's poetry have done much to make the story of this period attractive and lively.
The heroic age
Almost two-thirds of the Shâhnameh is devoted to the age of heroes, extending from Manuchehr's reign until the conquest of Alexander the Great (Sekandar). The main feature of this period is the major role played by the Sagzi (Saka) or Sistānī heroes who appear as the backbone of the Persian Empire. Garshāsp is briefly mentioned with his son Narimān, whose own son Sām acted as the leading paladin of Manuchehr while reigning in Sistān in his own right. His successors were his son Zāl and Zal's sonRostam, the bravest of the brave, and then Farāmarz.
The feudal society in which they lived is admirably depicted in the Shâhnameh with accuracy and lavishness. Indeed, the Masters' descriptions are so vivid and impressive that the reader feels himself participating in the events or closely viewing them. The tone is significantly epic and moving, while the language is extremely rich and varied.
Among the stories described in this section are the romance of Zal and Rudāba, the Seven Stages (or Labors) of Rostam, Rostam & Sohrāb, Sīyāvash & Sudāba, Rostam & Akvān Dīv, the romance of Bižhan & Manížheh, the wars with Afrāsīyāb, Daqiqi's account of the story of Goshtāsp & Arjāsp, and Rostam & Esfandyār.
It is noteworthy that the legend of Rostam and Sohrāb is attested only in the Shâhnameh and, as usual, begins with a lyrical and detailed prelude. Here Ferdowsi is at the zenith of his poetic power and has become a true master of storytelling. The thousand or so verses of this tragedy comprise one of the most moving tales of world literature.
The historical age
A brief mention of the Ashkānīyān dynasty follows the history of Alexander and precedes that of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty. After this, Sassanid history is related with a good deal of accuracy. The fall of the Sassanids and the Arab conquest of Persia are narrated romantically, and in very moving poetic language. Here, the reader can see Ferdowsi himself lamenting over this catastrophe and over what he calls the arrival of "the army of darkness".
According to Ferdowsi, the final edition of the Shâhnameh contained some sixty thousand distichs. But this is a round figure; most of the relatively reliable manuscripts have preserved a little over fifty thousand distiches. Nezami-e Aruzi reports that the final edition of the Shâhnameh sent to the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was prepared in seven volumes.
courtesy : wikipedia
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