Literature and Society in the QutbShahi Deccan: A Historical Reading of The Epic Romance QutbMushtari

Abstract

Composed in 1610 CE at the Qutb Shahi court of Golconda, Qutb Mushtari by Asadullah Wajhi is one of the earliest romantic masnavis written in Dakhini Urdu. This paper argues that the poem is not only a love story but also a historical document that reflects various aspects of the Qutb Shahi society, such as evolution and development of language, human emotions and their representation in creative ways and the idea of deccan as a distinct identical region. Through three themes - the use of Indic and Persian vocabularies for different emotional expressions, the blending of north Indian literary ideas, Arabo-Persian literary traditions, and Deccani regional identity, , and and the poem's use of astronomical and natural imagery to describe human emotions - the paper shows how Qutb Mushtari represents the cultural aspects of the Deccan in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. paper also reflects on evolution and development of present day Urdu from Dakhini Urdu by comparing the work of Wali Deccani with the work of Wajhi.

Keywords: Dakhini Urdu Literature, Historical Reading of Literature, Indo-Persian Cultural Synthesis, Qutb Shahi Deccan soc.