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{{short description|Urdu writer (1912-1949)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Meeraji
| image =
| caption =
| pseudonym = Meeraji
| birth_name = Mohammad Sanaullah Dar
| birth_date = {{birth-date|25 May 1912}}
| birth_place = [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death-date and age|3 November 1949|25 May 1912}}
| death_place = [[Bombay, India]]
| occupation = [[Urdu poet]]
| education =
| alma_mater =
| period =
| genre = [[Ghazal]], [[Nazm]], [[Free verse]]
| subject =
| movement = [[Progressive Writers Association]]
| notableworks =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| website =
| portaldisp =
| imagesize =
}}

'''Mohammad Sanaullah Dar''' (25 May 1912 – 3 November 1949), better known as '''Meeraji''' was an [[India]]n [[Urdu]] poet.<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/baidarbakht/mod04miraji.pdf Miraji]. Baidar Bakht. Columbia University.</ref> He lived the life of a [[Bohemianism|bohemian]], working only intermittently.

==Early life==

Born into a [[Kashmiri people|Kashmiri]] family<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lyrical movements, historical hauntings : on gender, colonialism, and desire in Miraji's Urdu poetry|last=Patel|first=Geeta|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2002|isbn=0804733295|location=Stanford, Calif.|pages=18|oclc=46785363}}</ref> of [[Gujranwala]] and named Mohammed Sanaullah [[Dhar (surname)|Dar]], he passed his childhood days in Kucha Sardar Shah, Mozang, [[Lahore]]. His father, Munshi Mohammad Mahtabuddin, was a railway engineer, so his family had to often move from one place to another. He lived in [[Kathiawar]], [[Bostan, Pishin|Bostan]] ([[Baluchistan (Pakistan)|Baluchistan]]), [[Sanghar]] and [[Jacobabad]].

Meeraji began composing poetry, under the pseudonym of ''Sasri'', when he was at school. It was from his later encounter with a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] girl, Meera Sen, who was a daughter of an accounts officer serving in Lahore, that he fell deeply in love.<ref>{{cite book|author=Malik Ram|year=1977|title=Zia Fatehabadi - Shakhs aur Shair|publisher=Ilmi Majlis|location=Delhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UR_EGwAACAAJ|page=116}}</ref> This left a permanent trace in his life that he adopted his pen name on her name.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1063448/dawn-features-august-7-2002#4 | date=7 August 2002 | title=Meeraji – poet with a difference | newspaper=Dawn | accessdate=8 August 2018 }}</ref> Though brought up in affluent surroundings, Meeraji left his home and family and chose to lead the life of a homeless wanderer, mostly staying with his friends and making a living by selling his songs.<ref>[http://www.urdustan.com/adeeb/shaayar/meeraji.htm Urdustan: Meeraji]</ref> Julien Columeau, a French novelist who also writes in Urdu and Hindi has authored a very unusual but engaging short novel on the life of Meeraji.<ref>[https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/aaj-karachi-shumara-number-071-ajmal-kamal-magazines/?lang=ur# Aaj Shumara Number - 71]. [[Rekhta (website)|Rekhta]].</ref>

==Literary life==

Meeraji was associated with ''Adabi Duniya'' (Lahore), and later worked for [[All India Radio]], [[Delhi]]. He wrote literary columns for the monthly ''Saqi'' ([[Delhi]]) and for a short period helped editing ''Khayal'' ([[Bombay]]). After [[Partition of India|Partition]], he settled permanently in [[Bombay]].

From his teenage days, Meeraji felt attracted towards [[Hindu mythology]]. He often used [[Hindi]] vocabulary in his poetry, prose and letters. He acknowledged his debt to the [[Sanskrit]] poet [[Amaru Shataka|Amaru]] and the [[French people|French]] poet [[Baudelaire]]. He also translated certain works of the [[Sanskrit]] poet, [[Damodar Gupta]] and of the [[Persian people|Persian]] poet, [[Omar Khayyam]].

Meeraji is considered to be one of the pioneers of symbolism in Urdu poetry, and especially introducing [[Free Verse]]. Along with [[N M Rashid|N. M. Rashid]], he was a leading poet of the group ''[[Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq]]'', which broke away from the classic convention of [[Shayari#Radeef|''radeef'']] and [[Shayari#Qafia|''{{transl|ur|qafia}}'']], explored the rich resources of [[blank verse]] and [[Free Verse]], rejected the confines of the socially "acceptable" and "respectable" themes, rejected the stranglehold of Persianised diction, and explored with sensitivity and skill, the hitherto forbidden territories of sexual and psychological states. He also wrote illuminating criticism of poetry and yearned to alter the expression of his age.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Handbook of twentieth-century literatures of India|url=https://archive.org/details/handbooktwentiet00nata|url-access=limited|last=Nalini Natarajan|first=Emmanuel S. Nelson|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1996|isbn=031303267X|location=Westport, Conn.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbooktwentiet00nata/page/n354 344]|oclc=179140690}}</ref>

==Works==

Meeraji's literary output was immense but he published very little of his poetry during his lifetime. However, [[Khalid Hasan]], in his article "Meera Sen's forgotten lover,"{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} records that during Meeraji's lifetime four collections of Meeraji's works were published by Shahid Ahmed Dehlavi, and one by Maktaba-e-Urdu, Lahore. His complete works ''Kulliyat-e-Meeraji'' appeared only in 1988 edited by Dr. [[Jameel Jalibi]].Dr Jameel Jalibi again edited the Kulliyat and published in 1994 from Lahore with all his remaining works. Another collection titled ''Baqiyat-e-Meeraji'' was edited by Sheema Majeed in 1990. A book titled "Iss Nazm Mein" containing Essays of Meeraji was published during his lifetime.

The list of the works of Meeraji:
# "Geet he Geet (songs)
# "Meeraji ke Geet" (Poems)
# "Meeraji ki Nazmen"(Poems)
# "Teen Rang" (Poems)
# "Iss Nazm Mein" (Criticism - Essays of Meeraji)
# "Kulliyat-e-Meeraji" (Poems) compiled by Altaf Gauhar and published by Dr. Jameel Jalibi, Urdu Markaz U.K.
# "Baqiyat-e-Meeraji" (Poems) edited by Sheema Majeed and published by Pakistan Books and Literary Sounds, Lahore.
# "Intikhab-e-kalaam"
# "Pratinidhi Shairy"
# "Seh Aatishah (poems)
# "Mashriq o Maghrib ke Naghmay
# "Paband Nazmen (poems)
# "Meera ji ki Nazmen Edited by Anees Nagi (poems)
# "Nigar Khana (translation)
# "Khemay ke aas Paas (translations)by Meera ji

==Personality==

Meeraji adopted a deliberately outlandish style in his dress, sporting long hair, a dagger-like mustache, oversize earrings, colorful headgear, an amulet and a string of beads around his neck. [[Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi]], his poet friend and former class fellow, recalled that the only time Meeraji trimmed his long hair was when he joined [[All India Radio]], New Delhi.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi|year=1983|title=Zaviyaha e nigaah|publisher=Bazm e Seemab|location=New Delhi|url=http://www.openlibrary.org/books/OL24596007M/Zaviyaha_e_nigaah}}</ref>

==Death==

[[Akhtar ul Iman]], his poet friend, who was himself influenced by Meeraji and [[Noon Meem Rashid]], and with whom Meeraji spent the last days of his life in [[Poona]] and Bombay, reported that his excessive drinking, cigarette-smoking, and sexual dissipation had drained away his strength and damaged his liver. Then, there came the additional agony of his psychic ailment, for which he had to be admitted to hospital where he was given electric shocks to cure him of his insanity -- a treatment which he dreaded. The end came at 4 p.m. on 3 November 1949, in [[King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College|King Edward Memorial Hospital]] in Bombay.

==Thesis==

* "Meeraji" a monograph on the Urdu poet written by [[Shafey Kidwai]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mīrājī|last=Shāfeʻ (Shafey)|first=Qidvāʼī (Kidwai)|last2=شافع.|first2=قدوائى،|publisher=Sāhityah Akādmī|year=2001|isbn=8126013095|edition=1st|location=Naʼī Dihlī|oclc=56719977}}</ref>
* "Meeraji : Shakhsiyat aur Funn" - Doctoral dissertation of Dr. [[Rasheed Amjad|Rashid Amjad]].<ref>A critical appraisal of the personality and art of Meeraji. http://www.sherosokhan.com/id828.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081252/http://www.sherosokhan.com/id828.html |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref>
* "Meeraji aur Amli Tanqeed" published by Mah-e-Nau, Lahore in May, 1979. A study of Meeraji's methods of literary criticism.

== See also ==
* [[Shabnam Shakeel]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Urdu-language poets]]
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Gujranwala]]
[[Category:Writers from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Kashmiri people]]
[[Category:Kashmiri writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:Urdu-language writers from India]]
[[Category:Urdu-language poets from India]]

Meeraji - Revision history

imported>Rdp060707 at 07:50, 14 August 2021