Indian Lovers in Arabic and Persian Guise: Azad Bilgrami's Depiction of Nayikas

This article investigates the systematic presentation of the different types of lovers proposed by the late Mughal author Ghulām ‘Alī ‘Āzād’ Bilgrāmī (d. 1786) in The Coral Rosary of Indian Traditions, written in Arabic in 1763–64, and translated into Persian the following year under the title Gazelles of India. While clearly employing standard Indic categories of nāyikas found in Braj tradition, Āzād illustrated them by quoting specimens of Arabic poetry, both classical and of his own composition, substituting examples of Persian poetry in the Persian translation. Āzād also introduced his own categories of lovers as well. When considered in the context of Āzād’s other writings and the traditions of Hindi poetry cultivated by Muslim scholars from his ancestral home, Bilgram, this remarkable literary production demonstrates an unexpected extension of Indian love poetry through the medium of Arabic and Persian.