''Amar Asha'' () () is a Gujarati poem by

Manilal Dwivedi Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi (; 26 September 1858 – 1 October 1898) was a Gujarati-language writer, philosopher, and social thinker from British India, commonly referred to as Manilal in literary circles. He was an influential figure in 19th-ce ...

. It was his last poetic work published posthumously in the 1898 issue of his own magazine, '' Sudarshan''. Described as Manilal's most important work and cited as one of the most popular poems in

Gujarati literature The history of Gujarat, Gujarati literature () may be traced to 1000 AD, and this literature has flourished since then to the present. It is unique in having almost no patronage from a ruling dynasty, other than its composers. Gujarat Vidhya S ...

, ''Amar Asha'' has been studied and interpreted by several writers since its publication.

Publication history

''Amar Asha'' was first published in ''Sudarshan'' (vol. 14, issue 1) on the day Manilal died, 1 October 1898, with some

typographical error A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling or transposition error) made in the typing of printed or electronic material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual typesettin ...

s. It was reproduced and included in many anthologies of poems, such as the second edition of '' Atmanimajjan'', a collection of poems by Manilal, which was published in 1914 by his younger brother, Madhavlal Dwivedi, and an Himmatlal Anajaria's anthology, ''Kavyamadhurya'' (1920), with some corrections suggested by

Amrit Keshav Nayak Amrit Keshav Nayak (14 April 1877 – 18 July 1907) was a Parsi theatre actor-director, lyricist and Gujarati author. He joined theatre at early age and later directed several plays including adaptations of plays of Shakespeare. He wrote plays ...

. It was also published in the 3rd edition of ''Atmanimajjan'' (1959), edited by

Dhirubhai Thaker Dhirubhai Premshankar Thaker (27 June 1918 – 22 January 2014) was an Indian Gujarati writer, who was best known for creating the '' Gujarati Vishwakosh'', a 25-volume encyclopedia of the Gujarati language. Life Thaker was born on 27 June 191 ...

, based on the original manuscript.Dwivedi, संपादकीय ditor's Introduction page 9

Composition

''Amar Asha'' consists of 10

couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

s and has been composed in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

'' beher'' (meter) '' Hazaj''. The opening couplet has rhymes in both lines, while the subsequent couplets' second line rhymes with the first couplet; i.e., the

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

is AA BA CA etc.Thaker : Sāhityasādhana મણિલાલ નભુભાઇ: સાહિત્ય સાધના Page 321

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

has noted that the poem includes some

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

words and Persian legends representing study of Persian works by Manilal.

Lyrics

Reception

''Amar Asha'' is popular among Gujarati people. Mahatma Gandhi liked the poem and reviewed it in his magazine ''

Indian Opinion The ''Indian Opinion'' was a newspaper established by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. The publication was an important tool for the political movement led by Gandhi and the Natal Indian Congress to fight racial discrimination and ag ...

''. He took it from ''Kavyamadhurya'' and included it in his collection of poems ''Nitina Kavya'' along with the review. He praised it for the themes of finding god and love. He noted that it is written by a Hindu scholar in an Islamic style so Hindus and Muslims "both should be proud of it". He also noted that "the beloved" (''Sanam'') can be interpreted as a lover as well as the God or knowledge, similar to the interpretation of poems of

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) (Persian language, Persian: غیاث الدین ابوالفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابورﻯ), commonly known as Omar ...

. In 1900, Manilal's disciple Gaurishankar Govindji Mehta had the poem reviewed by Vedanta monk Atmanand who had tried to interpret it in terms of

Vedanta philosophy ''Vedanta'' (; , ), also known as ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six orthodox ( ''āstika'') traditions of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The word ''Vedanta'' means 'conclusion of the Vedas', and encompasses the ideas that e ...

. Gajendrashankar Pandya has called the poem "immortal". Gujarati critic

Mansukhlal Jhaveri Mansukhlal Maganlal Jhaveri (1907–1981) was a Gujarati language poet, critic, and literary historian of the Gandhian era. He was deeply interested in classical Sanskrit poetry and authored ''History of Gujarati Literature'' (1978). Jhaveri had ...

called it "a gem of Gujarati poetry".

Notes

References

External links

* {{Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi Works by Manilal Dwivedi 1898 poems Poems in Gujarati Ghazals Indian poems