Most people who are acquainted with Ghalib’s poetry know that he was born on Rajab 8, 1212, corresponding to Dec 27, 1797. Most people are also aware that Ghalib was a gifted child who began composing poetry at the age of 11 or 12, was married to Umrao Begum at 13, moved from Agra to Delhi a couple of years later, and lived there for the rest of his life.

What many Ghalib fans don’t know is that there are many discrepancies between the dates and events recorded by Ghalib’s biographers. Altaf Hussain Hali’s Yadgar-i Ghalib (1897), and Malik Ram’s Zikr-i Ghalib (1938), are two renowned, pioneering works that paint an endearing portrait of Ghalib, focusing on his life and work, and peppered with anecdotes relating his extraordinary felicity with words and witty conversational skills.

Poet and litterateur Hali was Ghalib’s shagird. Despite being an advocate for ‘natural’ poetry, a somewhat anti-classical ghazal stance, he was a great admirer of Ghalib, and occasionally fudged facts to present his ustad in a positive light. Hali was not careful in checking dates. As per his account, Ghalib journeyed to Calcutta at the age of 40: “Mirza’s age was shy of 40 when he reached Calcutta via Lucknow.”

Khalilur Rahman Daudi’s meticulous edition of Yadgar-i Ghalib (1963) draws attention to this and many of Hali’s errors. Ram wrote a positively delightful Ghalib biography, crafted in the first person so that it reads like an autobiography. Later biographers, such as Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam (Ghalib, Life and Letters, 1969), seem to follow Hali and Ram almost uncritically.

Generally speaking, biographers construct Ghalib’s life through snippets from his numerous letters to friends and relatives. Ghalib has shared specific information about his genealogy, etc. on several occasions. The first instance of his birth date is recorded in the first edition of the Kulliyat-i Nazm-i Farsi of 1837. At the conclusion of this volume Ghalib wrote: “To this day from the hijrat of our last Prophet, 1,253 years have passed, and that my fortune’s star through the movement of the sky’s messenger has reached 41 years.” This means that in 1253 hijri, Ghalib, as per his own admission, was 41 years old.

There is also a birth chart or zaichah that was prepared by Ghalib himself. According to this horoscope, preserved at the Raza Library, Rampur, Ghalib was born on Sunday (yakshambah), Rajab 8, 1212. A copy of the horoscope was first published in the second edition of the Kulliyat-i Nazm-i Farsi (1863). The published version has the birth date 1214 hijri, which is obviously a copyist’s mistake. But Rajab 8, 1212, was not a Sunday; it was a Wednesday (chaharshambah). This seems a minor mistake, but, as we shall see, there are more inconsistencies than mere confusion of days. Besides, a horoscope that shows a birthday different from the ‘actual’ one raises a red flag as to its purpose, as well as validity.

Kamal Ahmad Siddiqi and Hanif Naqvi have published articles containing detailed research on Ghalib’s date of birth. Both scholars have presented an exhaustive list of references, gathered from the letters and other sources, pertaining to Ghalib’s date of birth. Important signposts in the great poet’s lifespan that determine the arc of his life are: the death of his father, death of his uncle, marriage, and move from Agra to Delhi.

Historical documents and biographies reveal there may be a reason behind differing accounts of the poet’s birthday

A significant, but dubious period, are the two years spent with his Iranian tutor, Abdus Samad. The Iranian traveller arrived in Agra sometime around 1811, and was invited by Ghalib to stay at his house for two years. Ghalib was clearly living in Agra at the time. Many scholars, notable among them Qazi Abdul Wudood, hold that the entire episode of an Iranian tutor was invented by Ghalib to justify his appropriate usage of Persian. The information about Ghalib’s teenage years is so scarce and hard to corroborate that one can either believe or disbelieve the existence of Abdus Samad in Ghalib’s life. My point is that if Ghalib could create a make-believe tutor, he could create a fictitious horoscope too.

It is not clear exactly when Ghalib took up permanent residence in Delhi. It appears from a letter that he wrote to Shiv Narain Aram, dated Oct 19, 1858, that he lived in Agra till he was at least 20 years old:

“When I was a youth (javan), I observed Munshi Bansidhar (Shiv Narain Aram’s grandfather) with Khan Sahib (Ghalib’s maternal grandfather, Kamidan Ghulam Husain Khan). Munshi Bansidhar was Khan Sahib’s petitioner in the claim he had filed with the government for possession of his lands in Kathim village. He was a lawyer who dealt in such cases. He and I were the same age. Perhaps Bansidhar was a year or two older or younger. I was 19 or 20; he must have been the same age. We played chess and spent time together, staying up way past midnight. Because his house was not far, he could leave whenever he wanted. Between his place and ours was Machiara prostitute’s house, with our two plazas in between. On one of the terraces of this plaza, I used to fly kites. Raja Balwan Singh and I used to have kite-fights.”

According to this letter, it seems Ghalib was living in Agra when he was nine, in his grandfather’s home. Perhaps he was not married at the time. This would make him at least 20 at the time of his marriage. It would push his date of birth from 1797 to 1790, or further back.

The move to Delhi would also happen after 1818. Another important document that could help us determine Ghalib’s age is an affidavit written in Ghalib’s hand on behalf of his mother. The document, dated 1804, is preserved in the Maulana Azad Library at Aligarh University. It is hard to believe that a six-year-old child (presuming that Ghalib was born in 1797) could have written that document or that it would be valid.

I was persuaded to look closely into the birth date controversy, because I found it difficult to believe that a 12-year-old poet could be included in a tazkirah! The Tazkirah-i Sarvar has a fairly long entry on Ghalib, listed under ‘Asad’ which was his penname in the early period. This voluminous tazkirah contains entries on 1,200 Urdu poets. Sarvar began his tazkirah in 1216/1799 and the last amendments or updates were completed by 1224/1809.

Ghalib would have been two years old when Sarvar started the tazkirah, and 12 at the time of completion. Kamal Ahmad Siddiqi could be overreacting when he says that the verses presented in the tazkirah are too polished to attribute to a 12-year old, but he certainly makes a good argument that Sarvar’s description of Ghalib doesn’t fit a 12-year-old youth’s:

“Asad, takhallus Asadullah Khan urf Mirza Naushah, originally from Samarqand, was born and lives in Akbarabad (Agra). He is a learned, friendly and kind-hearted person who has always lived a comfortable life. His heart is drawn to writing Rekhtah. He has been instructed on eternal love. In the art of poetry he follows the style of Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil. He writes Rekhtah with a lot of Persian idioms. In a way his style is unique. This writer knows him. Our friendship (with this writer) is established. His verses are often in hard, and/or sophisticated meters. Composing in the khiyal band style is dear to his heart.”

Khwaja Ahmad Farooqi, editor of Tazkirah-e Sarvar, affirms that our information about Ghalib’s life in Agra is very limited and scattered. It appears that his life in Agra was luxurious; however, his move to Delhi was financially challenging. As per the information in his letters, he could have moved to Delhi any year between 1811 and 1816 (Ghalib ka Qayam-i Agra aur Tazkirah-i Sarvar; page 54). The letter to Munshi Shiv Narain Aram also mentions Ghalib’s kite flying matches with Raja Balwan Singh. Balwan Singh moved to Agra in 1812. Farooqi concludes that Ghalib must not have left Agra permanently before 1814.

He also makes the point that the references to Ghalib’s lifestyle and examples of poetry quoted in the tazkirah are from the Agra period. It must be noted that Sarvar does not mention that Ghalib lived in Delhi. Maulvi Karimuddin’s tazkirah, Tabaqat-e Shuara’-I Hind, comes later (1847). He mentions Ghalib’s location as follows: “At first he [Ghalib] lived in Agra, but now, since before 1250/1834, lives in Shajahanabad.” Maulvi Karimuddin gives a wide berth to Ghalib’s establishing a permanent home in Delhi. This further strengthens the argument that Ghalib lived in Agra at least till he was 19.

In his letters Ghalib made offhand remarks about his age at the time he began to write poetry. Episodically, he says: “I was 12 when I began to blacken paper with poetry and prose like a testament of my deeds.” Or that, “I was 15 when I began writing poetry. For 60 years I chattered. Got no reward for my odes, nor praise for my ghazals.” Like everything else related to his age, there are many contradictory, imprecise references to how old Ghalib was when he started writing poetry. Depending on his allusions, or what we accept to be his date of birth, he could have begun to write any time between the ages of 11 and 16.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, the inconsistencies are many and so diverse that it is tedious to track, assimilate and infer conclusively from the material gathered. Although Siddiqi and Naqvi have compiled a plethora of references, they haven’t reached a firm conclusion as to what was Ghalib’s year of birth. Naqvi is inclined to think that it could be between 1790 and 1793. He thinks a safe bet would be that Ghalib reduced his age by four years; that he was born in 1208 hijri/1793. Siddiqi wants to push the date further back to 1786.

The question remains: why would Ghalib want to reduce his age? The answer could be related to the sad saga of his attempts to restore his pension. If indeed he was eight or nine years old at the time of his uncle’s death, he was too young to have a say in the pension, or take steps to intervene at the time. But if he was older, then he should have taken action sooner than he did. It is likely that the comfortable, protected lifestyle at his grandparents’ home had made him indifferent to financial matters.

It is possible that Ghalib decided to reduce his age and chose a fictitious date to show that he was young and innocent at the time of his uncle’s death. He tried to reinforce the date and remain consistent

by fabricating a horoscope. Nonetheless, as he grew older, he found it difficult to be precise about his age when he talked about past memories, such as the one about flying kites or playing chess with friends in his youth.

It really doesn’t matter how old Ghalib was when he died, or whether he was 11 or 16 when he began to write. It does not affect his stature as a great poet. What it does help us with is to understand Ghalib’s life a bit better than before, especially with regard to the early compositions. If indeed Ghalib’s date of birth is fictitious, it is likely that Abdus Samad too was an imaginary figure invented by him to give credibility to his superior Persian usage.

Ghalib’s biographers should have examined the evidence more closely than they did. Since I am working on a textual history of Ghalib, it is important for me to understand his age at the time of completing the Divan of 1816, and subsequent Divans of 1821, 1826, 1828, and 1841. For example, in Tazkirah-e Sarvar, we have a prior version of the rubai in which Ghalib complains of his peers not appreciating his poetry. Fired with youthful exuberance, he calls them illiterate or jahil. Later, he amended the second line changing jahil for sukhanvaran-e kamil, that is the perfect, accomplished poets:

Mushkil hai ze bas kalam mera ay dil

Hote hain mulul usko sun kar jahil

(sun sun ke use sukhanvaran-e kamil)

Asan kahne ki karte hain farmaish

Goyam mushkil –o gar na goyam mushkil

This rubai in its amended form is included in the 1821 Divan, popularly known as the Nuskhah-e Hamidiyyah, and later, in the current Divan-e Ghalib. The changes made between 1816 and 1821 show Ghalib’s maturity as a poet. Ghalib’s editorial process from Divan to Divan is enlightening. His life story with its ups and downs, facts and fictions is fascinating.