The 13th century polymath Zakariya al Qazwini is acclaimed for his cosmography Ajaib al Makhalooqaat wa Gharaib al Maujoodaat [Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing].

In it, he describes the many ajaib [marvels or wonders] of creation, including the stars, the flora and fauna and the gharaib [strange and miraculous things and oddities] such as eclipses, earthquakes and the birth of conjoined twins in animals. In Urdu, the term ajeeb-o-ghareeb encompasses both phenomena, the marvels and the oddities.

Many years ago, I began making notes of the ajeeb-o-ghareeb phenomena I encountered in literature, to employ them in my own fiction. One such phenomenon was the union of lovers in death, which occurred in many forms. I quote some famous examples below:

In what I have read so far, the earliest such event is recorded by the 16th century Indian historian Ahmad Yadgar. In his book Taareekh-i-Salateen-i-Afaghina [A History of Afghan Monarchs], he writes that a faqir [mendicant] travelling in a boat with a wedding procession fell in love with the bride at first sight.

The repetition of the theme over centuries reveals it to be a major preoccupation of our literature.

Recognising his feelings, the bride, by way of teasing him, threw her shoe into the river and dared the faqir to dive and fetch it. The faqir accepted the challenge and dove in, but did not resurface. Remorseful, the bride threw herself into the river and, when the wedding party pulled their bodies out, they were found entwined in each other’s arms. The faqir held her shoe in one hand.

With great difficulty, they were separated from each other’s embrace. Their bodies were carried across the river and buried in separate graves. Two months later, the bride’s family arrived to take her body for burial in their ancestral graveyard, but they discovered no signs of it upon opening her grave.

When the faqir’s grave was opened, there were no signs of his body, either. But upon digging a little deeper into his grave, they came upon a small window.

Looking through it, they beheld a beautiful garden with many resplendent golden palaces and lovely ponds, where the girl and the faqir were seated on a throne studded with pearls and jewels, a troop of female attendants waiting on them.

While the witnesses were marvelling at this sight, a stone fell and blocked the window, obliterating all signs of it.

Two masnavis — Mir Taqi Mir’s Darya-i-Mohabbat [the River of Love] and Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi’s Bahr-i-Ulfat [The Sea of Affection] — both narrate variants of the historic event narrated by Ahmad Yadgar.

Qaim Chandpuri’s masnavi Dervish-o-Uroos [The Dervish and the Bride] narrates that, somewhere in the region of Punjab, a faqir had cultivated a garden beside his abode and travellers would stop there to rest. One day, a wedding procession arrived there. The faqir saw the bride and fell passionately in love with her. When the procession left, he climbed a tree and watched it leave until it was lost to sight, whereupon he fell down dead.

Meanwhile, the love the bride had felt for the faqir alerted her to his demise. A listlessness came over her. She cried and grieved continuously and nobody could fathom the cause. Her family went to fetch her from her in-laws and, on the return journey, they passed by the same garden.

The girl saw the faqir’s grave and went towards it, whereupon it opened. Turning to smoke, the girl vanished into its embrace before everyone’s eyes. The grave closed up as before, but now the body of the faqir lay atop it.

A variant of this event is also narrated in Mir Abdul Wahid Bilgrami’s Saba Sanbil [Seven Ears of Wheat] in which the bodies of the girl and the faqir merge into one, with her make-up and jewellery appearing on the faqir’s body.

Bismil Faizabadi, in his 18th century masnavi Husn-o-Ishq [Beauty and Love] tells the story of Mahjoor, a merchant’s son, who saw a young man named Manohar in his dream and fell in love with him. Manohar, too, underwent the same experience. After searching for each other for many years, they met through the intercession of a pious man.

After some time, Manohar’s father, Raja Utam Chand, separated Manohar from Mahjoor over some misunderstanding. Unable to bear separation from his beloved, Manohar lay at death’s door. The raja was forced to send for Mahjoor to save his son’s life, but by the time Mahjoor arrived, Manohar had died. During Manohar’s last rites, while he was being burnt in the funeral pyre, his lover Mahjoor also spontaneously burst into flames and died.

Shah Ayatollah Jauhari, in his masnavi Gohar-i-Jauhari [The Pearl of Jauhari] narrates the story of Raja Ram and Kanwal Dai who fell in love and were married. When Raja Ram was forced to go on a long journey, Kanwal Dai’s health declined during their separation. They were reunited a year later upon Raja Ram’s return, but after some days Kanwal Dai fell ill again and passed away.

Raja Ram witnessed a flame rise from the ashes of Kanwal Dai which called out his name. He jumped into the flame and was combusted and reunited with his beloved.

In Rasikh Azeemabadi’s masnavi Jazb-i-Ishq [Allurement of Love], a young lover is murdered by his beloved’s parents when he does not desist from pursuing her. Upon receiving news of his death, his beloved drowns herself in a well. However, when the well is searched, her body is not found. It is discovered joined to her lover’s, far away in the grave where he is interred.

As stated earlier, the examples quoted above merely offer a sample, not the totality of these events. In fact, over the years, I discovered so many such cases in our literature that I began to question whether, in the light of such profuse evidence, the phenomenon could at all be considered rare or wondrous.

Regardless, the repetition of the theme in different forms throughout the centuries reveals it to be a major preoccupation of our literature, and make it an integral part of its poetics.

The columnist is a novelist, author and translator.
He tweets @microMAF. Website: micromaf.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 8th, 2023