[IO Islamic 3518] غم و عشرت

Gham-u-‘Ishrat

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1731 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 3518 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1731

Gham u ‘Ishrat ( غم و عشرت).

A mathnawî by Amîr Ćand of Amritsur (the author’s name is given in an English note by Mr. Ch. Raikes attached to the fly-leaf, see below), lamenting the death of Mahârâjah Ranjît Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Panjâb, the 27th of June, 1839, and rejoicing in the accession of his son, Kharaj Singh, together with a eulogium on prince Nûnihâl Singh, Kharaj Singh’s son, see ff. 5a, 7a, and 8b. The title of the poem appears on fol. 9a, l. 3: مسمّى باسم غم و عشرتست .

It must have been composed soon after Ranjît Singh’s death, in 1839 or 1840 (A.H. 1255, 1256), as both Kharaj Singh and Nûnihâl Singh died in November of that year.

Beginning:

بنالم ز گردون ضحّاك كار – كه جم عشرتانرا بر آرد دمار

According to the note, mentioned above, by Mr.Ch. Raikes, Commissioner and Superintendent of Lâhûr, this MS. was sent ‘to the Imperial Exhibition at Paris for works of art and industry, by the Punjab Committee at Lahore.’ The MS. was received from Dr. Royle, July, 1856.

No. 3518, ff. 10, 2 coll., each ll. 13; large Nasta’lîḳ; size, 9¾ in. by 6½ in.