While the nineteenth century is a period that generally witnessed Persian’s longue durée of decline in post-Mughal South Asia, it is also one in which Persian literary culture reconstituted itself in multiple ways that allowed participants to remain invested in its production. This article focuses on one such environment in the nineteenth century—the court of the last Nawab of Arcot (d. 1855). It highlights the development of Persian literary culture at Arcot, its promotion by the last Nawab through an exclusive Persian poetry society and the personal clashes and poetic rivalries that beset debates around Persian poetry. It demonstrates how Persian literary culture not only remained an important part of the Arcot court’s cultural milieu but also how its poetic debates remained connected to larger issues vexing poets elsewhere in the Persianate world, in particular around the questions of ‘who speaks for Persian’ and ‘what constitutes the Persian canon’.
AlamM. and SubrahmanyamS.. ‘Trade and Politics of the Arcot Nizâmat (1700–1732)’, in AlamM. and SubrahmanyamS. eds, Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics, New York, 2012, pp. 339–95.
3.
AlamM. and SubrahmanyamS.. ‘Eighteenth-century Historiography and the World of the Mughal Munshî’, in AlamM. and SubrahmanyamS., eds, Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics, New York, 2012, pp. 396–428.
4.
BaylyS.Saints, Goddesses, and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South India Society, 1700–1900, Cambridge/New York, 1989.
5.
BeckaJ.. ‘Bedil and Bedilism’, in RypkaJan and JahnKarl, eds, History of Iranian Literature, Dordrecht, 1968, pp. 515–20.
6.
BeersT.S.‘The Biography of Vahshi Bâfqi (d. 991/1583) and the Tazkera Tradition’, Journal of Persianate Studies (hereafter JPS), Vol. 8 (2), 2015, pp. 195–222.
7.
DasS.K.Sahibs and Munshis: An Account of the College at Fort William, Calcutta, 1978.
8.
DudneyA.‘Sabk-e Hendi and the Crisis of Authority in Eighteenth-century Indo-Persian Poetics’, JPS, Vol. 9 (1), 2016, pp. 60–82.
9.
FaruqiS.R.Early Urdu Literary Culture and History, New Delhi, 2001.
10.
FaruqiS.R.‘Unprivileged Power: The Strange Case of Persian (and Urdu) in Nineteenth Century India’, The Annual of Urdu Studies, Vol. 13, 1998, pp. 3–30.
11.
FisherM.H.. ‘Teaching Persian as an Imperial Language in India and in England during the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in SpoonerBrian and HanawayWilliam, eds, Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order, Philadelphia, 2012, pp. 328–58.
GreenN.Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840–1915, Cambridge/ New York, 2011.
14.
GreenN.‘The Uses of Books in a Late Mughal Takiyya: Persianate Knowledge between Person and Paper’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 44(2), 2010, pp. 241–65.
15.
HadiN.Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature, New Delhi, 1995.
16.
HermansenM. and LawrenceB.. ‘Indo-Persian Tazkiras as Memorative Communications’, in GilmartinDavid and LawrenceBruce B., eds, Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia, Gainesville, 2000, pp. 149–75.
17.
HodgsonM.G.The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, Vol. 2, Chicago, 1974.
18.
IvanowW.Concise Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, First Supplement, Calcutta, 1927.
19.
KiaM.. ‘Imagining Iran before Nationalism: Geocultural Meanings of Land in Azar’s Atashkadeh’, in AghaieKamran Scot and MarashiAfshin, eds, Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity, Austin, 2014, pp. 89–112.
20.
KiaM.‘Contours of Persianate Community, 1722–1835’, PhD Dissertation, Harvard University, 2011.
21.
KinraR.Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary, Oakland, 2015.
22.
KokanM.Y.Arabic and Persian in Carnatic, 1710–1960, Madras, 1394/1974.
23.
LehmannF.‘Urdu Literature and Mughal Decline’, Mahfil, Vol. 6 (2–3), 1970, pp. 1125–31.
24.
LosenskyP.Welcoming Fighânî: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal, Costa Mesa, 1998.
25.
MacaulayT.B.‘Minute on Education’, 2February1835, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html (accessed 28February2016).
26.
Madras Letter to Court, Foreign Department, 14February1837, no. 3, National Archives of India (NAI), New Delhi, India.
27.
Madras Letter from Court, Foreign Department, 18October1854, no. 3, NAI, New Delhi, India.
28.
MetcalfB.D.‘Urdu in India in the 21st Century: A Historian’s Perspective’, Social Scientist Vol. 31(5–6), June2003, pp. 29–37.
29.
Muhammad Ghaws Khan Bahâdur ‘A‘zam’. Tazkirah-yi gulzâr-i A‘zam, Aligarh Muslim University Oriental Manuscript Collection (AMU), Aligarh, India, yûnîvirsitî number 20 Fârsî tazkirah, dhu al-hijah 1270/1854.
30.
Muhammad Hasan ‘Qatîl’. Shajarat al-amânî, Cawnpore, 1865–66, HathiTrust Digital Library, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076320728 (accessed 28February2016).
31.
Muhammad Husayn ‘Râqim’. Bahr-i ‘Ajam, College of Fort William Collection, no. 527, NAI, New Delhi, India.
32.
Muhammad Qudratallah Khan Gûpâmavî‘Qudrat’. Tazkirah-yi natâ’ij al-afkâr, Bombay, 1957.
33.
NaimC.M.. ‘Mughal and English Patronage of Urdu Poetry: A Comparison’, in MillerBarbara Stoler, ed., The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture, New Delhi/New York, 1992, pp. 259–76.
34.
PhillipsJ.‘A Successor to the Moguls: The Nawab of the Carnatic and the East India Company, 1763–1785’, The International History Review, Vol. 7 (3), 1985, pp. 364–89.
35.
PritchettF.. ‘A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 2: Histories, Performances, and Masters’, in PollackSheldon, ed., Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, Berkeley, 2003, pp. 864–911.
36.
QamberA.The Last Musha‘irah of Delhi: A Translation into English of Farhatullah Baig’s Modern Urdu Classic, Delhi ki akhri shama‘, New Delhi, 1979.
37.
RahmanT.‘Decline of Persian in British India’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 22 (1), 1999, pp. 47–62.
38.
RamaswamiN.S.Political History of Carnatic under the Nawabs, New Delhi, 1984.
39.
Sayyid Murtazâ ‘Bînish’. Tazkirah-yi ishârât-i Bînish, Dr. Sharîf Husayn Qâsimî, ed., New Delhi, 1973.
40.
SchwartzK.‘The Local Lives of a Transregional Poet: ‘Abd al-Qâdir Bîdil and the Writing of Persianate Literary History’, JPS, Vol. 9 (1), 2016, pp. 83–106.
41.
SchwartzK.‘Bâzgasht-i Adabî (Literary Return) and Persianate Literary Culture in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Iran, India, and Afghanistan’, PhD Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2014.
42.
Shafî’î-KadkanîM.R.Shâ‘ir-i âyinah-hâ: barrasî-yi sabk-i Hindî va shi‘r-i Bîdil, Tehran, 1987.
43.
SharmaS.‘Redrawing the Boundaries of ‘Ajam in Early Modern Persian Literary History’, in Abbas Amanat and Farvin Vejdani, eds, Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective, New York, 2012, pp. 51–64.
44.
SteingassFrancis Joseph. A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, including the Arabic Words and Phrases to be Met with in Persian Literature. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1892.
45.
SyedM.A.. ‘How Could Urdu Be the Envy of Persian (rashk-i Farsi)!: The Role of Persian in South Asian Literature and Culture’, in SpoonerBrian and HanawayWilliam, eds, Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order, Philadelphia, 2012, pp. 279–310.
46.
VatukS.. ‘Islamic Learning at the College of Fort St. George in Nineteenth-century Madras’, in TrautmannThomas R., ed., The Madras School of Orientalism: Producing Knowledge in Colonial South India, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 48–73.
47.
WagonerP.‘Precolonial Intellectuals and the Production of Colonial Knowledge’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 45 (4), 2003, pp. 783–814.
