KarunaIntermediate

आ घिर आई दई मारी घटा कारी।

Aa Ghir Aayi Dai Mari Ghata Kari

1 verses · ~1 min

आ घिर आई दई मारी घटा कारी। बन बोलन लागे मोर दैया री बन बोलन लगे मोर। रिम-झिम रिम-झिम बरसन लागी छाय री चहुँ ओर। आज बन बोलन लगे मोर। कोयल बोल डार-डार पर पपीहा मचाए शोर। ऐसे समय साजन परदेस गए बिरहन छोर।

इति

Rasa: Karuna
Stanzas: 1
Lines: 4
Reading time: ~1 min
Rhyme: irregular

The emotional atmosphere is steeped in profound karuna and agonizing separation, radiating a melancholic and desolate romantic longing as the monsoon arrives. A canvas depicting this scene would show a desolate woman standing under a heavy, oppressive blanket of dark storm clouds, watching rain softly fall in a steady, rhythmic drizzle across a lush forest where vibrant peacocks cry out and cuckoos and papihas call out in deafening, mocking harmony from every branch. This natural symphony of the rainy season serves as a poignant symbol of her overflowing grief, cruelly contrasting the fertility of the earth with her own barren, solitary state. The artistic tone is deeply tragic and yearning, capturing the bitter irony of lovers separated in distant lands while nature itself unites in fertile, tempestuous passion.

आ घिर आई दई मारी घटा कारी। (Aa Ghir Aayi Dai Mari Ghata Kari), by Amir Khusrow runs to 4 lines, set as Four lines of verse.. Its governing rasa is Karuna, shaded by Shringara. Rhyme falls as irregular.

It belongs to the 1253 · 1325 span of Amir Khusrow's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for सावन में विरह की वेदना and प्रकृति और मन का संबंध. 3 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Damayanti Deserted in the Forest: Raja Ravi Varma’s chromolithograph evokes a heavy, sorrowful mood of profound isolation and psychological vulnerability, capturing Queen Damayanti abandoned in the depths of a dense, intimidating forest. Clad in a…

Words worth pausing on

दई: ईश्वर या भाग्य
घटा: बादल
बिरहन: विरह में जलने वाली स्त्री

Threads

Clouds Cuckoo Rain Monsoon Separation

The Poet

अमीर खुसरो

Amir Khusrow

1253 · 1325

Amir Khusrow lived and breathed a syncretic culture centuries before the modern world even possessed the vocabulary for it. Born in 1253 in Patiyali, Uttar Pradesh, he served as a scholar, a musician, and a poet under the Delhi Sultanate. Despite his royal appointments, his true allegiance remained with his spiritual master, Nizamuddin Auliya. He is widely recognized as the father of Qawwali and is traditionally credited with the invention of the sitar and tabla. His most profound contribution, however, lay in language. He took the formal Persian of the royal courts and merged it with the everyday Hindavi spoken on the streets. His riddles, verses, and ghazals are entirely alive today, still sung at shrines and in courtyards across the Indian subcontinent. Khusrow did not merely write poetry. He shaped the cultural identity of North India, proving that authentic devotion bypasses all borders of language and religion.