Rabindranath Tagore in Shiraz with Hafez (1932)

Hafiz Mausoleum – Shiraz 2020
For Hafez, no sin was heavier than hypocrisy. The hypocrites were those mostly stormed in his poems.

‘Although Persian Sufi ideas constitute a significant feature of Tagore’s philosophical and mystical thought, these aspects are generally disregarded by critics of his writings* (Dr Leonard Lewisohn).

With no formal education, Tagore received the 1913 literary Nobel Prize for his spiritual poems. In this series, we take a look at his upbringing and his views.

In his 1932 trip to Shiraz, when meditating beside the tomb of Ḥafiẓ, Tagore recalled his Iranian hosts that Ḥafiẓ was one of a very few Persian poets of his day to have mentioned Bengal (India) in poetry:

شکّرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند … زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود¹²²

Enchanted by his communion with the poet’s spirit, Tagore said ‘I am like one of those preceding Sufi saints, poets, and artists; only I have come with the language of today.’”¹³⁶

On that sunny spring morning,Tagore felt Hafez’s beaming eyes on a smiling face.¹³⁵

Tagore’s visit to the mausoleum of Hafiz in Shiraz was the highlight of his visit to Persia in 1932.

“My pilgrimage would have been incomplete without this visit.’

‘It is a source of inspiration in my life.’

‘This evening of my life has been filled to the brim’. ¹²¹

Rabindranath Tagore

Legend has it that the Sultan (سلطان غیاث دین) invited Ḥafiẓ to his court,¹²⁴ in India but Ḥafiẓ politely declined his invitation. He said that once the ruler of Bengal failed to bring the poet to his land. But today a poet of Bengal has come to offer his good wishes. He has now felt fulfilled.

Meditating beside the tomb of Hafez

When meditating beside the tomb of Ḥafiẓ, Tagore recalled his Iranian hosts that Ḥafiẓ was one of a very few Persian poets of his day to have mentioned Bengal in poetry:

شکّرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند … زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود¹²²

Crouching beside Hafiz’s gravestone amid Iranian dignitaries, Tagore brought up the legend again:

The story of the verse:

Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn A‘ẓām Shāh (سلطان غیاث دین), the the Persian speaking ruler of Bengal (1389–1411) was a great patron of poets and Persian culture.

It is said that he fell deathly sick and his court physicians were incapable of curing him.

He asked his favourite concubines named Cypress, Rose, and Tulip to bathe him in preparation for his funeral rites.¹²⁶ The other ladies of the harem took to taunting the girls for being the lowly “funeral bathing girls”غسّال (ghassāla).

However, miraculously, he recovered at their hands,

The Sultan found this amusing and improvised the first half-couplet of this verse. He then sent a letter with gifts to Ḥafiẓ in Shiraz, entreating him to compose the second hemistich.

Hafez masterly completed the couplet and the entire ghazal.

ساقی حدیث سرو و گل و لاله میرود … وین بحث با ثلاثهٔ غسّاله میرود

می ده که نوعروس چمن حدّ حسن یافت … کار این زمان ز صنعت دلّاله میرود

شکّرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند … زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود

طیّ مکان ببین و زمان در سلوک شعر … کاین طفل یکشبه ره یکساله میرود

آن چشم جادوانهٔ عابد فریب بین … کش کاروان سحر ز دنباله میرود

از ره مرو بعشوهٔ دنیا که این عجوز … مکّاره می‌نشیند و محتاله میرود

باد بهار می‌وزد از گلستان شاه … وز ژاله باده در قدح لاله میرود

حافظ ز شوق مجلس سلطان غیاث دین … غافل مشو که کار تو از ناله میرود¹²⁵

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Shiraz 1932; Tagore meditating beside the tomb of Hafez

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• More on Tagore:
• Hafez and Rabindranath Tagore
• Persian; the language of Bengal until British arrvide in 19th century
• Persian sufism and Indian reform; Ram Mouhan Roy (1772-1833)
• Imam Ali’s followers in a princely family; Rabindranath Tagore
• From avoiding schools to winning the literary Nobel prize
• Calcutta (19th century); the rendevous of Persian poets
• Rabindranath Tagore’s trip to Shiraz to visit Hafez (1932)
• Why did Tagore renounced his Knighthood
• Hungry Stones; an excerpt of a short story by Rabindranath Tagore
• Rabindranath Tagore in Shiraz with Hafez (1932)

Suggested readings and references:

Special thanks to Dr Leonard Lewisohn from the University of Exeter for his research that contributed to the main body of this series adaptation. Additional materials were sourced from Professor Emeritus Irfan Habib’s, and Dr Beatrice Teissier’s publications. Sentences showing an asterisk (*) above may be traced to the provided research materials containing over 145 Parsian and English academic references.

1. Rabindranath Tagore’s Syncretistic Philosophy and the Persian Sufi Tradition, Leonard Lewisohn, University of Exeter, 2017, Published by Penn State University Press
2. TEXTS FROM THE PERSIAN IN LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INDIA AND BRITAIN: CULTURE OR CONSTRUCT? Beatrice Teissier, Oriental Institute, Oxford, 2009, Published by Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
3. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Irfan Habib, 2019, Published by Social Scientist