Chhannu Lal Dilgeer

Chhannu Lal Dilgeer (c. 1780 – 1848) was Lucknow's great marsiya poet — the man who gave up ghazal for Karbala. Born in Lucknow, the brother of Raja Jhau Lal, deputy prime minister under Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, he first studied under Mirza Khani Nawazish and later under Nasikh, and was praised by Mushafi. He began as a ghazal poet under the takhallus Tarab, but, captivated by Karbala, he abandoned ghazal entirely — famously throwing his ghazal diwan into Moti Jheel, Lucknow — and devoted himself to marsiya and salam. He converted to Islam and took the name Ghulam Hussain. A speech impairment kept him from reciting his own marsiyas, but he innovated in composition, was popular under Ghazi-ud-Din Haider, and received Rs. 400 from Nawab Mohammad Ali Shah for a masnavi in praise of Hussainabad. He is credited with 417 marsiyas; his Majmua Marasi Mirza Dilgeer (Nawal Kishore Press) is preserved in the Tagore Library of Lucknow University. His most famous marsiya, Ghabraye Gi Zainab, on Zainab's arrival after Karbala, is still recited worldwide in majlis and Sham-e-Ghareeba. He died in 1848 and lies in Lucknow's "tilted grave".