Fidvi Lahori

Fidvi Lahori (1729–1780) was born Mukund Lal into a Hindu Bania family of Lahore. He converted to Islam and took the name Mirza Fidai Beg, with "Fidvi" — one who sacrifices himself, a devotee — as his takhallus. After several years in Isfahan, he came to Delhi and became a pupil of Sabir Ali Sabir. A qasida he wrote for Ahmad Shah won him a horse, a sword and a thousand rupees. He served at the courts of Nawab Muhammad Yar Khan and later Nawab Zabita Khan. His poetic rivalry with Mirza Sauda was famous: Sauda lampooned him in satires, one of them in Punjabi, that survive in Sauda's kulliyat. Little of Fidvi's own Diwan has survived, but one of his couplets — on the lover's funeral going out with pomp — has passed into proverb. He died in 1780, in Lahore according to most accounts, though Mashafi says Moradabad.