Beyond the dazzling jewels

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Thus, kings and princes would vie with one another to attract musicians and poets to their courts.

Bahadur Shah Zafar had poets no less than Ghalib and Ibrahim Zaunk in his court, though his rule did not extend beyond the walls of the Red Fort.

Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh took debauchery to artistic heights. The degenerate splendour of his court did not die even when he was exiled to Calcutta by the British.

Once kingdoms like Delhi, Oudh and Rampur withered away, urdu poets started flocking to Hyderabad. Though the Nizam had signed a subsidiary alliance treaty with the British, there was enough wealth in the city to support poets from all over India "" much before Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Mir Osman Ali Khan Asif Jah, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad (1911-48), was reputed to be the richest man on earth.

Poets like Nawab Mirza Dagh, Josh Malihabadi, Fani Badayuni, Jigar Moradabadi were all at one time or the other court poets of Hyderabad. The languid pace of the city suited them.

One of them was Sidq Jaisi, or Mirza Tassaduq Hussain, from Jais near Barreilly. He soon became a part of the court of Muazzam Jah, the last Nizam's second son, from 1931 to 1938. It was no ordinary court "" the daily session would start after nightfall and would continue till the wee hours of the morning.

The young prince developed a liking for Jaisi's compositions and the poet soon became a part of the inner coterie. And he noted down in great detail what went on at the nocturnal court ""the darbaar-e-durbaar, or the court of courts.

This perhaps could be the first authentic account of how the richest family of India spent its time and money. Jaisi had published his book soon after leaving Hyderabad in 1938.

Narendra Luther stumbled across the book in 1995 when he was doing research for his book on Hyderabad, Memoirs of a City (Orient Longman, 1995). Struck by the richness of Jaisi's account, Luther took it upon himself to translate his work into English.

Jaisi, obviously, had an eye for detail. Nothing that went on in the court missed his attention. His portrayal of the prince's lifestyle is the stuff fairy tales are made of. The opulence of the court was dazzling.

The prince lived in the Hill Fort overlooking the Hussain Sagar lake, which would be lit up every night for the Mushaira. The prince dined with fifty or so courtiers everyday.

The cream on the dining table came from buffaloes raised on almonds and pistachios. On a trip to Europe, the prince had no less than 70 suitcases travelling with him.

But in the midst of all the splendour, the prince comes across as a lonely man, burdened by the wealth of his ancestors. Though only 24 when Jaisi first went to the nocturnal court, the prince was already on sedatives.

He, as well as his chief tutor, would pop sleeping pills at dawn before finally drawing curtains on the court. He would lavish extravagant gifts on performers, including the legendary Begum Akhtar, even though his own finances were strained.

The prince had run up huge debts from the city's moneylenders and had to be bailed out by his father, the Nizam.

It also transpires that not only did the prince not get along with his older brother, he also had serious differences with his father, the Nizam.

When informed of his father's death in the afternoon, the slumbering prince mumbled about being disturbed and continued to sleep.

It has also been said that he was against his father's decision to declare Independence when the British left India "" he wanted Hyderabad to become a part of India.

Apart from the prince, the book also throws light on the life of courtiers. Most of them led a hand- to-mouth existence and would put up with the prince's eccentric ways only in anticipation of his benevolence one day.

But the prince remained largely oblivious to their plight, though he would occasionally throw crumbs at them. On Eid, all of them would be marched to a tailor for a new Shervani.

Some of them had also been the courtiers of the prince's grandfather. Jaisi's treatment of their hopes, problems and rivalries is both sad and funny.

Jaisi's account of court life is resplendant with some outstanding Urdu poetry, mostly his own. His first couplet recited to the prince is an outstanding composition.

Us ke lutf-e-aam ko ghairat nahin karti kabool/ Aur main kambhkat lutf-e-khaas ke kabil nahin (My self respect forbids me from accepting her favours commonplace/ And I, the unfortunate, am not worthy of her favours special)

My favourite? A couplet composed by the warden of the prince's gardens, Kamaluddin, a corpulent courtier with a warped sense of work ethics:

Dil doodh ko bechain na makhan ke liye hai,/ Golaan se sevaa, dukhtiran-i-golaan ke liye hai

(The heart craves for neither milk nor butter/ More than the gardener, it pines for the gardener's daughter.)

The Nocturnal Court, Darbaar-E-Durbaar
The Life of a Prince of Hyderabad

Sidq Jaisi
(Translated from Urdu, with an introduction and notes, by Narendra Luther)
Oxford University Press
Price: Rs 295