Ghazals have captured the hearts and imagination of people from more than one generation. It's appreciation is not bound by age, sex, creed, or even country, as I came to realize when I came here. There are Americans who like to listen to ghazals, who have learnt Hindi and Urdu to better appreciate the nuances of the 'shers'.

Unfortunately, most people seem to be unaware of what constitutes a ghazal. This is true even for most Indians. There are a lot of people who like listening to ghazals but will not be able to tell you whether a song is a ghazal or not. For all my fellow ghazal lovers, and anybody else who is interested, this is an introduction to 'ghazal'.

Before I proceed, I would like to clarify that this definition is not mine. I came across it in a book called the "Aaina-e-ghazal". This book is a must-have for ghazal lovers - it is both a collection of 'shers' as well as a dictionary. In this book there is a long essay - 'Ghazal kya hai' - by Dr.Arshad Jamaal. The essay is written in Hindi, and is about the history of ghazal, its development, its milestones, important shairs etc. One part of it describes the definition of Ghazal. The following is loosely based on that.

Please note that this is not mathematics. So "preciseness" of the "definition" should not be questioned. Also, examples from Hindi film songs are my additions. I am solely responsible for any error in these.

What is a ghazal?

A ghazal is a collection of shers which follow the rules of 'Matla', 'Maqta', 'Beher', 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif'. So to know what ghazal is, it's necessary to know what these terms mean. To understand these terms easily , we will take an example.

	koi ummid bar nahin aati
	koi surat nazar nahin aati
	aage aati thi haale dil par hasi
	ab kisi baat par nahin aati
	hum wahan hain, jahan se humko bhi
	kucch hamaari khabar nahin aati
	kaabaa kis muh se jaaoge 'Ghalib'
	sharm tumko magar nahin aati

What is a Sher ?

It's a poem of two lines. This definition is deceptively simple. Please note that, every sher is a poem in itself! A sher does not need anything else to convey the message.All the 4 stanzas in our example are independent poems or shers. So a ghazal is necessarily a collection of two-line-poems called shers.

Note:The Rafi solo "Rang aur noor ki baaraat kise pesh karu" from the film "Ghazal" is NOT a Ghazal, as every stanza is of 3 lines,and not 2.

There are other restrictions - many and important ones. Any collection of shers is not a ghazal. Some good examples are: the famous Mukesh song from Yahudi - "Yeh mera deewaanaapan hai" and the title song of "Dil apna aur preet parayi".

Each stanza in these songs can be considered as an independent sher but they are NOT gazals. To understand why we have to wait till we understand what is 'Kaafiyaa and 'Radif'.

What is 'Beher'?

'Beher' is the 'meter' of the shers. It can be considered as the length of the sher. Both the lines in the sher MUST be of same 'Beher'. And all the shers in one Ghazal MUST be of the same 'Beher'. There are 19 kinds of 'Beher'. But in simple terms, 'Beher' is categorized into 3 classes - short, medium, long. For example:

Small:

Ahale dairo-haram reh gaye
tere deewane kam reh gaye
Talat Mehmood in "Mirza Ghalib"
"Dil-e-nadan tujhe hua kya hai"

Medium:

Umra jalwo me basar ho, ye zaruri to nahin
Har shab-e-gam ki seher ho, ye zaruri to nahin


Gulzar's lyrics in "Mausam"
"Ruke ruke se kadam, ruk ke baar baar chale"

Long:

Aye mere humnashin chal kahin aur chal,
is chaman me ab apna guzaaraa nahin 
baat hoti gulon ki to seh lete hum,
ab to kaaton pe bhi haq hamaaraa nahin

Kishore Kumar in "Sharaabi"
"Manzilen apni jagah hain, raaste apni jagah"
(By the way, the shair is Prakash Mehra - will wonders never cease?)

So a ghazal is a collection of shers of same 'Beher'.

What is 'Radif'?

In a ghazal, the second line of all the shers MUST end with the SAME word/s. This repeating common word/s is the 'Radif' of the Ghazal. In the example we have chosen, the 'Radif' is "nahin aati". Sometimes, a ghazal becomes known by its 'Radif', e.g. "zaraa aahista chal" sung by Pankaj Udhas.

What is 'Kaafiyaa' ?

'Kaafiyaa' is the rhyming pattern which all the words before the 'Radif' MUST have. In our example the 'Kaafiyaa' is "bar", "nazar", "par", "khabar", "magar" etc. This is a necessary requirement. Something which is followed even in the exceptions to all the other rules. So a ghazal is a collection of shers of same 'Beher', ending in same 'Radif' and having the same 'Kaafiyaa'. That's the reason why "Yeh mera diwanapan hai", etc. are NOT ghazals. Please note that a single word/phrase cannot be called 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif' both.

What is a 'Matla'?

The first sher in a ghazal MUST have 'Radif' in both its lines. This sher is called the 'Matla' of the ghazal and the ghazal is usually known after its 'Matla'. There can be more than one 'Matla' in a ghazal. In such cases, the second sher is called 'Matla-e-saani' or 'Husn-e-matla'. In our example, sher 1 is the Matla.

What is a 'Maqta'?

A Shair usually has an alias or 'takhallus' that he/she is known by. For example Mirza Asadullakhan used 'Ghalib' as his 'takhallus' and was known by that. Other examples are 'Daag' Dehlvi, 'Mir' Taqi Mir, Said 'Rahi', Ahmed 'Faraz' etc.

There is a sher in a Ghazal, usually the last one, which has the Shair's 'takhallus' in it. This sher is known as the 'Maqta' of the ghazal.

A shair can use the 'Maqta' very intelligently. He can address himself, like sher 4 in our example. I have lots of favourite shers which form the 'Maqta' of some ghazal. Some gems are:

	koi nam-o-nishan puchhe to aye qaasid bataa denaa,
	takhallus 'Daag' hai, aur aashiqon ke dil me rehte hain

	jab bhi milte hain, to kehte hain, "kaise ho 'Shakil'",
	iske aage to koi baat nahin hoti hai

The first one uses the meaning of the 'takhallus' to create the magic, and the second one is simply beautiful.

To summarize, a ghazal is a collection of shers (independent two-line poems), in which there is atleast one 'Matla', one 'Maqta', all the shers are of same 'Beher' and have the same 'Kaafiyaa' and'Radif'.

Exceptions and Important Points to Note

1. Ghazal is just a form. It is independent of any language. There can be (and are) very good ghazals in most Indian languages.
2. Some ghazals do NOT have any 'Radif'. Such cases are rare. Such ghazals are called "gair-muraddaf ghazalen".
3. Although every sher should be an independent poem in itself, it is possible that all the shers are on the same theme. What better example than "Chupke chupke raat din ansoo bahaanaa yaad hai"?
4. In modern Urdu poetry, there are lots of ghazals which do NOT follow the restriction of same 'Beher' on both the lines of the sher. The example in 'Maqta' - the sher by Shakil- is one. But even in these ghazals, 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif' are present.
5. The restriction of 'Maqta' is really very loose. Many ghazals do NOT have any 'Maqta'. I think 'Maqta' was used in earlier times as a way to keep/acknowledge the credit of penmanship. But since this is traditional, many ghazals do have a 'Maqta' just for the sake of it. Sometimes the name of the shair comes unnaturally in the last sher of the ghazal.
That completes an introduction to ghazals. I hope some have benefitted from this. Before I end, here are a few lines on "ghazal":

	Ghazal rudaad hai naakaamiyon ki,
	Ghazal mehrumiyon ki daastaan hai
	Ghazal riste hue zakhmon ka marham,
	Ghazal ek chaaraa-e-dard-e-nihaan hai
	Ghazal ka husn hi hai, husn-e-aalam,
	Ghazal ka noor hi, noor-e-jahan hai

                 - Jagdish Bhatnagar 'Hayaat'