(2) Though we find in some histories and memoirs that Zibunnisa was a poet, it is nowhere mentioned that she had adopted "Mukhfi" as her pen-name, which is very singular and also significant. The fact that the word Zibunnisa or its abbreviation, Zib, generally occurs as her pen-name in some of her best known poems, and not the word Mukhfi, also lends support to the view that Mukhfi was not her pen-name.

(3) There is reason to believe that Zibunnisa's poems, if any, were lost in her life-time. It is stated in MakhzanulGharáib that Zibunnisa's note-book (probably containing her poems) once fell from the hand of a certain maid-servant IradatFahm into a deep reservoir of water and was lost. The paid was very much scared and dared not break the news to the Princess. She, however, found an intercessor in Mulla Said Ashraf, Zibunnisa's tutor, who composed a lengthy apology in verse and secured pardon for Iradat's fault

(4) The various copies of Diwán-i-Mukhfi in manuscript or in print do not clearly disclose the identity of its author, and if some of them have got something to say, it is all popular fiction. The edition published by the Nizámi Press, Cawnpore, in the year 1283 A. H., i.e. some sixty years back, states that the author of the book is Princess Zibunnisa Begum. But Nawal Kishore's edition of 1915 A. D., declares the book to belong to a Persian poet Mukhfi, while an earlier edition from the same press alleges him to have come from Risht, a wellknown place in Persia.

(5) It is possible that inspite of the destruction of Zibunnisa's poems in her life-time in the way mentioned above, some were saved or were composed later on. By general acceptance, a few short pieces from her pen appears to have come down to us. Diwán-i-Mukhfi, however, does not contain all of them. In fict some of the best known have been left out. For example:

بهاند دستی که خم در گردن داری نشد

کور به چشمی که لذت گیر دیداری نشد

صد بهار آخر شد و هر گل بفرق جا گرفت

غنچه باغ دل ما زیب دستاری نشد

which rendered into English reads thus :

"May that arm which did not girdle round a neck be broken; May that eye which did not enjoy the look (of the beloved)

be better blind.

Hundreds of springs passed away and every flower found a place on some head,

But the bud of my heart never adorned a turban."

Here it may be noted that the word Zib occurs as the penname of the writer and not the word Mukhfi.

If we turn to the current Diwán-i-Mukhfi, we find there only three pieces which may, more or less, be ascribed to The first of these runs thus:

Zibunnisa Begum.

گرچه من لیلی اساسم دل چو مجنون در هوا است

سر بصدرا مي زنم لیکن حیا زنجیر پاست

در نهان خونیم ظاهر گرچه رنگ ناز کم

رنگ من در من نهان چون رنگ سرخ اندر د ناست

دختر شاهم ولیکن رو بفقر آورده ام

زیب و زینت بس همینم نام من زيب النساست

An English rendering of the above may thus be made :"Though I am Laila-natured, my heart is in love like that of Majnun;

I long for the desert but my modesty claims my legs down. Internally I am all blood, though apparently I possess a fine complexion.

My colour is concealed within me as is red colour in the myrtle-plant.

I am the daughter of a King but I have turned my face to asceticism;

Let this be all my adornment that my name is Zibunnisa." That this poem really belongs to Zibunnisa may readily be believed both because of the general trend of thoughts expressed and the full name mentioned. But the fact that this has somehow or other found a place in Diwán-i-Mukhfi does not in itself prove that all other poems in that book were composed by Zibunnisa. Another piece in Diwán known to have been written

"If a nightingale observes me in a garden she will leave her rose-flower;

If a Brahmin happens to see me, he will give up worshipping his idol.

I have hid myself in poems like odour in a rose,

Whosoever desires to see me, should see me through my

The above lines do not contain any pen-name, but they apparently belong to a female, presumably Zibunnisa, and beautifully depict her internal feelings so different from any thing else in the Diwán.

The third piece is rather long poem constructed on an ode of Hafiz of Shiraz, the arrangement being that every couplet of Hafiz has been added to by three further lines. The last line thus added to the last couplet of Hafiz has had different versions in different editions. In some it appears as follows:

while in others it runs thus

زیب النسا مراد خود از آه و ناله خواست

مخفي مراد خویشتن از آه و ناله خواست

-

So we see that except the replacement of the pen-name and a further slight modification necessary to maintain the metre, both the lines are absolutely identical and convey exactly the same meaning which is this that Zibunnisa (or Mukhfi according to the other version) made sighs and lamentations over her (or his) desired object. From the above illustrations it is clear that even those passages which occur in the Diwán-i-Mukht and may justly be ascribed to Zibunnissa as her compositions bear the pen-name Zib or Zibunnisa or no name at all, and not the name of Mukhfi. In fact, there is no piece in the Diwán

bearing the pen-name Mukhfi which may, either in diction or feeling, be conceived to have been written by Zibunnisa Begum.

But all the above facts, though valuable in themselves, are not a conclusive proof of the hypothesis that Zibunnisa is not the authoress of Diwán-i-Mukhfi. A closer study of the Diwán, however, reveals the fact that Mukhfi is, not Zibunnisa Begum, but altogether a different person. The following paragraphs will illustrate and prove the above propositior.

(1) Whatever might have been the difficulties of Zibunnisa Begum owing to the austerity of her father, they were certainly not in the nature of "chill penury" of which the author of Diwán-i-Mukhfi so often complains :

بدر، مفلسي خوان مش شرمنده همت

ملائگ را اگر برخوان حاتم ميهمان بيني

Translation

"Get used to poverty and don't have the shame of (being helped by) Generosity,

Though thou beholdest angels at the table of Hatim (a wellknown philanthropist of the East).

"

بر سفره زمانه دون چون مگس مباش

مخفي زنا مرادي ايام ناله چیست

Translation

"Don't be like a fly at the table of the low world.

Makhfi! why bewail the unpropitiousness of the times?"

لائق نه بود شکایت از دوست

سرمایه مغلسی چو هر جاست

Translation

در

"It is improper to complain against the Friend (God); For, the treasure of poverty is to be found everywhere. (2) Mukhfi declares his dislike for India in many places and is glad to leave the country:

مدار ستم وقت روز کاریم

در بیشه هند کار ما نیست

Translation

"I am the Rustam (a well-known fighter of Persia) of the

times.

I have no business in the field of India."

نادان اگر نبودی در ملک هند مخفي

اجزاء عمر خود را شیرازه گم نمی کرد

Translation

"Had not Mukhfi been a fool, he would not have lost the

binding thread of the book of his life in India. "

He is happy when he goes over to Kabul:

را نشد چون غنچه دل در بهارستان هند

رفت مرغ روح مخفي گوشۀ کابل گرفت

Translation

"The bud of his heart did not open in the spring-garden of India;

Hence the bird of Mukhfi's spirit went away and rested in a corner of Kabul.”

He also goes on pilgrimage to Mecca. There his purse runs short so that he cannot proceed to Medina and bewails his lot:

همت کعبه که زین راه بجائے برسم

بیخوابم به طواف به نوائی بوهم

زاد راهم شده آخر شه. بطحی مددے

که ز الطاف تو برهران صلائے برسم

Translation

"6 Help! O Kaba, so that I may reach some place by this

way.

I am a pauper; perchance I may get some bounty by means of my pilgrimage.

Help! O King of Batha (the Prophet Mohammad), my provisions have run out;

I may reach a public entertainment (i.e. means) through thy kindness."

All this does not read like the adventures of Princess Zibunnisa, the daughter of the great Mughal Emperor of India.