S. R. Faruqi:

If the person who comes at night with disheveled hair is the beloved, then this verse is interesting, because the beloved's having disheveled hair and coming at night near her lover can occur for several reasons. For example, she comes to explain to the lover that he should give up passion, for in it lies her disgrace. (It's said that if one makes a prayer with loosened hair, then it is certainly accepted, because for women to loosen their hair is a symbol of helplessness.)

Or else, now the beloved too has caught the disease of passion, and if she has disheveled hair, then a lover after all will have wanderingness. (The disheveledness of the hair will turn into disorderedness of the temperament.)

Or, the beloved's disheveled hair (=her sadness and melancholy) is because there's a danger of her separation from her lover, as in [the masnavi] zahr-e ((ishq .

But if the speaker of the verse is the beloved herself, then the verse becomes more interesting. The lover comes by night to the beloved again and again with disheveled hair and in a state of wildness/madness. It's clear that then the beloved will be disgraced and a wanderer. Or else because people will see; or because passion will overcome the beloved's heart too.

In both cases, it's also possible (or rather, strongly possible) that the coming at night would be only in a dream.

There's also the possibility that the beloved might come with loosened hair to meet the lover, only to show off her airs and graces. That is, between lover and beloved there's agreement, and at night the beloved comes without formality to meet her lover. The beauty of the disheveled hair makes the lover even more excited; he begins to fear that if the beloved keeps on coming with tangled hair like this, then he might become entirely out of control and take to wandering. (And that perhaps the beloved herself wants him to wander.)

With regard to this interpretation, the affinity between muu pareshaanii and aavaaragii becomes even stronger. Also, there's still the possibility of a dream. That is, even in the light of this interpretation it's possible that all this might be happening within a dream.

[See also {944,6}.]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

SRF proposes that the beloved might be the speaker here, and he doesn't seem to find that possibility extraordinary. But to me it sounds like a truly radical idea. For there's nothing at all that alerts or guides us to expect that the beloved would be speaking-- or thinking, which is really just speaking to herself-- the words of the verse. If she could be speaking here, then a substantial percentage of the verses in the whole tradition could theoretically also be spoken by her. All the more abstract, philosophical ones-- are we to imagine them to be just as easily spoken by the cruel, solipsistic beloved as by the meditative mad lover? Wouldn't that considerably change our take on the whole tradition? I am going to keep an eye out for more evidence about this.

The reading of chande proposed by SRF certainly works very well; its touch of vagueness (some people? some time?) is quite appropriate for the bemused lover in the dead of night trying to get a fix on his situation.

But there's also the Hindi-side chandaa , meaning 'moon', and I do love the extra reading that it opens up. Might it be desired/intended (by the moon itself?) that the mad lover should wander around pursuing the moon? For after all, the lover finds that the moon comes to him night after night, all disheveled and seeming to solicit his attention. If we want to take the idea of the moon's dishevelment literally we could imagine it surrounded by clouds, or by the kind of halo created in some atmospheric conditions; but it could just be the lover's craziness at work. Think of the huge loomingness and somewhat chaotic appearance of a harvest moon:

Since this moon shows itself 'very near', night after night, might it not seem to the crazed lover to be seeking him out and demanding his attention? After all, madmen are not called 'lunatics' for nothing. And of course, we know the beloved is 'moon-faced'. Compare

{745,4},

in which the beloved is addressed as 'oh Moon', and her droplets of sweat (like her disheveled hair?) shame the stars.

And of course, in any case the whole thing might well be a dream...