shumaar-e sub;hah mar;Guub-e but-e
mushkil-pasand aayaa
tamaashaa-e bah yak-kaf burdan-e .sad dil pasand aayaa
1) the counting of the prayer-beads was enjoyable to
the difficulty-loving idol
2) the spectacle
of the holding of a hundred hearts in one hand pleased her
Compare {136,4}. (255)
IDOL verses: {8,1}; {14,2};
{22,3}; {24,7};
{57,4}; {59,5};
{62,5}; {67,3};
{70,1}; {81,2};
{91,10}; {99,7};
{120,8}; {121,7};
{125,4}, .sanam ; {133,1};
{136,6}; {154,3},
a.snaam ; {163,1};
{184,1}; {186,4};
{190,4}; {200,1};
{204,6}; {208,6};
{231,6}; {233,8},
.sanam-kadah
ISLAMIC: {10,2}
TAMASHA verses: {5,7x}; {8,1}*; {10,4};
{10,7}; {12,4x};
{22,9}; {24,2};
{26,2}; {48,9};
{49,9}; {51,4}*;
{53,3}; {66,8};
{68,3}; {68,6x};
{96,2}, sair ; {96,4};
{96,6}; {113,2};
{117,1}; {123,9};
{181,1}; {184,2};
{190,2}; {206,1};
{208,1}; {213,2};
{214,7}; {217,3};
{224,1}; {227,1};
{229,1}
Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of seven verses. He chose to include the first three (Hamid p. 7) in his published divan, and to omit the last four (Raza p.113). More on this topic: S. R. Faruqi's choices.
Compare the prayer-beads in {10,2}, which gives another slant on them; there are more in {60,8} as well.
Are the prayer-beads that she holds in her hand equated with lovers' hearts (as her mind wanders during her prayers), or are the lovers' hearts that she holds in her hand equated with prayer-beads (as they are lined up and idly fingered for their mnemonic value)? Naturally, there's no way to tell.
The word tamaashaa is one of Ghalib's fundamental concepts. As Faruqi points out in {51,4}, it has both a this-worldly meaning (the spectacle of the world's beauty, variety, change, inexhaustibility) and a mystical meaning ('a scene of mystical knowledge that is visible only to the eye of the heart, and that can be seen only by closing or rejecting the eye of the senses').
Here, the first, worldly sense of tamaashaa is dominant, but the second can't be ruled out either, since after all it's 'prayer-beads' that the demanding, intransigent 'idol' is counting.
Note for meter fans: Does the first line represent a case of 'contrived rhyme'? Not exactly, but still, since mushkil-pasand is treated as a single adjective, there's an unusual relationship that blurs the normal barrier between rhyme and refrain.
Nazm:
Her taking a hundred lovers' hearts in one hand at one time pleases her. Then, the poet has also made of those hundred hearts a set of prayer-beads, and he says it's as if she finds the counting of the prayer beads very pleasing. (8)
Bekhud Dihlavi:
This entire ghazal is from that period when the color of Persianness [faarsiyat] was prevailing [;Gaalib] over Mirza Sahib. Except for the refrain, whole lines are in Persian. So much so that the first line of the opening-verse too contains a Persian aspect in the refrain. That is, among the people of Iran mar;Guub aamad is idiomatic [mu;haavarah]. But with regard to the meaning, this is such an untouched theme that up to today no poet's thought has touched it. (19-20)
Bekhud Mohani:
Because in prayer-beads there are one hundred beads, in the act of reciting prayers with them, the act of holding a hundred hearts in one hand occurs. Because a difficult feat has taken place, the activity pleases the difficulty-loving beloved. (15)