Umrao Jan Ada: The Courtesan of Lucknow

Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa

Ara 2018 · Orient Paperbacks

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Translated from the Urdu by Khushwant Singh. Umrao Jan Ada is perhaps one of the most enigmatic and forgotten female figures in South Asian Literature. The question of her existence, her beauty, her scholarly abilities and her poetic gift remain a mystery. The book is an account of Umrao's life as a Lucknawi courtesan, a nautch girl, delivered in first person by Umrao herself, and documented by a close friend.

Written more than a hundred years ago, the novel recreates the gracious ambience of old Lucknow and takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the palaces of wealthy nawabs, the hideouts of the colorful vagabonds and the luxurious abodes of the city's courtesans.

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MIRZA MUHAMMAD HADI RUSWA (1857-1931) was one of the finest Urdu prose writers of his times. To this were added his skills as mathematician, astronomer and theologian. He had a command over Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, English, Latin and Greek and wrote several tracts on philosophical subjects. He was the head of the literary department of the All India Shia Conference and wrote twenty volumes on the Shia religion. His other acclaimed novel is Akhtari Begum.

KHUSHWANT SINGH, novelist, storywriter, historian, editor, essayist and translator, is one of the best known contemporary writers of the Indian subcontinent. His writings are a mix of the scholarly and the popular, gravitas and deliberately provocative, but always distinctively Indian. He is considered by many the eminence grise of the Indian literary landscape.