Questions tagged [hindi-language]
Questions about works of literature that were originally written in Hindi. Hindi is one of the official languages of India.
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Who does this Urdu proverb originate from?
First let me try my best to transliterate the Urdu version of the quote in question:
Insaan ho, to kisi ke kaam ao; warna khao, pio aur chale jao.
A rough translation would be something like:
If ...
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Why does the painter make the shawl red in "Chadariya Jhini re Jhini"?
What does the poet want to convey with these lines?
जब मोरी चादर बन घर आई
रंगरेज़ को दीन्ही
ऐसा रंग रँगा रँग रे ले
लाल-ओ-लाल कर दीन्ही ।
jab mori chaadar, ban ghaar ayie,
rang-rej ko dinhi.
Aisa rang,...
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Story about two brothers playing *gulli-danda*
I remember reading a story in 5th or 6th grade about two brothers where one was jealous of the other. The elder brother had polio in one of his legs and when they were playing gulli-danda, the younger ...
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Why has this Premchand story been translated as both "Catastrophe" and "A Positive Change"?
There is a Premchand short story whose original Hindi title is "Vidhwans"; it's been translated into English as "Catastrophe", as seen here, but the same story has also been ...
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Which Premchand stories are written in Hindi and which in Urdu?
The Indian writer Premchand started off writing in Urdu, and started writing Hindi stories later in his career. According to Wikipedia:
In 1914, Munshi Premchand started writing in Hindi (Hindi and ...
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Who are all these writers referred to by Premchand?
The first paragraph of Premchand's (true?) short story "My First Composition" (available on the Internet Archive) is:
At the time my age was about thirteen years. I was quite ignorant of ...
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What did it mean for Pandit Udaybhan Pandey to own the entire village?
In Catastrophe by Munshi Pramchand, the main character (a woman named Bhungi) "lived in Pandit's village... [who] had the full authority to make her do any sort of odd job." He was described ...
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Why was Bhungi poor in spite of having an apparently thriving business?
In Catastrophe by Munshi Premchand, a woman owned a parching oven. Apparently, business was quite good: "The village folk have one meal a day of parched grain, so there was always a crowd around ...
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Why was 50 considered old in Premchand's day?
The main character of the Catastrophe short story (in the collection Short Stories by Munshi Premchand) was descried as "an old, childless widow" who "didn't own either a scrap of land ...
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Hindi short story where a painter makes a painting of his dying son
I read a Hindi short stories book around at least 8-10 years ago. One of the stories I still remember (some of it), as I found it very strange/disturbing. I remember some of it, but want to read the ...
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Why is a sorrowing heart called "Sultan" and a stone heart called "burial site" in this verse of Saint Kabir?
I came across this verse of the great Indian poet Saint Kabir:
बिरहा बुरहा जिनि कहौ, बिरहा है सुलतान।
जिस घटि बिरह न संचरै, सो घट सदा मसान॥
birahaa burahaa jini kahau, birahaa hai sulataan
jis ghaTi ...
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Lack of Proper Ending in Stories by Old Indian Authors
I have read quite a few stories by old Indian authors who wrote in Hindi and Urdu in the early twentieth century.
I noticed a trend of them not completing their stories or providing an ending and ...
user7519
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What does Gulzar actually mean by saying that Earth can hide a river inside?
The poem "The Magical Earth" by Gulzar (from Green Poems, 2014) contains these lines (in the English translation by Pavan K. Varma):
There is something indeed in the earth of my garden
Is this ...
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What is the name of that book which talks of a friend of Krishna called Chhandak?
I read in a book having seven parts/volumes that there was a friend of Krishna called Chhandak who was always with Krishna.
It also talked about someone who could not speak but wanted to learn flute ...
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What is Devdas syndrome?
Post-Devdas works in Hindi literature analysis always use the term Devdas syndrome. Like "X work is suffering from Devdas syndrome" or "Y work tackled it quite well".
But what is this Devdas syndrome ...
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What circumstances is Bachchan referring to in this poem?
I came across a poem titled, Saathi, Sab Kuch Sahna Hoga (You have to tolerate this all, my friend) by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. I read this poem years ago and it is taken from an older book. Here is an ...
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