Indar Sabha
The fairy who sang for a prince
In Lucknow in the early 1850s, during the reign of Wajid Ali Shah, Agha Hasan Amanat imagined a court where fairies dance and a king can grant a singer her wish. His Indar Sabha moves between Urdu ghazals and Hindustani songs of love and the seasons. The play was already in print by 1853. The Newal Kishore Press, founded in 1858, later put an illustrated edition into readers’ hands.
Enter the performance ↓ Meet the four fairies ↓A playbill from Lucknow · Indar Sabha
The four fairies of Indar’s court
Before Prince Gulfam enters the story, four singers take their turns before the king. Choose a performer to see how the printer marked her entrance and what she asked the audience to hear.
The king falls asleep
Indar takes his seat, a fan bearer at his side. Pukhraj Pari, the Topaz Fairy, has the opening number. Each fairy has her colour and her turn before the king. By the time Sabz Pari, the Green Fairy, comes forward, Indar has fallen asleep. She leaves the assembly and seeks out Kala Dev, the Black Dev, who can help her reach the human world.
A ring identifies the prince
Sabz Pari tells Kala Dev about Gulfam, a prince she saw asleep. A ring she left with him will tell Kala Dev which sleeper to bring back. When the lovers meet, Gulfam has a wish of his own. He wants to see Indar’s assembly. Sabz Pari knows what it could cost to admit a mortal, but she takes him with her.
A mortal stands before Indar
Lal Dev, the Red Dev, discovers Gulfam and brings him before the king. On the illustrated page the prince stands before the royal seat while Indar questions him. Gulfam is cast into a well. Indar has Sabz Pari stripped of her wings and driven from his court.
The fairy takes up a new part
On one page the reader can see both lovers in their separation. Gulfam grieves in the well. Sabz Pari wanders among deer and birds in the dress of a jogin, a woman ascetic. Music gives her a way back into the assembly from which she was banished. She returns as a travelling singer.
The singer names her reward
Indar delights in the stranger’s singing and promises a reward. She passes over his offers of riches and asks for the captive prince. Indar honours his word and gives Gulfam his freedom. The lovers are reunited as Amanat’s play closes.
Turn the page and another play begins
A new heading on page 34 names Madari Lal. Another playwright now stages an Indar Sabha of his own. Sultan Shah appears in its opening. A reader could go straight from Amanat’s ending into a second treatment of the fairy court, because the press put the two plays together in one volume.
The book in Lucknow
Amanat’s play was already in print in Kanpur in 1853. Munshi Newal Kishore founded his press in Lucknow in 1858. His house brought Amanat’s composition and Madari Lal’s separate version together. A Lucknow Urdu edition is catalogued in 1875. In the Devanagari book used here, one play ends on printed page 33 and the next begins on page 34.
The July 1906 Kanpur title calls that later issue a tenth printing. The title’s reference to a Persian-script exemplar describes how the earlier copy was written.
1875 Urdu record ↗ · Read the 1906 printing statement ↗
Image credits and edition notes
Fragment images are credited to eGangotri and Sarayu Trust, SPS-Srinagar, with IKS–MoE funding. The complementary April 1880 capture is credited to eGangotri, SPS-Srinagar. The July 1906 digital donation came to eGangotri on behalf of an anonymous donor. The source records mark the images CC0.
Look for the red 6590
The first image comes from the incomplete museum scan. The second comes from a digitisation that still has its title leaf. Compare the little handwritten number below the printed court scene. Then open the dated title.
What the mark tells us
The same number, in the same hand and position, and matching marks on the opening page strongly indicate that these are two photographs of the same physical copy. The surviving title names the Press and dates this book to April 1880 in Lucknow. The closing printer’s note in the fragment gives Samvat 1937, consistent with 1880–81.
Back at the book counter
The page facing the end of Baital lists the drama you have just read. Return to the spread to find its name.
Reopen the book list →