A BRASS DISH WITH POETIC INSCRIPTION
North India, Uttar Pradesh, Muradabad, 19th century
Cast brass dish of circular form with a wide brim terminating in a pierced border. The interior is profusely inscribed with nasta‘liq characters, featuring an Urdu inscription on the brim and Persian in the inner circle, surrounding a central roundel decorated with Western‑influenced split palmettes and arrows. The Persian inscription features a romantic poem by Zeb‑un‑Nissa Begum (under the pseudonym Penhan, Makhfi), a princess, poet, calligrapher, and intellectual, born in 1638 as the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb.
The poem reads:
To love is this:
to pour one’s very blood
at the beloved’s feet.
No mortal hand
can lightly touch
the moonlit curls of a celestial being;
such daring burns the heart.
And when all shelter fades,
when the soul stands bare,
then the blood must fall as tears—
flowing from the eyes,
born of the deepest longing.
Muradabad, often called the 'Brass City', has been renowned for its artisanal metalwork since the Mughal period.
