Janganama

Janganama a puthi based on some battles of the early period of Islam. Persian words jubg means battle and nama means narrative. These narratives include the battles fought by hazrat muhammad (Sm) and his relatives, specially the battle of Karbala, fought by Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet. Jabganama are generally elegiac in tone.

Karbala-centred literature goes by the name of marsiya (Arabic for 'grief') literature. Although there are thematic similarities between janganama and marsiya literature, there are differences in their forms and tones. Both janganama and marsiya literature first developed in Arabia and subsequently in Persia. They then entered Bengal with Muslim Sufis and soldiers, during the medieval period. Prominent poems of this genre include Zainaber Chautisha by sheikh faizullah (16th century), Janganama by daulat uzir bahram khan (16th century), Maktul Hossain by Mohammad Khan (17th century), Kashimer Ladai and Fatimar Suratnama by Sherbaz (18th century), Zari-Janganama by heyat mamud (18th century), Shahid-e-Karbala and Sakhinar Bilap by Zafar (18th century), Sanggram Hossen by Hamid (18th century), Janganama and Sonabhan by Fakir Garibullah (18th century), Gulzar-e-Shahadat by Mohammad Hamidullah Khan (early 19th century), Bada Janganama by Wahid Ali (early 19th century), Shahid-e-Karbala by Jonab Ali (19th century), Shahid-e-Karbala by Mohammad Munshi (19th century), Dastan Shahid-e-Karbala by Mohammad Ishak Uddin (early 20th century), and Jange Karbala by Kazi Aminul Hoque (early 20th century).

The janganama poems blend Bangla folk poetry with Arabic and Persian stories and themes, and are a manifestation of the Muslim culture of Bengal. [Khandker Muzammil Haq]