foreverdawning

Rekhti is a genre of Urdu erotic poetry, spinning off from the formal, classical ghazal poetic genre. Rekhti differs both in the point of view of the poetic persona, in the subject matter, and in the use of language. Within Urdu culture (a southern Indian Muslim culture whose language has a strong admixture of Persian in an Indic base), traditional ghazal poetry had two modes: “Persian” in which the poetic persona is male and the beloved can be male or female, and “Indic” in which the poetic persona is female and the beloved is male. (The poets were overwhelmingly male in all cases. Historic writings refer to female Rekhti poets but their work was not preserved.) Rekhti poetry used a female poetic persona addressing, most typically, a female beloved, and the language used was everyday female-coded language rather than the male-coded and higher register language typically used in other ghazal poems. (Ghazal poetry was often written in Persian rather than Urdu.)

Rekhti poetry arose in the late 18th century, associated with a handful of prominent poets such as Rangeen, who is credited for naming the movement. Another prominent Rekhti poet, Hashimi, is credited with developing several of the key features, such as themes related to the domestic lives of elite women and the use of female-coded vocabulary and speech patterns. Other key themes include realistic language rather than poetic ambiguity, an allowance for using proper names (rather than always referring to “lover” or “beloved”), and a move away from idealizing the beloved to the point sometimes of criticism or mockery. By the mid 19th century, Rekhti poetry—while still focused on women’s domestic lives—moved away from sexually explicit language and motifs of lesbian sex.

The article discusses the vocabulary of female same-sex erotics contained in the poetry, some of which has either survived to the present or perhaps has been reclaimed. One set of terms derive from the root “chapat” (literally having to do with “to stick, to adhere, to cling to”), including “chapat,” “Chapti,” and “chapatbazi” referring to lesbian activity. “Chapatbaz” refers to a women who engages in sex with women. (A Victorian lexicographer in an 1884 Urdu-English dictionary veiled the meaning by using Latin: “Chapatbaz - Femina libidini Sapphicare indulgens; caoatbazi [sic, possible error for “capatbazi”?] Congressus libininosus duarum mulierum.”) Another British record of 1900 listed five terms related to lesbianism: dugana (or dogana), zanakhi, sa’tar, chapathai, and chapatbaz. “Dogana,” meaning “doubled” also refers to paired fruits enclosed together, such as a double-nutted almond. The sources and usage of these terms is described by the poet Rangeen, accompanied by descriptions of rituals used by the couple to define sexual gender roles within the relationship.

• Dogana – Twin or doubled (fruit). The couple shells almonds until they find a doubled nut, in which one kernel is embedded in the other. The kernals are given to a stranger who is told to distribute them to the women and the one given the embedded nut takes the “female” role.
• Zanakhi – Literally the wishbone of a chicken. The couple cook and eat a chicken together then break the wishbone between them and the one with the larger piece takes the “male” role.
• Ilaichi – Literally “cardamom”. The two women open pairs of cardamom pods and count the number of seeds. If one has an odd number and the other an even number, the one with the even number takes the “male” role. If both pods are even or both odd, they try again. Feeding each other cardamom is associated with sweetening the breath before sex.

Non-monogamous dynamics within women’s relationships is indicated by the term “sihgana” which refers to a female beloved’s other female lover, generally associated with jealousy.

In addition to Rekhti poetry using these special terms, the language of heterosexual marriage may be used for female couples, but also the language of fictive sisterhood.

The article provides multiple examples of poems (in translation) to illustrate prominent themes, such as a desire for secrecy or fear of discovery, and the context of love affairs, such as the practice of households sleeping in gender-segregated areas of the rooftop during hot weather.

Although later commentary sometime tries to downplay the gender dynamics of the poetry, arguing that the beloved should be understood as representing an ungendered God, the imagery of the poems clearly uses gendered clothing and descriptions.

The cast of characters within Rekhti poetry is almost entirely female—a social context that in everyday life might be found either within the women’s quarters of a family compound or in a courtesan household. The association of courtesans with lesbian relationships may related to sexual stereotypes of prostitutes, but the article also notes that courtesans were the rare women who had access to education, mobility, and control of their own finances. Some Rekhti poems include descriptions that strongly suggest a courtesan context. The setting of the poems is always urban, including when describing gardens.

(In the context of associating lesbianism with prostitutes, there is a translated quote from a 12th century commentary on the Kamasutra talking about male homosexuals then adding “women behave in the same way. Sometimes, in the secret of their inner rooms, with total trust in one another, they lick each other’s vulva, just like whores.”)

British colonial rule had multiple effects on Urdu language and poetry, including suppression of erotic poetry and stigmatizing of practices seen as gender-transgressive, such as the use of female pen names by male poets. These effects continue to impact how Rekhti poetry is understood and discussed by modern scholars. The article discusses the differences between stereotype and reality regarding female seclusion and female poetic performance in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The article concludes with a consideration of the extent to which Rekhti poetry can be understood as reflecting actual women’s lives as opposed to the interpretation that it represents male fantasies of women’s lives.