Yagana Changezi

Yagana Changezi Biography

Yagana Changezi was an Urdu poet from Patna, Bihar, who lived during 1884-1956. Yagana’s first collection of poetry was Nashtar-i-Yaas, published in 1914, when he was 30 years old. His second collection Aayat-i-Wijdani was published in 1927. Tarana and Aayat-i-Wijdani just followed. Yagana has four collections of poems to his credit, but all these works are regarded as timeless classics. He also wrote many ghazals. Changezi was an able poet whose talent was mostly wasted on aimless pursuits.

Yagana Changezi was born in Bihar in 1884. His real name is Mirza Wajid Hussain, and he was born in Azeemabad, now a part of Patna. His ancestors migrated from Iran during Mughal era, six generations back. Hasan Ali Baig Chughtai and Murad Ali Baig Chughtai – the siblings were the first to reach India from Iran, and changezi belonged to the sixth generation after that. He was in the lineage of Mirza Hasan Baig Chughtai.

Since school days he was a brilliant student in academics and won many scholarships for studies too. During his younger studies, he shifted to Matyaburj, in Calcutta, where he continued with his studies, and began his professional career. He studied at Calcutta University and later became the tutor of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s grandson Mirza Muqeem and his children. As the climate of Matyaburj didn’t suit him, he moved back to his village, and then to Lucknow.

He used the pen name 'Yaas’ for his literary writings and addressed himself as Yaas Azeemabadi. But later he changed it to Yagana. After a few transformations, it was changed to Yagana Lackhnawi and finally to Yagana Changezi. He is best known as “Ghalib shikan”, or ‘the breaker of Ghalib’, who turned against the celebrated Urdu poet of all time, and attacked Ghalib's iconic status too.

Published: October 16, 2018

Updated: October 16, 2018