The Indian Shakespeare is often considered Kalidasa, a classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. But Agha Hashar Kashmiri is one such poet, dramatist and  an author who carries the epitaph of being the `Indian Shakespeare’ on his gravestone at Lahore where he was laid to rest in 1935.

    Born  in April 1879 as  Agha Muhammad Shah in Banaras State of British India, Agha Hashar  was his penname and “Kashmiri’’ attached to his name  for the reason that his father, Ghani Shah  had migrated from Kashmir to Benares in  mid-19^th Century  in search of greener pastures.

Agha Muhammad Shah acquired his early education in Arabic and Persian. Later, he was sent to Jai Narayan Missionary School for further studies. However, he left his education incomplete, as he was inclined towards drama and poetry since his early childhood.

    There is a general belief that no history of Urdu drama can ever be complete without a mention of Agha Hashar Kashmiri’s works. None of his predecessors, contemporaries or even the successors could achieve the kind of respect and inimitable success that came to his share. 

Hashar Kashmiri as a Polyglot

Agha Hashar Kashmiri wrote plays in Urdu, Hindi, and Bangla. Some of these were solely created by him but his more important plays that he based on Shakespeare included Shaheed-e-Naaz, Said-e-Hawas, Safaid Khoon and Khwab-e-Hasti. Some of his plays that drew upon the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata also proved very popular.

This Kashmiri-origin author, dramatist, poet and a writer remained associated with several theatre companies and each one of them valued his talent. He had a distinction to write plays for Alfred Theatrical Company on an initial salary of Rs 15 per month. “Mureed-e-Shak’’, one of his plays for the company was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play “The Winter’s Tale’’. It proved to be a  grand success and thus fetched him wages of Rs 40 per month. He then wrote several more adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.

Agha’s First Publication

Agha Hashar Kashmiri had started composing verse at a young age. He  wrote a play `Aaftaab-e-Mohabbat’ (published in 1897) when he was just 18 upon his moving to Bombay for his career as a playwright there.

“Yahudi Ki Ladki’’ (The Daughter of a Jew) (1913), became a classic in Parsi-Urdu theatre and was adapted several times in the silent film and early talkies eras.

Agha’s most popular plays are `Sita Banbas’, `Bilwa Mangal,’ and `Rustom O Sohrab’, a Persian folk story and tragedy. `Safed Khoon’ (White Blood) is his another notable Shakespeare-inspired plays.

Personal life

Agha Kashmiri  was married to Mukhtar Begum, a classical singer from Calcutta and elder sister of Farida Khanum – a Pakistani singer. With the help of his wife, Agha Kashmiri had introduced actor Rani Begum, daughter of their driver, to the show business. Rani later became an actor and dancer of the Pakistani film industry.

Apart from several books to his credit, Agha Hashar Kashmiri was master of Ghasal writing. His one of the popular ghazals is “Mein Chaman Mein Khush Nahin Hoon, Mere Aur Hain Iiraday”.

Agha Kashmiri died on 1 April 1935 in Lahore, British India.