Mahjoor, the immortal poet of Kashmir, represents the peak of the romantic era of the literature of the valley. His songs and poems, rich with native imagery and remarkable rhythm, delighted and moved the common people of Kashmir to national awareness. He sang of the ideal and the actual, of love and nature, of aspiration and frailty. His command of ghazal and nazm still remains unsurpassed in Kashmiri literature.

           In May 1957, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, had this to say in his message for the Special Mahjoor Number of Tamir:

"Mahjoor's poetry is part of our great literary heritage
and therefore it is our vital duty to keep his memory alive." 

           Born on August 11, 1887, at Mitrigam, a picturesque hamlet 40-km south-west of Srinagar , Mahjoor received his early education from his father, Pir Abdullah  Shah, a Persian and Arabic scholar and a village preacher by profession. His mother having died when he was only two  years old, Mahjoor was brought up by his grandmother who too was well-versed in Arabic and Persian lore. Later he was sent to a  maktab (religious school) in the neighbouring township of Tral where his association with Abdul Gani Ashak, a reputed Kashmiri  poet and Persian scholar, fired his imagination and produced in him  a burning passion for writing poetry.

           Mahjoor began writing Kashmiri poetry in earnest from 1914.  in 1927,  Poshe-mati-Janano (My beloved, maddened after flowers), became popular overnight. In 1935 he recited his poem Bage Nishat  Ke Gulo (Flower of Nishat Garden) , a masterpiece in nature poetry at an all-India Urdu symposium  organised by a literary association in Srinagar. When a poem of his, the "Country Lass", was shown to Rabindranath Tagore,  he was so  impressed by it that he unhesitatingly called Mahjoor "the Wordsworth of Kashmir" with the poem itself being comparable to the English poet's "Solitary Reaper".Poets like Tagore and Iqbal who were his contemporaries acknowledged his greatness as a poet and his role in enriching the Kashmiri language.    

           While in the earlier stage of his literary career, Mahjoor concentrated on love poems in the backdrop of rhythm seen in nature, during the nineteen-forties  he was attracted by the freedom movement  and gave a new direction and tilt to his thought and expression, urging the common man to fight for political  emancipation and social change.  One of his revolutionary poems,"Arise, 0 Gardener", had been adopted as the national anthem of Kashmir during the freedom struggle. In the late sixties the Kashmir government honoured him by making a feature film on him in Kashmiri.  

         Arise, O Gardener!
(volo ha baaghvaano....... )

Arise, O Gardener! And usher in the glory of a new spring.
Create conditions for 'bulbuls' (a type of bird) to
Hover over full-blown roses.

Dew bemoans the garden's desolation.
Harassed roses have torn their garments.
Infuse New life into flowers and 'bulbuls'.

Root out the stringing nettle from The garden; it will harm flowers.
Wave after wave of hyacinths are coming, let them laugh.

Total immersion in the love of the motherland behooves man.
If you create this faith, surely you shall attain your goal.

Who will free you, O 'bulbul', While you bewail in the cage?
With your hands, work out your own salvation.

Power and pelf, bounties and royal grandeur are all
Within your reach reach and grasp.
You have only to identify them.

In the garden many birds sing but their notes are varied.
May God harmonize these into one effective melody.

If you must awaken this rosy habitat, give up the harp.
Bring about earthquakes and thunder, raise a tempest.

Kashmiris' fame will again spread in the world if you
Create luminaries like Tazi Bhat, Lalitaditya and Mubarak Khan.

Official writs will again run at your will in case you
Produce a peer of Zia Bhan in this modern age.

Litterateurs of Iran will bow to you in reverence if you
Create a poet with powers of magical narration like Ghani.

O Mahjoor! You created roses in the field of poetry.
Now make a wailing 'bulbul' too in this colourful garden.

Freedom
(Azaadi . . . )

O bulbul, let the freedom urge possess your soul !
Bid good bye to your cage, step out,
Gather your flowers and enjoy their bloom !

Speak out bold and clear. Your voice
Need not falter with fear
As when you sang within your cage.

In bondage, they served you ample food.
Now gather in the fields what grain you can,
And see how sweet is food in freedom !

Though unfreedom made you stammer,
Your call enchanted the birds of the air,
For it was born of love.

You can't remain with folded wings !
Plume them, fly and see the world.
See flowers now with eyes of freedom.

You don't know the latest about the garden !
Forget about the past; sing new songs now

Mahjoor, throw away this belt of bondage !
From now, you are free as a bird.
Your heart commands, your voice obeys !

The romantic era in Kashmiri literature ended with Mahjoor's death in April 1952 . Undoubtedly the greatest and most popular poet of Kashmir, he inspired a generations  with poetry composed in the people's language and using their idiom and diction. He is aptly called the poet of New Kashmir.