Mah Laqa Bai

🪔 About

Mah Laqa Bai, born Chanda Bibi on April 7, 1768, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, was an influential 18th-century Indian Urdu poet, tawaif, philanthropist, and a significant figure in Indian classical dance. She was also known as Mah Laqa Chanda. Her mother, Raj Kunwar, a courtesan, migrated from Rajputana and learned to sing and dance from a storyteller group. Mah Laqa Bai received extensive training in various arts, including classical dance, music, literature, archery, and horse-riding. She learned dance from master Panna Maharaj and Khushhal Khan, and singing and classical Indian music from Khushhal Khan, a great-grandson of the legendary Tansen. Mah Laqa Bai was a practitioner of the Deccani style of Kathak, a dance form popular among courtesans in the courts of the later-Mughal era. She entered court life as a singer and Deccani style Kathak dancer, performing for the aristocratic public and often accompanying her ghazal recitals with this dance form. Her literary contributions, particularly her Urdu ghazals, provide insight into the linguistic transformations from Dakhini to Persianized Urdu in southern India. In 1824, her compilation of Urdu Ghazals, "Gulzar-e-Mahlaqa," was published posthumously, making her the first female poet to have a diwan of her work published. Beyond her performances, Mah Laqa Bai was a patron of the arts and an educationist. She established a cultural center in Hyderabad where she, along with other masters, trained 300 girls in music and Kathak. She also endowed an institute led by her adopted daughter, Husn Laqa Bai, to continue the lineage of Deccan style Kathak performers. Mah Laqa Bai died in August 1824 in Hyderabad, India, leaving her wealth to homeless women.