Wali Mohammed Wali (also known as Wali Deccani) was born in 1667 in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. He loved travelling, which he regarded as a means of education. His visit to Delhi in 1700 is considered to be of great significance for Urdu Gazals. His simple, sensuous and melodious poems in Urdu, awakened the Persian loving poets of Delhi to the beauty and capability of “Rekhta” (the old name for Urdu) as a medium of poetic expression. His visit thus stimulated the growth and development of Urdu Gazal in Delhi.
However, Wali was not immune or ignorant of the vigour and verve of Persian diction and imagery, and combined both into the body of his verse. He thus became the architect of the modern poetic language, which is a skilful blend of Persian and Urdu vocabulary.
Though Wali wrote in different types of verse forms – masnavi, qasida, etc., he specialized in ghazals. He wrote a total of 473 Gazals, comprising of 3225 couplets (ashaar). He was also the first poet to start expressing love from a man’s point of view as against the prevailing convention of impersonating as a woman.
Wali died in Ahmedabad in 1707, and is buried there.
