مضمون‌ در فن شعر سبک هندی

The term mazmoun [theme] is one of the main keywords in the Indian Style [Sabk-e Hendi] of Persian poetry. This word, also used as a literary term since the fifteenth century in Persian poetry, is not synonymous with meaning, content, concept, intent, context, and diction in the literary terminology of Persian poetry. In the following paper, I try to examine the nature of “theme” as the Indian Style’s main literary element, its mechanisms, and how Persian poets and tazkirah writers of the fifteenth century employed the term. To this aim, the frequency of the early usages of this literary term from the late-fifteenth century to the early-seventeenth century has been considered. I have identified eight different characteristics of the term “theme” based on the Indian-Style poetry and the critical writings on this school at the time. Furthermore, I have differentiated three processes of constructing the “theme” based on three frequent verbs: to find, to reach, and to close. I will further point out the rising complexity of the structure of “theme” from Saib Tabrizi to Nasir Ali Sirhindi in the late-seventeenth century