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Workbook Answers/Solutions of A Collection of ICSE Poems
and Short Stories, In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by- Sarojini

Naidu
I.
(i) The merchants are in the bazaars of Hyderabad. They are selling
their goods in the market. The words Richly displayed mean
that the goods to be sold in the market have been beautifully
displayed by the merchants to attract the buyers.
(ii) The goods on sale in this market included crimson and silver
turbans, purple brocade tunics, mirrors framed in brownish
yellow colour and daggers with handles of jade.
(iii) The poet begins the stanza with a question to elicit an answer
from the vendors about the goods they are selling. This pattern
of question-answer is used to bring out the splendour of the
traditional bazaars of Hyderabad. The poet has used repetition
as well as lyrics full of vibrant and colourful images to describe
the scene.
(iv)
(a) Mirrors with panels of amber mean the mirrors having frames
of brownish and yellow colour.
(b) Scabbards of gold for the king mean sheaths of gold for the
King to keep his swords in.
(v) The King and his nobles are the likely customers of tunics of
purple brocade and daggers with handles of jade.
(vi) The visual imagery is stimulated by mentioning the various hues
of colours in this stanza like silver, crimson, purple, amber and
jade.
II.
(i) Chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing
the game of chess. Ivory dice refers to small cubes made of ivory,
having six sides numbered by dots from one to six. These are
used to play games.
(ii) Saffron, lentil, rice, sandalwood, henna and spices are sold by
weight, whereas chessmen and ivory dice are sold by numbers.
(iii) The sellers of various goods in the bazaars of Hyderabad are referred
to as vendors and merchants. The sellers, who go about from
place to place with their goods for sale are called the pedlars.
(iv) Food items included saffron, lentil and rice. Cosmetic items
included sandalwood and henna and the recreational items
included chessmen and ivory dice.

(v) The senses of sight are stimulated in this extract by the various
colours of the items like saffron, lentil, rice, sandalwood, henna
and various spices. The sense of taste is produced by the mention
of staple Indian food like lentil and rice and spices.
III.
(i) The jewellers shop is referred to in the extract. Girdles of gold
mean ornamental belt made of gold worn round the waist by
the dancers. Scabbards of gold refer to the sheaths of gold for
the king to keep his swords in.
(ii) The items of gold on sale included ornaments like wristlets,
anklets, rings, belts of gold worn by the dancers and sheaths for
swords used by the kings. The gold jewellery reveals that both
the owners and the buyers belonged to the wealthy sections of
the society.
(iii) Bells were tied to the feet of blue pigeons as ornaments as well
as identity marks. Sheaths of gold were used by the kings,
girdles (belts) were used by dancers and wristlets, anklets and
rings were used by other people.
(iv) Frail as a dragon-flys wing means as delicate as the wings
of a dragon-fly. Frail is an apt description for describing the
delicateness of the bells tied to the feet of blue pigeons.
(v) The poet has described the Indian goods at the Indian bazaars
for two reasons:
(a) to depict the splendour of Indian bazaars which beckon the
customers with their sounds, scents and goods.
(b) to extoll the Indians to buy Swadeshi goods and boycott
foreign goods.
IV.
(i) The fruits included lemons, pomegranates and plums, whereas
the musical instruments included sitar, sarangi and drum.
(ii) The poet asks the musicians what musical instruments they are
playing and asks the magicians what they are chanting.
(iii) Spells for aeons to come mean the magical spells used by the
magicians to charm everyone till eternity with their chanting.
(iv) The whole poem is Indian in context and presentation as it
depicts the beauty and vibrance of a traditional Indian bazaar.
The landscape, the characters, the images and the background

is typically Indian such as:
(a) the mention of dresses worn by Indians such as turbans
and tunics.
(b) the gold ornaments worn by Indians like wristlets, anklets,
rings and girdles.
(c) the musical instruments played by Indians like sitar, sarangi
and drums.
(d) the food items like lentil and rice and spices and fruits like
lemons, pomegranates and plums.
(e) the use of fresh flowers on both happy and sad occasions.
(v) The magicians are present in the bazaar for chanting magical
spells to charm the customers.
(vi) The panoramic view of the Indian bazaars presented in the poem
with its hues of colour, sounds, smells and sights has appealed
to me the most because it gives a glimpse of the Indian culture,
society and prosperity.
V.
(i) The poet has highlighted the occupation of simple folks in India
like the merchants, pedlars, vendors, fruit sellers, goldsmiths,
musicians, magicians and flower girls.
(ii) The flowers are used on happy occasions like wedding for making
garlands for the bridegroom and to decorate his nuptial bed.
The flowers are used on sad occasions such as death to pay
the last respects by placing flowers on the dead bodies or the
graves.
(iii) Crowns, chaplets and garlands were used for making garlands
for the bridegroom and for decorating his nuptial bed.
(iv) Tassels of azure and red mean ornamental threads of sky-blue
and red colour tied at one end to make garlands and nuptial
beds for the bridegroom.
(v) To perfume the sleep of the dead mean to place sheets of
freshly gathered flowers on the dead bodies or on the graves,
which give pleasant smell.
Analysis of In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini

Naidu
By Abhishek Dey June 17, 2015
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About the Poet: Sarojini Naidu (whose maiden surname was

Chattopadhyay) was an Indian independence activist and poet. She is also
known as The Nightingale of India. Naidu served as the first governor of
the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh between 1947 and 1949, and she
was also the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was
elected as the second president of the Indian National Congress in 1925, and
was also the first Indian woman to hold such a position.
Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad. Her father and
mother were Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Debi
respectively. Her father had received a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh
University. He then settled in Hyderabad, where he found and administered
the Hyderabad College, which was later renamed the Nizams College. Her
mother was also a poetess like her, and used to write poetry in Bengali. She
was the eldest among the eight siblings. Her younger brother Virendranath
was a revolutionary and her other brother Harindranath was a poet, a
dramatist, and an actor.
About the Poem: In The Bazaars of Hyderabad is a 19th-century English
poem by Sarojini Naidu. It was first published in the year 1912
from London as a part of Naidus collection of poetry entitled The Bird of
Time. Naidu here asks a series of questions about their goods to the
merchants, vendors, pedlars, goldsmiths, fruit sellers and flower girls in a
traditional Hyderabadi market, all of whom similarly answer the questions
of purchasers who buy their articles after a detailed bargaining. The
conversation form of the poem, which is set in the form of question and
answer between vendor and buyer, makes the readers feel that they are
present in the bazaar. Visual. aural and olfactory imagery are all used here to
enhance the reading experience.
Analysis of In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
Nationalist Importance (Special feature or deeper meaning)

The poem carries a lot of nationalist importance as Sarojini Naidu wrote it
with a particular perspective and aim in her mind. She was a nationalist poet
and this poem was largely a part of the Boycott movement wherein Indians
were encouraged to buy the goods and spices produced in their own country
and boycott the foreign goods so that the trade base of the British might fall
apart. As a part of this, Naidu writes this poem, beautifully collecting all the
colours, spices and goods an Indian market provides, consciously naming it
bazaar for the indianness concern of the poem. Since writing in
newspapers and magazines could have been dangerous at that time, Naidu
took to poetry.
Background, Context and History
In The Bazaars of Hyderabad was written by Sarojini Naidu(1879-1949)
during the Nineteenth Century. It was originally written in English which
was a rarity during those times, considering an Indian writer. Therefore, this
becomes a very important part of the initial era of Indian Writing in English.
Sarojini Naidu is also known as the Nightingale of India, and she was a
prominent and important figure amongst the Indian Writers from the South.
Not only she is one of the very few women writers from that era, but her
name is never forgotten whenever women Nationalist activists are
remembered, working for the Indian Independence movement. She belonged

from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, now the capital of the newly formed state
Telangana. However, Naidu published this poem from London during the
year 1912 in an anthology or book of poetry called The Bird of Time
along with some other poems written by her. The New York Times reviewed
this poem in 1913 saying, this poem shines like an oriental gem.
Currently, it can be said that this poem is not only a prominent part of
popular culture but is celebrated humungously. The poem is a part of the
syllabi for Civil Services Examinations, Secondary Schools in India and
some universities of Europe. This poem has also been modified and
incorporated into skits in schools largely because of it being in the question
and answer form which makes it easy. These skits help in developing a sense
or establishing the importance of our culture in the childrens minds. Not
only that, the students create an image of the city Hyderabad, its culture,
history, traditions and also the whole conception of bazaars in todays day
and time of shopping malls and online shopping. To promote literary work
of women, the students of Sri Meenakshi College for women in Madurai
designed a play titled Loves Labour and it contained the distinct and
authentic image of the bazaars in Hyderabad.
Imagery
In order to describe the majesty of the traditional bazaar in Hyderabad, with
a tinge of royalness added to it, the poet uses all the senses of the human
body, which adds on to the vibrancy of the poem. Beautiful and bright
colours are used by the poet which has heightened the visually capturing
capacity of the poem. The poet has mentioned colours like silver, crimson
red, purple, amber, blue, azure, red and white. They all render different kind
of images, starting from the festival of colours, Holi which is celebrated
across the country to the colours one would see on a bride or a married
woman, a young girl to an old man who might be dead. The poet also
enhances the aural factor of the poem by describing the music produced by
the Sarangi, the Sitar and the drums along with the chnating of spells by the
magicians. The mention of the fragrances of sandalwood, henna and flowers
sold by the flower girls of different kinds invoke the olfactory senses of the
reader. The description of fruits like lemons, pomegranate, plums and
famous Hyderabadi specials like lentils and rice awaken the gustatory
glands. Another, palpable imagery is produced by the bells made for the
pigeons in the course of the poem. Thus, the poem hits all the five senses of
a human being, which also accounts as a factor of as to how the poem is
stylized.
Themes
Thinking about themes, this poem, especially because of its description of
the bazaar in Hyderabad is very close to the folklore tradition. The
merchants, traders, hawkers magicians and flower girls along with the charm
and enthusiasm in the bazaar render to this image. The way the poet stops
over and the little conversations she has, brings out the vibrancy and
emotional strings present in our society, which drives the poem closer to the
Indian culture and identity, reminding the readers of their roots. Emotional
strings are touched through the poem also when the bazaar depicted by
Naidu describes the various kinds of joy and sorrows present in the Indian
society. This paradox is depicted when the poet is talking to the flower girls.
The bazaar experiences joy on various festivals and occasions like weddings
etc or when the children gather around the magicians. The sorrow is
witnessed when people buy garlands or the white flowers the flower girls
are weaving for the graves, when someone dies. Naidu could also be
pointing to the fact that the young Indian men with potential are taken by the
British army, and when they die on the battlefields, their families are left in
sorrow and helplessness.
Poetic Devices
Amongst the poetic devices, the most common one is alliteration, because
each stanza starts in a similar manner, with what are you selling? and o
ye common in each stanza. This also establishes the rhyme scheme, tone
and beat of the poem. This creates a sort of rhythmic and musical affect in
the poem and also when at the starting of each stanza, the poet repeats the
question, it emphasises on the main purpose of the poem. Along with that
the poet has also used paradoxes (of life and death when the poet talks to the
flower girls) and imagery at various places in the poem. Last but not the
least, the question answer format of the poem renders a feeling as though the
reader is present in the bazaar and experiencing whatever is described,
themselves.
Style
She evokes all the five senses of the human body sight, sound, smell,
touch and taste through the description of the bazaar. This could be
considered as the style incorporated by Naidu to frame this poem. The
colours, the smell of the spices, the music played by the musicians, the
magic spells by the magicians, the food items and the flowers all add up to
this image. Naidu has adopted the question answer format while designing
this particular poem. This has helped the reader feel as a part of the poem
and the bazaar as well which makes him/her feel less of an outsider and
more of an insider. Eventually, this feeling helps one feel more for the cause
of the Boycott movement and hence be a part of it, which is the main
purpose behind this poem. The various kinds of vendors, merchants and
artisans present in the bazaar give out a vibrant and colourful picture to the
readers mind. The poem is very picturesque which helps the reader frame it
in their own mind and create and judge it in contrast to the western markets
and therefore, realise the changes brought in.
Conclusion
In the Bazaars of Hyderabad was celebrated by English and Indian

audiences alike. For English audiences, it evoked a picture of the exotic land
of India that they never got to know intimately, no matter what their beliefs
on the matter. For Indian audiences, it described a place they knew and
loved, and a place which they knew no one could ever take away from them.

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What are the different goods and services described in the bazaars?

How does the poet describe the atmosphere and experience of the bazaars?

Workbook Answers/Solutions of A Collection of ICSE Poems

and Short Stories, In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by- Sarojini

included chessmen and ivory dice.

The landscape, the characters, the images and the background

Analysis of In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini

About the Poet: Sarojini Naidu (whose maiden surname was

Nationalist Importance (Special feature or deeper meaning)

remembered, working for the Indian Independence movement. She belonged

In the Bazaars of Hyderabad was celebrated by English and Indian

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