Word Meaning
कफ़नी
kafani
Meaning
A mendicant's shroud-like sleeveless garment worn by dervishes.
Detailed Meaning
Kafani denotes a loose, sleeveless frock worn by dervishes, ascetics, and wandering mendicants, symbolizing death to worldly vanity. In Mir's couplet, putting on a saffron-dyed kafani signifies relinquishing noble status and aristocratic pride ('mirzai') to embrace spiritual poverty. It embodies the ultimate transition from an elite householder to a detached seeker.
Etymology
Arabic 'kafan' (shroud) + Persian/Urdu suffix '-ī', literally meaning a garment resembling a shroud.
Usage
In classical Urdu poetry, donning the kafani denotes voluntary renunciation of worldly rank and complete submission to mystical love.
Examples
wearing the kafani and taking to the wilderness
the monarch cast off his crown for a mendicant's kafani