Word Meaning
तोंबे
tonbe
Meaning
Dried gourds used as begging bowls or wine vessels; calabashes.
Detailed Meaning
Refers to dried, hollowed-out bottle gourds traditionally used by dervishes as begging bowls (kashkol) or repurposed as rustic wine-flasks. In Ghalib's verse, the poet wittily links the gardening of gourds to the idea that the garden itself is a beggar craving wine. It reflects the poetic interplay between ascetic renunciation and wine-drinking.
Etymology
Indo-Aryan / Persian (تومبہ / तूंबा), denoting a dried bottle gourd or calabash vessel.
Usage
Commonly invoked in classical ghazals as an emblem of either mendicant poverty or the rustic vessels of uninhibited drinkers.
Examples
The wandering mendicant carried a water gourd upon his shoulder.
Fill my earthen bowl with the wine of oblivion.