The Hamdard Dawakhana in Patna’s prominent Ashok Raj Path might be a go-to destination for traditional medicines for the residents of the Bihar capital, but its history is entangled with Hamdard founder Hakim Abdul Hameed, a ‘nashist’ of Urdu poets and, of course, a not-so distant link to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
It was in the 1960s when Hakim Mushtaq Ahmed Khan used to work at Hamdard in New Delhi. A man with a taste for poetry, Hakim Mushtaq didn’t stay long at Hamdard after some differences with Hamdard stalwart Hakim Abdul Hameed.
Despite repeated persuasions, Hakim Mushtaq, a man of his word, decided to move on from Delhi and headed for Patna.
He came up with a plan to open a dawakhana in Patna and serve the patients with the limited resources he had at his disposal. Soon, in the early 1960s, the Mulki Dawakhana was opened in the Baqargunj area of Patna, which was close to Hakim Mushtaq’s rented house in Maskan Kothi.
The modest dawakhana, however, got a grand opening. The dawakhana was inaugurated by then Bihar Health Minister Beer Chand Patel in the presence of prominent faces of that time. The list of guests included Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, the Vaidya from Bakhtiyarpur and the father of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The inauguration had another interesting anecdote of history. The ceremony was organised by the Grand Hotel, who looked after the VIP arrangement of the guests, including the health minister, at the Maskan Kothi.
The Grand Hotel, the most prominent hotel in Patna at that time, was owned by Yaqub Yunus, a friend of Hakim Mushtaq. Interestingly, Yunus was the son of Bihar’s first premier Barrister Mohammad Yunus.
The health ministry, during the inauguration event, announced government grants for the newly-opened dawakhana. However, the promise never materialised.
Dawakhana became ‘nashist’ of Urdu poets
Hakim Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, apart from being a healer, also had a taste for literature and wrote under the pen name Ghubar Bhatti.
Mulki Dawakhana didn’t just tend to patients, but its doors were open to poets who would gather there for nashists.
The poets who frequent dawakhana incde Ata Kavi, Hosh Azimabadi, Wafa Malikpuri, Kalim Ajiz and Razi Maulanagri. Others like Rahi Warsi, Mazhar Imam, Syed Hasan, Sahba Azimabadi, Wali Kakvi, Raza Naqvi Wahi and Kaif Azimabadi were also regular at the gatherings.
Hakim Mushtaq also founded a literary organisation, Majlis-e-Adab, through which regular nashists were hosted at the homes of its members. At one such gathering held at Patna’s Grand Hotel, then Governor Dr Zakir Husain was among the attendees.
Despite his physical disability in the mid-1980s, Hakim Mushtaq continued to treat patients until just a few months before his death on February 12, 1986.
