Persian · noun · Love & Longing

Deewangi

दीवानगी
said dee-waa-na-GEE
also written: diwangi, deewaangi, divangi, Diwaangi
Meaning

Madness, especially the frenzy of love; ecstatic derangement.

Literally: madness, frenzy (of love)

Usage & notes

Deewangi is the lover's madness — the wild, ungovernable state of one driven out of his senses by love, kin to junoon but with a tenderer, more pitiable edge. The deewana wanders the wilderness, tears his collar, speaks to no one but the beloved's image. The ghazal cherishes this madness as the truest fidelity; in Iqbal's reading the heart's frenzy, rightly aimed, is nobler than a cold and calculating sanity.