Premchand's story ईदगाह opens by letting the festival transform an ordinary morning: first the calendar changes, then the trees, fields, sky, and sun appear newly alive. The passage is public domain—Premchand died in 1936—and the short excerpt below follows the opening as printed in the public-domain collection प्रेमचंद की सर्वश्रेष्ठ कहानियाँ transcribed on Hindi Wikisource.
That witness prints रमजान, रोजों, आयी without the now-common nukta or आई spelling. We preserve those editorial forms in the quoted target. Many modern editions print रमज़ान, रोज़ों, आई, and may write रौनक़. These differences do not change the syntax; the romanization gives the ordinary contemporary pronunciations ramzān, rozoṃ, āyī, raunak.
The complete excerpt
रमजान के पूरे तीस रोजों के बाद आज ईद आयी है। कितना मनोहर, कितना सुहावना प्रभात है। वृक्षों पर कुछ अजीब हरियाली है, खेतों में कुछ अजीब रौनक है, आसमान पर कुछ अजीब लालिमा है। आज का सूर्य देखो, कितना प्यारा, कितना शीतल है, मानो संसार को ईद की बधाई दे रहा है।
ramzān ke pūre tīs rozoṃ ke bād āj īd āyī hai. kitnā manohar, kitnā suhāvnā prabhāt hai. vrikṣoṃ par kuch ajīb hariyālī hai, khetoṃ meṃ kuch ajīb raunak hai, āsmān par kuch ajīb lālimā hai. āj kā sūrya dekho, kitnā pyārā, kitnā śītal hai, māno saṃsār ko īd kī badhāī de rahā hai.
After the full thirty fasts of Ramadan, Eid has come today. What a charming, lovely morning it is. There is a strangely vivid greenness on the trees, an unusual radiance in the fields, and a peculiar redness across the sky. Look at today's sun—how lovely, how cool it is, as though it were wishing the world a happy Eid.
The narration is (literary) but accessible. Words such as प्रभात, वृक्ष, सूर्य, संसार are elevated or Sanskritic (literary/formal); आज, खेत, आसमान, प्यारा remain ordinary. Premchand mixes them rather than writing in one uniformly Sanskritized register.
Sentence 1: a long frame before the news
रमजान के पूरे तीस रोजों के बाद आज ईद आयी है।
ramzān ke pūre tīs rozoṃ ke bād āj īd āyī hai.
After the full thirty fasts of Ramadan, Eid has come today. (literary narrative)
The clause can be segmented as [रमजान के पूरे तीस रोजों के बाद] [आज] [ईद] [आयी है]. Hindi puts the long temporal frame first, then the narrower time आज, and only then announces ईद. English can start the same way, but its default Eid has arrived today after… remains possible; Hindi's frame-first order guides the reader from waiting to arrival.
रमजान के…रोजों contains two oblique plurals. रोजों is oblique because के बाद follows the whole phrase. The inner रमजान के links Ramadan to its fasts. पूरे तीस emphasizes completion: not merely “after thirty fasts,” but after all thirty have run their course.
Feminine आयी agrees with feminine ईद. The perfective plus present auxiliary presents the arrival as completed but currently relevant. A plain past ईद आई would narrate an event; आई है makes the festival the new present situation.
तीस रोज़ों के बाद ईद आई है।
tīs rozoṃ ke bād īd āī hai.
Eid has come after thirty fasts. (neutral modern spelling and prose)
Sentence 2: an exclamation without क्या
कितना मनोहर, कितना सुहावना प्रभात है।
kitnā manohar, kitnā suhāvnā prabhāt hai.
What a charming, what a lovely morning it is. (literary exclamation)
This is not a question asking “how much?” Repeated कितना has exclamatory force: “how / what a…!” Masculine singular कितना and सुहावना agree with masculine प्रभात. मनोहर does not visibly inflect.
The repetition slows the gaze. One adjective would categorize the morning; कितना…कितना… performs the narrator's wonder. In conversation, a speaker might say आज की सुबह कितनी सुहानी है! प्रभात and मनोहर make Premchand's version (literary).
आज की सुबह कितनी सुहानी है!
āj kī subah kitnī suhānī hai!
How lovely this morning is! (neutral conversational Hindi)
Feminine कितनी सुहानी now agrees with सुबह. Learners cannot carry masculine कितना सुहावना over unchanged merely because English still says how lovely.
Sentence 3: three scenes in one grammatical frame
वृक्षों पर कुछ अजीब हरियाली है।
vrikṣoṃ par kuch ajīb hariyālī hai.
There is a strangely vivid greenness on the trees. (literary description)
वृक्षों is oblique plural before पर. The construction is presentational: location first, phenomenon second, copula last. It does not mean that the trees intentionally possess or produce the greenness. कुछ अजीब is not the arithmetic “some strange [units]”; adverbial कुछ softens and heightens the judgment, roughly “a certain unusual / strangely noticeable.”
खेतों में कुछ अजीब रौनक है।
khetoṃ meṃ kuch ajīb raunak hai.
There is an unusual radiance in the fields. (literary description)
The postposition changes to में because the radiance fills the field-space, while greenness was visualized पर “on” the trees. Reusing an English in for both would miss the imagery. रौनक is feminine in standard usage, but the present copula है itself does not reveal gender.
आसमान पर कुछ अजीब लालिमा है।
āsmān par kuch ajīb lālimā hai.
There is a peculiar redness across the sky. (literary description)
Again पर treats the color as spread across a visible surface. लालिमा is an abstract color noun (literary/formal), more atmospheric than ordinary लाली or the adjective लाल.
The sequence वृक्षों पर…खेतों में…आसमान पर… moves the reader's eyes outward and upward. Exact repetition of कुछ अजीब…है gives cohesion; changing only location and noun makes each new scene feel like evidence of the same festive transformation.
Sentence 4: command, exclamation, imagined action
आज का सूर्य देखो।
āj kā sūrya dekho.
Look at today's sun. (literary narration addressing the reader)
देखो is a तुम imperative. The narrator momentarily addresses readers as companions (literary/rhetorical). आज का सूर्य does not claim a different astronomical sun belongs to each day; का identifies the sun as experienced under today's special conditions.
कितना प्यारा, कितना शीतल है।
kitnā pyārā, kitnā śītal hai.
How lovely, how cool it is. (literary exclamation)
The subject सूर्य is omitted but remains active. Masculine कितना प्यारा confirms it; invariable शीतल adds a tactile quality (literary/formal). Modern casual speech would likely use ठंडा here, though that may sound less poetic.
मानो संसार को ईद की बधाई दे रहा है।
māno saṃsār ko īd kī badhāī de rahā hai.
As though it were wishing the world a happy Eid. (literary comparison)
मानो introduces an imagined comparison (literary), close to “as if.” It does not assert that the sun literally speaks. The omitted subject is still सूर्य, recovered across the sentence boundary. Masculine singular दे रहा है agrees with that subject. संसार को marks the recipient, and ईद की बधाई is what is given.
The wider contrast among मानो, जैसे कि, गोया is covered on the comparison-linker page.
English often selects a past-like form after as if (as though it were wishing). Hindi does not mechanically backshift here. The progressive दे रहा है is anchored to the vivid narrated present.
Twelve instructive forms
| Form | Clause-level job | Effect/register |
|---|---|---|
| के बाद | closes an oblique time phrase | delays the announcement until the waiting period is named; neutral |
| पूरे तीस | totalizing quantifier | presents Ramadan as completed |
| ईद आयी है | perfective + present auxiliary | completed arrival with current relevance; neutral/literary spelling |
| कितना…कितना… | repeated exclamative degree phrase | enacts wonder; literary |
| प्रभात | masculine head noun | controls agreement; literary/formal |
| वृक्षों पर | oblique plural + location | first visual field; literary noun |
| कुछ अजीब | degree/stance phrase | marks the scene as newly remarkable |
| खेतों में | interior location | contrasts with surface पर |
| [सूर्य] कितना प्यारा | recoverable subject + agreeing predicate | keeps the sun as discourse center |
| देखो | तुम imperative | pulls the reader into the scene; rhetorical |
| मानो | irrealis comparison linker | licenses personification; literary |
| बधाई दे रहा है | progressive complex predicate | turns static sunlight into an ongoing greeting |
Common Mistakes
Making the time phrase the subject
❌ तीस रोज़ों के बाद आया है।
Incomplete for the intended meaning — the feminine subject ईद is missing, and आया is masculine.
✅ रमज़ान के तीस रोज़ों के बाद ईद आई है।
ramzān ke tīs rozoṃ ke bād īd āī hai.
Eid has come after the thirty fasts of Ramadan. (neutral modern Hindi)
Reading exclamatory कितना as a question
❌ कितना सुहावना प्रभात है? — दस बजे तक।
Misparse — कितना here means ‘how lovely,’ not a measurable duration answered by ‘until ten.’
✅ कितना सुहावना प्रभात है!
kitnā suhāvnā prabhāt hai!
What a lovely morning! (literary exclamation)
Ignoring agreement after an omitted subject
❌ सूर्य कितना प्यारी है।
Incorrect — सूर्य is masculine, so the predicate is प्यारा.
✅ सूर्य कितना प्यारा है।
sūrya kitnā pyārā hai.
How lovely the sun is. (literary/formal noun)
Treating मानो as a factual report
❌ मानो का अर्थ है कि सूर्य सचमुच बोल रहा है।
Incorrect — मानो frames an imaginative comparison, not a literal claim.
✅ मानो सूर्य सबको बधाई दे रहा हो।
māno sūrya sabko badhāī de rahā ho.
As though the sun were congratulating everyone. (literary comparison)
Key Takeaways
- The opening frame delays ईद and makes arrival feel like the end of waiting.
- Repeated कितना is exclamatory, not interrogative.
- Parallel locative clauses move the reader's gaze from trees to fields to sky.
- मानो licenses personification while omitted सूर्य still controls agreement.
From literary order to neutral prose
रमज़ान के तीस रोज़े पूरे हो गए हैं और आज ईद है। सुबह बहुत सुहानी है। पेड़ हरे दिखाई दे रहे हैं, खेतों में रौनक है और आसमान लाल है। आज धूप हल्की और सुखद लग रही है, इसलिए ऐसा लगता है जैसे सूरज सबको ईद की बधाई दे रहा हो।
ramzān ke tīs roze pūre ho gae haiṃ aur āj īd hai. subah bahut suhānī hai. peṛ hare dikhāī de rahe haiṃ, khetoṃ meṃ raunak hai aur āsmān lāl hai. āj dhūp halkī aur sukhad lag rahī hai, islie aisā lagtā hai jaise sūraj sabko īd kī badhāī de rahā ho.
The thirty fasts of Ramadan are complete, and today is Eid. The morning is very pleasant. The trees look green, the fields are lively, and the sky is red. The sunlight feels gentle and pleasant today, so it seems as if the sun were wishing everyone a happy Eid. (neutral modern prose)
The paraphrase states causal links and replaces nominal हरियाली/लालिमा with adjectives. Premchand's order is more experiential: ईद arrives, exclamations interrupt, three parallel locations open outward, and only then does the narrator invite us to look. Grammar converts observation into celebration.
Related Topics
- के बाद sequenceB1 — Use के बाद to place an event, time, person, or item after an oblique reference point, including event clauses built with oblique infinitives.
- Existential and presentational clausesC1 — Distinguish Hindi clauses that assert existence, locate an entity, introduce a new referent, or present something to the listener.
- Topic-comment organizationA2 — Organize Hindi clauses around an established topic followed by a comment, while distinguishing topic from grammatical subject and narrow focus.
- जैसे कि मानो गोया comparisonC1 — Choose जैसे कि, मानो, and गोया for examples, real comparisons, and ‘as if’ comparisons while controlling mood and register.
- Present progressiveA2 — Use stem + रहा/रही/रहे + present auxiliary for events unfolding now, temporary situations, changes, and arranged future plans.