The word behind the world

What does Mejaj mean?

مزاجমেজাজ

Mood · temperament · disposition

The character
you bring to life.

A word for your state of mind, your nature, your particular way of being. Sometimes good spirits. Sometimes a little fire.

For us, Mejaj is an invitation to bring that character into the room—and make room for someone else’s.

Follow the word

A voice from Bengal

মেজাজটাই তো আসল রাজা।
আমি রাজা নই।

Mejaj tai toh ashol raja. Ami raja noi.

“Mood is the true, original king.
I am not the king.”

In the song, swagger and extravagance meet questions about hunger and inequality.

Lines from Hazar Takar Jharbatita, in the film Stree. Lyrics by Gauriprasanna Mazumder; music by Nachiketa Ghosh; sung by Manna Dey and Hemanta Mukherjee. English rendering by Mejaj.
Watch the song

Languages in conversation

A long life.
Many homes.

The Silk Roads carried more than goods. Across land and sea, people exchanged ideas, sounds, and words. Mejaj belongs in that wider imagination of encounter.

The word’s Arabic origins are documented. So are the centuries of Persian influence on Bengal. Its exact journey between languages is less certain: this is a story of connections, rather than a single mapped route.

UNESCO · The Silk Roads

Arabic / the root

مِزَاج

mizāj

The root concerns mixing. Mizāj also names the bodily and psychological qualities that distinguish a person.

Cairo Arabic Language Academy ↗

Persian & Urdu / shared vocabulary

مزاج

mezāj / mizāj

In Persian and Urdu, the word carries senses of constitution, temperament, and disposition. Pronunciation and usage have their own local lives.

Bengali / an everyday word

মেজাজ

mejaj

State of mind. Nature. Temper, too. Bengali gives the Arabic-origin word its own sound and a place in ordinary conversation.

Accessible Dictionary, Bangladesh ↗

And Bengal? Persian was a language of administration and literary exchange for centuries. Its contact with Bengali left a lasting vocabulary. That history includes migration, scholarship, and maritime connections as well as overland travel.

Richard M. Eaton · Encyclopaedia Iranica ↗

In company & in verse

A word between us.

Expressions that make room for warmth, attention, and another person’s state of mind.

An Urdu expression

Khush-mizaj خوش مزاج

Cheerful. Of a pleasant disposition. The person whose good spirits are part of their character.

Meaning in Rekhta ↗

An Urdu expression

Mizaj-pursi مزاج پرسی

Asking after someone’s wellbeing. A word for the small, human act of finding out how another person is.

Meaning in Rekhta Dictionary ↗

A couplet / Urdu

آپ نے جو مزاج پرسی کی
آپ کی یہ بڑی عنایت ہے

“You asked after my wellbeing;
that was very kind of you.”

Maharaja Sir Kishan Parashad ‘Shad’ (1864–1940), Hyderabad.
One couplet from a ghazal. English rendering by Mejaj.
Read the full ghazal

What it means here

Come as you are.
Leave with a little
of someone else.

Our own words, inspired by the name.

house of culture

Music lives through people.

A house for the people who make culture, the people who gather around it, and the people who keep it moving.

Find your next night out. Hear an artist from across the world. Make a gathering of your own happen.

Mamar Kassey performing with flute, percussion, and string instruments
Mamar Kassey · Niger · From the Mejaj recording archive

Keep music moving.

Our mission is to support musicians and sustain music cultures through new work, exchange, and collaboration across borders.

That takes both an audience and the means to keep creating. Mejaj connects live events, recordings, practical tools, and shared funding.

Artists open the door.

Our artist-curated program began in 2020 with musicians in India. After performing, each group was invited to choose the next artists. Those artists invited others in turn.

That chain of invitations grew across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Musicians shape the program and introduce listeners to one another’s work.

Meet the music

Tools that fund new work.

Organizers use Mejaj to sell tickets, offer memberships, and stream events. Mejaj contributes 33% of the fees from its ticketing and membership tools to the Universal Creator Income Fund.

Together with direct support from patrons, the fund backs artist-curated Sessions, independent releases, and collaborative live and streamed events.

An act worth passing on.

This house is dedicated to a listener who heard two musicians playing in a New York subway station. He crossed to their platform, thanked them, and offered the change he had.

That act of generosity is the spirit behind Mejaj: people making it possible for other people to keep making music.

Read the founding story

Be part of what happens next.