Another beautiful case of disjoint text and images. In this case a simple goof-up by an ‘angreez’ leads to a funny situation where a ‘pandit’ photograph ends up getting tagged as ‘musalmaan’, and then almost a century later, due to a vacuum created by lack of information, on a ‘social network’ the photograph and the actual subject does the rounds in all three social groups, in a ‘secular’ manner, devoid of any specific context, as a symbol of ‘Kashmiri Beauty’.
From National Geographic, 1921. Photograph by Fred Bremner. What is interesting about this photograph is that the caption suggests that the woman pictured is a boatwoman while the special danglers in her ear point to the fact that she is a Pandit woman.
Another photograph. Another pose. Same woman. By Fred Bremner in around 1900.
 |
| Titled ‘A Panditani [Hindu] Kashmir’ |
-0-
such a lovely pic….made me remember my grandmother ina similar attire in light green pheran with bright crimson handwoven kamarband. Fair as a fairy with silver aathor dangling in her small ears which also had a silver tooth pic !!