Author: Vinayak Razdan

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Byel Tamul

Grains used for sowing rice

Raw grains leave a sweet smoky taste
/Byel Tamul/chrim tumul

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Update July 1, 2018

Around 200 years ago there were about 94 varieties of rice grown in Kashmir.

Here’s are names of some given in Gulzar-i-Kashmir by Dewan Kripa Ram of Jammu (1870s):


Larbyol
Mushkabudji
Lolianzun
Reban
Yimbirzal
Pothibrar
Sukhdas
Basmat (famous fine basmati)
Shalkav
Braz
Zag-Danyi
Rani
Kunji-Danyi (one of the finer variety)
Gurukoen
Chogul (said to be very soft and sweet, very popular)
Mokhtahal
Lachahal
Shahguzu Guru tanzi
Lal Krahna
Kenu Puthau
Nur
Karhana Shesher
Suirmal
Chata braz
Kamad
Tachitachee Mukhtabraz
Dudhakrid
Neka beyol
Barenbezol
Nihali
Bud Braz
Malwar
Chatazar
Gurah
Ghunder
Chata newar
Kawhamah
Maitarahel
Babeer Mohiwan
Kawa Krishna
Keoziv
Moglubeyol
Chandahal
Sukal
Mohiaznun
Munkahashahd
Shalanzun
Oozulkrid
Baidanzun
Karalanzun,
Bathal
Nekanzun Lenahzag
Nekahzag,
Kranahzag
Zazid Zekahtatar
Talaibyol

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Reads on Facebook provided some additional info and some more names:

Suneel Jailkhani Mushkabudgi is being grown again with the support of the j&k govt. Recently I found it being sold in srinagar in sealed packets of two kgs. About Rs 160 per kg.



Vikar Malik Mushkbudji n kamad is used in marriage ceremonies

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Satish Munshi Gulu zug,nounu byoul,pireu,khoutch not in the list

Madan Lal Thakur Hokhal,zag ,lagud

Karam Vir “Gulzag” 
Not in the list…grown in upper reaches of beerrwah

Pradiman Koul And then……….. China… 1039 ,k… 39 also……..now the agricultural land has been lost due to constructions and turning this land into orchards and poppy production

Mithan Lal Hanjura Mazeth kathwor gulzag tilzah and mushkbadij was sown during our times also but the production was less

Sheikh Gulzar Some r ougman Bahar 
Farmee
K39
Char bahar
Naz bahar
Barkat bahar

Farooq Nazki Gazur. Kadir Khan

Sanjay Koul One of d varieties my father tells me was kaedir ganie.

Bimal Misri Even Rajtrangini has listed about fifty varieties of rice. An aromatic variety called ” Noon build” is still cultivated in some niches of Budgam district and we had about a Quintal of it in our home when in Kashmir. When you cook it the entire neighborhood knows.

Ishfaq Hydar bide china, cxadie china,k41,k45, safaid china


Maryam Jan i know Eetal n cheena beoul we hd this in our paddy feilds n many more i will try to remember if possib


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Old Photographs of Kashmir, 1903

Following images are from the book Irene Petrie : Missionary to Kashmir (1903). Includes some rare photographs by Geoffroy Millias.

Srinagar: The Fourth bridge, Hari Parbat, and in the distance Kotwal and Haramuk

Dal Lake at Gagribal

Maharaja passing the C.M.S. School on his state entry into Srinagar

Pandit Oarsmen

Holton Cottage

St. Luke’s Chruch (built in around 1896 ) and the C.M.S hospital. 

High Street, Leh


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Gopal Kaul Presents

Cross posted to my other Blog.
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Late 1960s, Gopal Kaul was one of the earliest and famous faces of Doordarshan. According to one of the most intriguing and famous stories from the early days of Doordarshan, Gopal Kaul, in a somewhat comic way, was the reason why Salma Sultan became a newsreader. The story goes that Gopal Kaul, who was already a known face on Doordarshan, didn’t want to be a newsreader, he wanted to be a producer and was always was often at loggerheads with the DD people. One day to put an end to his newsreading tussle, in a unique way of protest, Gopal Kaul reported to job with his head completely shaved off. An emergency replacement was found nearby in Salma Sultan.

In my post about ‘Famous old faces of Doordarshan‘ Gopal Kaul was one big and obvious missing name as I couldn’t find a single image of him online. But then recently, Gopal Kaul’s son Ashutosh Kaul wrote to me and generously offered to share his personal collection with this blog. He also informed me that among many other things Gopal Kaul also used to read President’s speech in Hindi.

Thanks to Ashutosh Kaul here are some rare and wonderful images of Gopal Kaul at work:

Gopal Kaul in a play (with turban on right corner) along with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and  Babu Rajendra Prasad.
Gopal Kaul with Raj Kapoor.

Gopal Kaul with Manna Dey

Gopal Kaul after retirement.
Ashutosh Kaul informs that Gopal Kaul finally retired from Lucknow Doordarshan and  settled down in that city.
He passed away in year 1999. And he did became a Producer in Doordarshan.
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The Reenactment – II

Left:1988. My mother does tamul satun tcharun- cleaning rice.
The image is one of the last photographs of the house.
Right: 2010. She has a habit of eating rice while she does it, two sweeps of hand over the heap and in the next move she pops two grains into her mouth, and she does it with the deftness of a bird. For that she got the name Munne’Haer – Munna the Myna.
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Sketches from Kashmiri Ramayan in Persian Script, 1940s

Guest post by Man Mohan Munshi Ji. Notice the headgear of Ravan (Is that Ravan?). With a note at the end from me about various versions of Kashmiri Ramayan.
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Sketches drawn by R.C.Wantoo a forgotten Kashmiri Pandit artist for a Kashmiri Ramayan in Persian script published in early 1940s by Ali Mohmad Tajar Kutab (Bookseller), Habba Kadal, Srinagar. Unfortunately the front page of the said Ramayan is missing and as such I cannot give the name of its author.


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Note on Kashmiri Ramayan.


Persian was the official language of Kashmir right from 1372 to 1889.

Yet the fact remains that during the Mugal period, the Persian Ramayana came to Kashmir also. Of these Mulla Masithi’s masterpiece written during the time of Jahangir appears to have been widely read, as is borne out not only by the extensive dispersal of the manuscripts of the work in Kashmir, but also by the parallels and affinities found in the Masthi Ramayana and the Kashmiri Ramayana, particularly the Prakas-Ramayana .The Persian Ramayana, however, is not the main source of the Kashmiri Ramayana written in the forties of the ninteenth century and after, the latest one written as late as 1940 AD 

[…]

The first kashmiri Ramayana entitled Shankara Ramayana was transcribed from Sharada into Devanagari in 1843 AD by Shankar Kanth (Nath) in the reign of Maharaja Ranbir Singh.Prakash Ramayan by Prakash Ram Kurygami came in 1846 A.D was most widely copied out and is the only Kashmiri Ramayana that has been printed in all the three scripts, Roman, Devnagri and Persian.The third Kashmiri Ramayana, the Visnu Pratapa Ramayana, was finished by Vishu Kaul in 1913. This was followed by the Sarma Ramayana by Nilakantha Sharma (1919-1926 A.D.) modeled on Tulsidasa’s masterpiece.The fifth was written by Tarachand in 1927 AD and the sixth by Amar Nath in 1940 AD.[ Seventh one was by Anand Ram. And the one used by George A. Grierson was Sriramuvataracarit by Divakar Prakasha Bhatta]

– The Ramayana tradition in Asia: papers presented at the International Seminar on the Ramayana Tradition in Asia, New Delhi, December 1975, Venkatarama Raghavan.

There as many as six versions of the Ramayana available in Kashmiri, but only one version has been published so far. The published version is Ramavatarcharit (1910) by Prakash Ram. […] Other versions of Ramayana are by Shankar Nath, Anand Ram, Visnu Koul, Amar Nath and Nilakanth Sharma. With Nilakanth Sharma, the tradition of epics based on Indian or national themes came to an end.

– The Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj To Jyoti), Volume 2 by Amaresh Datta


One of the interesting things about Kashmiri Ramayan is that like the Jain and some other tellings, say the Thai version, Sita is presented as the daughter of Ravan’s wife Mandodari who after the birth of her daughter gives her up to the sea.

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Yashodhara Katju – First Kashmiri Actress

In 1941 when Pandit Nehru’s young niece decided to join the film industry not only did Yashodhara Katju become the first Kashmiri heroine of silver screen but perhaps one of the first woman from a good family to set foot in the not so good film industry – an event that was certainly newsworthy.

Film India, August 1941.
From FilmIndia Magazine collection generously shared with me by Indian film enthusiast Memsaab who runs one of the best blogs on Indian Cinema.

Text from the news-piece:

Well-known Society Girl Joins Indian Films

Miss Katju, niece of Pandit Nehru Comes to National Studios

Fourteen year-old Yashodhara Katju comes from a famous family of Kashmir Brahmins who have settled in the United Provinces for generations.

Well connected by ties of blood and friendship with some of the leading families of U.P. Yashodhara is at present studying in the Senior Cambridge class and in addition happens to be an accomplished dancer, having taken an extensive training under some of the best dancers in the country. She is reported to be a fine exponent of the Manipuri and Kathakali schools of dancing.

Her first screen role is likely to be in “Roti” a social picture directed by Mr. Mehboob for the National Studio.

Yashodhara Katju. Film India, August 1943

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Interestingly, right next to that news-piece was an ad for Afghan Snow cream. One of the biggest name in beauty creams in India right until the 1970s.

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Water-ways on the Dal Lake

Dal. July.2010.

WATER-WAYS ON THE DAL LAKE

Alone I love to dream along

The Dal lake’s willowy water-ways

And tune my heart to hear her song,
A song which varies with the days.

My boat pursues reflections clear
And ‘twixt a tracery of leaves

Mountains of amethyst appear
Through filmy veils the ‘Soft air weaves.

All nature glows and throbs delight!

I lie entranced: the atmosphere
Bathed in this shining, radiant light

Is steeped in colour soft yet clear.

When suddenly with flashing flight
A brilliant streak of purest gold

Darts swift across my waking sight,
A glimpse of living joy untold !

The golden oriole, its note

Of mellow music I can hear,
As ‘neath the willow boughs I float

To catch its cadence low and clear.

Still onward ever yet we glide

Through tangled brakes of whisp’ring reed
Which their shy secrets thus confide

If only we will harkening heed.

And now my mangies* moor the boat
To this green islet’s peaceful shore

An island made of weeds to float,
On which is grown a plenteous store

Of golden melons which I see
A Kashmir beldame pluck and throw

In her shikara** floating free,
Then seat herself and paddling go.

With this her trophy piled on high,
In picturesque confusion bright

Of sun-kissed, glowing fruits which lie
Reflected in the ripples light.

These little isles which like a dream
Float baseless on the Dal lake’s breast

How like our human lives they seem
Mere dreams which here but fleeting rest.

I must return: the setting sun
Extends the purple shadows deep

Soft drifts of smoke, the day now done
From many homesteads circling creep.

Our paddle’s splash the only sound
As stealing ‘neath the shade we cling

To Takht-i-Suliman’s dark mound
While silent birds swift nest-ward wing.

* Mangies=:Kashmiri boatmen,
** Shikara=Kashmiri country boat.

 ~ Muriel A.E. Brown
Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir (1921)

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Map of Dal Lake

Found it in an interesting paper (PDF LINK):

PHYTOPLANKTON POPULATION DYNAMICS AND
DISTRIBUTION IN TWO ADJOINING LAKES
IN SRINAGAR
MACROFLORA IN RELATION TO Phytoplankton
by SHASHI KANT* and P. KAOHROO, Department of Botany,
University of Kashmir, Srinagar 6
(Communicated by M. S. Randhawa, F.N.A.)
(Received 20 July, 1970; after revision 3 September 1970

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