vyen
samagri
Kotarkhan
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| Rest-house called the Kotarkhan in Dal Lake |
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Mahjoor’s Kutubkhana Collection
Mahjoor was also a historian and took deep interest in numismatics. He collected 500 rare coins mostly belonging to the period of Queen Deda of the Varma dynastry which rules Kashmir several centuries before the advent of Islam in the state. He gathered a number of documents and manuscripts in both Persian and Sanskrit languages. One of the manuscripts, Shar-e-Tul Islam, which deals with Islamic years old. He also acquired barch paper treatises on grammer written by Abhinavagupta and Mammatacharya.
This collection, fondly named “Kutubkhana” by Mahjoor himself, was offered by his descendants to the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar, to be lodged in a national monument where it could be preserved safely. But due to what the grandsons of the poet term as “shortsightedness” of the authorities in the state, this was not to be. The academy undervalued the treasure (it offered only Rs. 38,000) and Mahjoor’s grandsons later sold it to the National Archives for Rs. 71,000. Six years ago this “Kutubkhana” thus found a niche in the premises of the National Archives, New Delhi, under the title of “Mahjoor Collection”.
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From life-sketch of Mahjoor by T.N. Kaul in his book Poems of Mahjoor (Sahitya Akademi, first published 1988)
Luchi
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| Luchi makers at Khir Bhawani. |
Apparently Bengalis also have something called Luchi. I don’t know if the fact that it is popular at Khir Bhawani has something to do with the relation of this shrine with Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission.
Ladisha Ladisha
by Ravimech Studios
Artist: Gulzar Ahmed
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Ballads (called bath or Kath, meaning ‘stories’ and literally in kashmiri meaning ‘talk’): A particular variety of satarical ballads is popularly known as laddi shah. A man stirs the iron rings strung on an iron rod and makes witty comments on the social issues. A common refrain from the songs started with line: Laddi Shah, Laddi Shah draar’kin pyow, pya’waane pya’waane ha’patan khyow( Laddi Shah, Laddi Shah! fell off the window! And a Grizzly bit him just as he fell!)
Of Chakmak, hah taas, Kana-Mana –Tuu and more
Guest post by Arun Jalali Ji. He run an interesting site on Vidyabhavan School (Batyaar-Alikadal & Safakadal- the baud school). Besides that he sends out some wonderful e-mails about his childhood days spent with friends at Ali Kadal , down town Srinagar.
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Remembering Early Childhood Fun Activities That Filled Our Hearts With Joy.
Of
- Chak Mak
- Paper Bag Blow out
- Stamping Fish Bladder
- Hard Whispering of “Kana-Mana –Tuu” into a Friends Ear
- Exploding the Tiny Reel Crackers (Taas) in Kangri pot (by friction)
- Haah Taas (Crackers that would burst by percussion)
This weekend I am trying to recollect some very tiney childhood time passe that would stir us up during our early toon days (1970s) at Alikadal. The beauty of these fun activities was not only in their frugality but also with
timing and the light taste of naughtiness (punch) associated with them. Extreme short duration of these eventful things (sometime as small as 100 micro second) never mattered to us, it would always send us into a ocean of fun or laughter .
CHAK-MAK
During our Toon days, our search for pieces of marble stones and pebbles was a never ending one. The incentive for search was this magical pair of stone that would cause a larger spark when rubbed together. Often these experiments would be conducted during night and sometimes under the Phiran. Greater the size of emanating spark , larger was the quantum of cheer on one’s face. I don’t remember indulging into any competition for one upmanship , but surely we would share our stones with our fellows for them to have fun as well.
PAPER BAG BLOW SOUND
I today feel proud that our toon days were spent in frugality, (please don’t read it as poverty). At least we didn’t spend it in damaging the nature. Today we have plastic bags that may be spoiling our immediate environment but
childhood all we had was handcrafted paper bags ,be it kandur (bakery shop) or the small groceries (buhur) all goodies were packed into small samosa’s, or some time into more expensive Paper bags.
The Fart:- we would collect the paper bags , take them to school , blow air into them and twisting the mouth of the paper sack we would smash with hand; the sound of the released air would cheer us up. Fun at no cost to parental exchequer.
STAMPING THE FISH BLADDER
Today who would believe our words if we make a comment like having derived fun from Kitchen waste. But true to each of us , whenever parents would “dress” the Fish, they would sympathetically keep the fish bladders2 for our Fun. Great pleasure to burst we never cared why the fish would have them. As per our knowledgeable feeling the fish was bestowed with these floatation devices to lend us some moments of pleasure , Typical mode of bursting these would be to place them on a flat stone and stamping with sleeper, but occasionally with hands as well. The sound of the escaping air would give us the pleasure to run the next mile effortlessly.
KANA- MANA- TU,REEL TAAS IN KANGRI POT & HAAH TAAS :
I leave it for all of to recollect these childhood memos, and share with me. I am sure most of us must be remembering these silly actions and look forward to receiving your feelings in a write up form. Do write back on
arunjalalli@gmail.com
visit: www.vidyabhavanschool.com
Under construction:
http://arunjalalli.blogspot.com/
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I do remember playing ‘Kana-Mana-tu’. I wanted to do a photo post about it. I believe my nani introduced me to the game and not in a very subtle way. It was fun.
Sunset at Dal Lake
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| July, 2010 |
Naag Pazun/Cleaning the Spring
I have never witnessed how they do it but have often wondered how they do it. How do they drain all the water from the spring? What do they find? Cleaning the spring is supposed to be a very privileged service. As my mother saw the photographs, she recalled how as a kid she witnessed naag pazun of Vichar Nag. ‘There was gold,’ she claims.
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| Cleaning of Kheer Bhawani Spring. July 2010. |
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Update: A note on cleaning of the spring and origins of the spring from ‘Archaeological Remains In Kashmir by Pandit Anand Koul, 1935’ [book link] :
This place of pilgrimage was not visited by the Hindus during the Muhammadan rule of the country, and had been altogether forgotten by the people until about 350 years ago, when a man, named Krishna Pandit Tapilu (whose descendants are still living at Bhori Kadal in Srinagar, and whose profession is fortune-telling by looking into a book called Brihad Katha), discovered it, and since then the people have again commenced visiting it.
The worshipers offer milk, rice and sugar to the goddess, throwing them into the spring. The upper layer of the sediment formed by these things was removed only once within living memory in 1867 A.D. by a man named Diwan Narsingh Dyal. A virulent epidemic of cholera followed, and its appearance was superstitiously attributed to the wrath of the goddess having been aroused by this disturbance of the spring. Since then nobody would dare touch the spring for fear of again incurring the displeasure of the goddess. The result was that the spring had got nearly full of sediment, and the water was slowly disappearing, which caused much anxiety to the Hindus. The late Pandit Vidh Lal Dhar, the chief rais of Kashmir, boldly decided to clean the spring, and he had the enormous amount of sediments, that had been deposited in it for ages past, cleared out. The digging unearthed an ancient temple in the centre, built of large slabs of sculptured white stones, some of them nine feet long and three feet broad, and several most beautiful stone images of Hindu deities, which are marvels to the artists of the present time.
The whole shrine was repaired with money raised by pubic subscription. The late Maharaja Pratap Singh erected a pretty little marble temple on the old site in the centre of the spring.
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Pulhour
After an embarrassing gaff trying to pass off khrav as pulhour, I have finally managed to get a picture of the elusive footwear.
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| pulhour -Traditional Kashmiri Footware. Taken at Kheer Bhawani Temple in July 2010. |
Raomut pula har sheht mohur
‘He lost his grass shoes, and claims seven gold mohurs as compensation’
A Kashmiri proverb that I came across in The valley of Kashmir (1895) by Walter Roper Lawrence.
