Glass Lantern Slides of Kashmir from 1890s. Personal collection.
Music: Wanvun from “Vitasta”, opera by Dina Nath Nadim.
Music: Wanvun from “Vitasta”, opera by Dina Nath Nadim.
Holding On
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Maithun/Amorous couple from Kashmir
20th Feb, 2016
Most old archaeological texts mentioned it. But, it took me two trips to find and identify it in the rubble.
“Maithun/Amorous couple” from Kashmir, Avantipur, mid 9th century. One of the most common motif in Hindu temples. These are the only two surviving in Kashmir.
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The courtship in the courtyard nearby.
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19th Feb, Manasbal
A boy and two girls standing next to a green mazaar of a pir next to the lake.
Girl A: Dopmay na me chu ne karun. (Told you, I don’t want it with you)
She opens up her phone. Takes out the sim card and gives it to the boy.
Boy: Wayn kya! (please!)
The mediator friend, Girl B: Boozi wayn! (Listen, please!).
The girl is now furious and visibly upset. She will not listen.
“Dopmay na me chu ne karun.”
She throws the phone to the ground, probably a gift, smashes it to smithereens and walks away.
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Biloreen saaq, seemeen tan, samman seena, sareen nasreen,
Jabbeen chuy aayeena aayeen ajab taaza jilaa, Jaa’noo
~ Rasul Mir, 19th century Kashmiri love poet.
Crystal Legs
Body Mercury
Jasmine Bosom
Daffodil Butt
Forehead,
a wondrous
polished
mirror,
my love
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yas zali bad’nas ash’qun naar
su zaani kyah gov hijr-e-yaar,
Maqbool kornas dil nigaar
The body set on fire by love
it knows meaning of separation from love
Maqbool, accepts an idol in place of heart.
~ from ‘Gulraiz’ by Maqbool Shah Qraalwari, (d. 1877) Kashmir. Based on work of Zia Nakhshabi, a 14th century Persian poet.
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Artist Brij Mohan Anand in Kashmir
We know how the rightwing loonies in India react to nude art. We know what happens to the art and the artist. We know how the leaders of the right react. We know how the left intelligentsia argues back. But, what happens in Kashmir.
It’s 1947 and Sheikh Abdullah sets up a cultural front in Kashmir to promote art. Left allied artists are at the forefront of the front. An exhibition is planned. Prominent from all over India are invited for exhibiting their work. Among these artists in Brij Mohan Anand who is invited by Kashmir Sahayak Sabha of Punjab. He spends time in Kashmir, travelling, sketching and painting. In September 1948, the exhibition is inaugurated by the Sheikh at Hadow Memorial College Premises, Shiekh Bagh, Srinagar.
At the exhibition, some visitors are offended by the work of Brij Mohan. He had included some nudes among his work. Sheikh sides with the Kashmiri moral brigade. Sheikh and Brij Mohan have a heated argument that soon turns physical. Later, the artist is told arrest warrants have been issued in his name. The artist silently packs as many of his paintings as he could and heads for the national highway where he finally hitches ride in an army truck, leaving Kashmir hiding under sheets of tarpaulins like some sheep.
And that’s why you won’t see Kashmiri artists exhibiting nudes in Kashmir. The Kashmiri society remains on right.
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The story is told in the book “Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand” [Aditi Anand / Grant Pooke, 2016]
Some of the Kashmir specific works of Brij Mohan Anand
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| First art exhibition in Kashmir. Srinagar. 1948. |
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| Pandit Woman, 1948 |
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| Cover designed by Brij Mohan Anand for Jamna Das Akhtar’s novel “Kashmir ki Beti” (1978) based on Zooni Gujjar. |
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| Chashmashahi. 1948 |
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| Kashmiri Muslim Woman, 1948 |
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Ideas for art installations in Kashmir
1. With Love
Put a nail on the white wall. Draw a sketch of a turbaned man around it so that nail forms the tilak. Under the sketch the name is given “Premi”. On the nail hang the “welcome” board, just enough to cover the eyes and “back” to cover the mouth.
2. Paradise or Kashmir
An empty room. With a line in white outside the threshold. the board outside the room reads, “Only muslims allowed”.
3. Plebiscite
An empty room with empty AK-47 casings engraved with “Allah” and “Bhagwan”. Put the one you like in a dice shaped white box whose surface alternatively read “U” and “N”. At a given time a screen in the room, randomly shows the result of the voting. The viewers, can anytime take the casings from the box and throw them back on the floor, but they can’t again put it back in. That is for the next set of visitors.
4. House
An empty shell of a wooden house half buried under the ground. A cement frame of a house next to it, growing out of it.
5. Pandith
Put a threaded man in a glass casing. The man counts money and sits in front of the idol of a Hindu god. Just let people watch. Project the live happening of the room in the room next to this room that people enter on exiting the previous room. People can watch their own reactions.
6. Doon of Language
Although aazaan sounds with interfere with all sound based installations in Kashmir, still this is sound based woodwork installation. A large egg shaped hall that from outside resembles a walnut, the symbol of brain in kashmiri idioms. The hall has four chambers, in such a way that two rooms, mimicking a walnut, sit on top of each other. People walk through it. In each chamber are playing sounds of a particular language, words taken from poets of these languages. Sanskrit. Persian. Hindustani. Urdu. Outside the shell are lines “Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar”, wrongly attributing them to Agha Shahid Ali.
7. Imagined Past and Imagined Present
Visitors walks into a room, walk along a wall while archival footage of Kashmir is projected onto them. In the chamber, only soundbites of encounters in Kashmir in heard. In a chamber far away to it, viewer chamber, the people can see bits of old Kashmir on these people and the sound played is only traditional Kashmiri soufiyana kalaam.
8. Jammu
A room of tin walls kept at 47 degrees. On the roof is projected snowfall. On the floor, snakes. In a corner, a melting snowman.
9. Rebuild Srinagar
A giant statue of Laxmi next to a painted image of Sridevi. Put a hammer next to it.
I can go on and on. Put a water hyacinth in a glass and call it Dal. Take a pot of sand on a jar and call it Jehlum.
Put a water hyacinth in a glass bottle and call it Dal. Take a pot of sand in a jar and call it Jhelum. Put an empty glass jar, with nothing inside and call it Wular. Take a hammer and call it a statue. Call temple a park. Park cars on the mosques. Replace the wooden cones of the shrines with the cone of the loudspeakers. Take a Kangri and call it Kashmir, ask people to put ash in it. Call it all humanity.
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saruff
“
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
”
The Pit Temple of Bijbihara
The pit temple next to the river is said to be ancient Shiv temple of Bijbihara mentioned by Kalhana as Vijeshvara. The sculptures found at Bijbehara are considered the earliest ones done in distinct Kashmiri style of sculptures. A lot of material from Bijbehara was moved to SPS museum in around 1898 by Captain Godfrey.
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| “Brashib” in Kashmiri or the Taurus. A Lion actually. John Siudmak calls it influenced by Gandhāra style and dated around 5th century A.D. |
Although lot of old fragments can be found in the pit, Siudmak mentions that this standing Ganesha is the oldest and from around early 7th century AD. Although, Siudmak had seen it in late 1980s, in his book “The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and its Influences” (2013), he reports the statue to be missing. [Is above the same one?]
fragments in the wall
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20th Feb, 2016
As I stood photographing, some security men came to check up on me. They asked some basic questions and left me alone. Then a young boy came asking. He belongs to the muslim family that now takes care of the temple. He mentioned that no one told him to expect a visitor, otherwise he would have made some preparations for tea. It seems the visiting Pandits always come after making pre-arrangements. I could see a dilapidated hut in a corner.
Much through the 80s the site was a regular victim of religious strife. People would break in and vandalize. Soon, a dozen more security men arrived. It was not normal. The security was on extra alert. Sensing that I was a pandit, these men started mentioning their own woes. “It is freezing cold here. We don’t ask for much, just a proper toilet.” I looked at the open pit in which the guards took dump. A pit dug in the ground with some jute rugs around as walls. They persisted, “Don’t pandits have any organization that takes care of these spots. Inform someone. Have a toilet built. Look as this.”The snow in the pit was melting.
Later in the day, there was a terrorist attack on a government building at Pampore about 30 Kilometer from the place.
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Previously, the 11 stone that went missing from the temple
Video Dastangoi: Episode 2
In episode 2, we look at the stories associated with the Kashmiri proverb “Kasheer Kah Ghar” (Only 11 houses in Kashmir) that has its origins in the beginning of the Islamic rule in Kashmir.
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Vijeshwer Temple, Bijbehara
February 20th, 2016
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| The new temple built by Maharaja Ranbir Singh in 19th century. |
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| Laxmivasudeva seated on Garuda Probable 10th or 11the century Siudmak however places it in 15th or 16th century [which would mean Hindu sculptures were still getting made in late Islamic era of Kashmir?] |
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| The pit Temple of Bijbehara. Believed to be the original site of ancient Shiv temple of Bijbehara mentioned by Kalhana |
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“Brashib” in Kashmiri or the Taurus. A Lion actually. John Siudmak calls it influenced by Gandhāra style and dated around 5th century A.D. These form the earliest distinct Kashmiri style of sculptures. A lot of material from Bijbehara was moved to SPS museum in around 1898 by Captain Godfrey. |
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Relics at Bijbehara Shiva Temple. Then-Now.
| From ‘Vaishava Art and Iconography of Kashmir’ (1996) by Bansi Lal Malla |
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| Feb, 2016 |
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| 2016. |
John C. Huntington, L. Susan. 1970.
2016. Called “Brashib” in Kashmiri.
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| Inside of Bijbihara temple. From “Kashmir” (1977) by Francis Brunel. Notice the Ganesha at the right, in corner. both eyes intact. |
Present location. Outside the temple. Under a tree. The statue was attacked by someone in around 1990. One eye destroyed.
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Details of the trip and temple: Bijbehara Shiva Temple
