in bits and pieces
June 2008
Mansaram Ka Dhabba
Peerah, National High Way no. 1A
Jammu & Kashmir
I was standing straight when I took this photo.
Backdoor entry to Mansaram Ka Dhabba
The place is renowned for its Rajma Chawal that come doused in pure Desi Ghee – Kidney bean with rice doused in clarified butter.
Kidney bean from Jammu are quite popular all over India…thanks to the millions who visit pilgrim town of Katra every year to visit the cave of Vaishno Devi
Basohli Paintings evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries as a distinctive style of painting by fusion of Hindu mythology, Mughal miniature techniques and folk art of the local hills. The painting style derives its name from the place of its origin – hill town of Basohli about 80 Km. from the centre of district Kathua in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
This style of painting was first introduced to the world in the annual report (1918-19) of the Archaeological Survey of India published in 1921. At that time this style was yet to be properly categorized and studied.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, who was first to publish them, in Rajput Paintings in 1916, wrote about this style of painting believing it to be Jammu style. Discussing these Jammu paintings, Coomaraswamy observed:
The Jammu are well and vigorously designed often with a decorative simplicity very suggestive of large scale mural art. In several examples there reappears that savage vitality which has been already remarked in the early Rajasthani raginis, but it is here associated with more exaggeration and with a strange physical type, the peculiar sloping forehead and very large eyes are especially characteristics of some of the portraits..the coloring is hot. Silver is used as well as gold. A remarkable feature is the occasional use of fragments of beetle’s wings to represent jewelery, and by the peculiar character of the architecture, with turrets, paneled doors, latticed windows and plinths ending in grotesque heads…Krsna and Radha or Mahadeva and Uma play the parts of hero and heroine.
The most popular themes of Basohli Paintings come from Shringara literature like Rasamanjari or Bouquet of Delight ( a long love poem written in 15th century by Bhanudatta of Tirhut Bihar ), Gita Govinda and Ragamala. These paintings are marked by striking blazing colors, red borders, bold lines and rich symbols. The faces of the figures painted are characterized by the receding foreheads and large expressive eyes, shaped like lotus petals. The painting themselves are mostly painted in the primary colors of Red, Blue and Yellow.
Collected the following beautiful images from The J&K Bank 2008 Annual Calendar*
Radha giving butter-milk to Krishna Krishna lifting the mountain Govardhana
Radha and Krishna rejoicing the moments of togetherness The holy family of Parvati and Shiva
The vigil of the Expectant heroine Utkanthita Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh paying homage to Trimurti
Naiyka of Ragamala awakening the Nayak Radha listening to the music of Krishna’s flute
Krishna swallowing the forest fire of Vrindavan Radha holds the restless calf while Krishna is milking a cow
Krishna bringing the Parijata tree from Indra’s Heaven View from the window
(Name of artists(not in any order): Lalit Kumar Dogra, Surinder Singh Billawaria, Sohan Singh Billawaria, Dharam Pal, Dheeraj Kapoor, Sona upadhaya, Shakeel Ahmed Raza, Arun Dogra, M.K. Wadhera and Sushil Padha)
You can check out these links if you are interested in knowing more about the art and history of Basohli Paintings:
Recommended Read and Acknowledgment:
Centres of Pahari Painting By Chandramani Singh
-0-
Earlier cross posted at my other blog
-0-
*Every year J&K Bank comes out with beautiful Calendars. Since this year they featured “Hindu paintings”, even though one of the painters is muslim, it could have been a cause of concern for the muslims of the state(valley). So another calender circulated by them this year had the theme of “Kashmiris Everywhere”. It carried photographs if Kashmiris working in various towns and citites of India.
If areas around Indian railway tracks (at least in the north) are the dominion of Shahi Dawakhana and Hakeem Sahib, then area around Indian roadways are the dominion of Dr. Bengali. Why the roads? Is it the truckers and the soldiers? Maybe. More baffling is the question why the areas around railway tracks? Is it the coach drivers? Anyway…
In Jammu city you are more likely to see ads for and expect help from Dr. Malhotra. But, the area along the highway to Kashmir is again under the monopoly of Dr. Bengali. Advertisements offering guaranteed cure for unmentionable diseases and unlimited power over unforgivable weaknesses appear all along the road to Kashmir. All along the road their limp message, effective design, snazzy coloring and generous appointment hours(actually a whole day) with the “Dr” hardly change. The frequency of their occurrence is rather high around Udhampur district. Here you can’t look away from them as almost every third shop has these ads promoting sex clinics(?) painted on their walls.
What I didn’t expect was to see these ads in Kashmir valley. However, I came across them even along the way to Gulmarg.
———–
Earlier cross posted at my other blog
(Click to enlarge)
(Originally posted long ago on my other blog
You may enjoy these photographs of Kashmir in a video presentation also!)
‘who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere,
With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,
Its temples, and grottos, and fountains as clear,
As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave.’
— Popular lines from Thomas Moore’s poem Lalla Rookh
For a man who never visited Kashmir, Thomas Moore certainly had a clear image of the fabled Kashmir. He saw Kashmir through writings of other writer who had seen Kashmir. A generation later people were to be enticed by the images captured by the photographers traveling through the ‘happy Valley’ Kashmir.
This collage comprises of some of these very images and few of the oldest photographs of Kashmir.
About the Photographs:
Starting from Top Right, the photographs in first row are by Samuel Bourne, who visited Kashmir in 1864.
Found these three photographs here at harappa.com
The next two rows of photograph are by Fred Bremner
He writes:
“I arrived at Soonamarg, top of the Valley, early in November, when their happened to be a fall of snow, and interesting were the pictures which I obtained there. Soonamurg is at an elevation of 8,000 feet and some years ago it was looked upon as the resort for a residence of several months, and many were the Europeans who used to camp in and around the meadow.”
(Forty Years, pg. 52)
“Passing through the Jhelum Valley and river the steep mountain sides are clad with pine, deodar and other trees of stalwart height, and in the depths of the valley below, some 3,000 feet, the river winds its tortuous way, just as the road winds through the mountains as far as the river below and rising again to the summit of a few thousand feet – their eye may sometimes rest on a figure slowly gliding through mid-air with no apparent support whatever. Coming to close quarters one sees a crossing by rope bridges. It is a curious way of engineering these people have. One of the bridges is merely a single rope made of tough twisted cowhide and secured at both banks of the river. The passenger is seated in a small suspended cradle. He then lets himself go and his own impetus carries him fully half-way over and he is pulled across the remaining distance by a smaller guiding rope.”
“Leaving the city one cannot do better than be rowed up to the Dhal Lake, which is aid to be one of the most beautiful spots in Kashmir. . .. Entering the Dhal Lake, which measures about 4 miles by 2 1/2, one cannot help but admire the works of nature which are depicted in a variety of beautiful ways in the stillness of the water combined with mirror-like reflections of the mountain ridges.”
(Forty Years, pp. 48-49)
“The stillness and clearness of Dhal Lake make it comparatively easy to catch fish with the aid of a spear instead of by rod and line. Boatmen are the class with whom visitors to Kashmir come most intimately in contact. They are said to claim Noah as their ancestor, and certain it is that if they did not borrow the pattern of their boats from Noah’s Ark, Noah must have borrowed the pattern from them! Families live permanently on the boats, and they all have their little cooking places on board, and an enormous wooden pestle and mortar with which women and very often children pound the rice or grain.”
(Forty Years, pg. 48).
Next six rows of photographs are by John Burke and appear in the book From Kashmir to Kabul: The Photographs of John Burke
The next bunch of photographs are mostly uncredited:
Found it at Kamat.com
Back of the card reads – Printed: Views of India Series Printed in Saxony
Another set of Photographs by John Burke
Gateway of enclosure, (once a Hindu temple) of Zein-ul-ab-ud-din’s Tomb, in Srinagar. Probable date A.D. 400 to 500 (?), 1868. John Burke. Oriental and India Office Collection. British Library. Photograph of the gateway and enclosure of Zain-ul-abidin’s tomb at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken by John Burke in 1868. This photograph is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir’ (1869), when Cole wrote, ‘In the Panels of the Gateways, there is proof that buildings had previously existed, in which columns play a part…The break in the roof is also remarkable as occurring in conjunction with the simplicity of the enclosing wall, and indicates, I think, that the Gateway is probably more modern than the wall, and may perhaps have been set up by the Mahomedans out of some of the materials of other ruined temples of which a quantity lies strewn all over Srinagar.’ Zain-ul-abidin (ruled 1421-72) was one of Kashmir’s greatest rulers from its Islamic period, under whose reign it enjoyed peace and prosperity and progress in the arts. His father Sikandar has been tainted in Kashmiri history as Butshikan or idol-breaker, but Zain-ul-abidin was tolerant towards his Hindu subjects. The fertile valley of Kashmir offered a retreat from the crossroads of Asia in the high Himalayas, and developed its own distinctive architecture. Buddhism was established here from the 3rd century BC but was eclipsed by the 8th century AD by the flourishing Hindu Vaishnava and Shaiva cults. Kashmir finally became a great centre of the Shaiva religion and philosophy and a seat of Sanskrit learning and literature. By the 14th century Kashmir came under Islamic rule. Most of its early temples were sacked in the 15th century and their remains were sometimes incorporated in later Islamic monuments. The tomb of the mother of Zain-ul-abidin was built in c.1430 on the foundations of an old Hindu temple, and was decorated with glazed tiles. Immediately to the north of this building is an enclosing wall and gateway made of Hindu materials, which contains a number of tombs, one of which is said to preserve the remains of the Sultan himself.
Found these photographs here at Harappa.com
Rest of the photographs are uncredited*
The oldest temple in Kashmir, both in appearance and according to
tradition, is that upon the hill of “Takt i Suliman,” or Solomon’s
Throne. It stands 1,000 feet above the plain, and commands a view of
the greater part of Kashmir.The situation is a noble one, and must have been amongst the first
throughout the whole valley which was selected as the position of
a temple. Its erection is ascribed to Jaloka, the son of Asoka,
who reigned about 220 B.C.The plan of the temple is octagonal, each side being fifteen feet in
length. It is approached by a flight of eighteen steps, eight feet
in width, and inclosed between two sloping walls. Its height cannot
now be ascertained, as the present roof is a modern plastered dome,
which was probably built since the occupation of the country by the
Sikhs. The walls are eight feet thick, which I consider one of the
strongest proofs of the great antiquity of the building.
From: Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet by William Henry Knight
Not without a reason was Srinagar called the ‘Venice of the East’
The Mar canal formed an interesting waterway meandering through the city. Wherever the back waters of the Dal lake flowed through the city, it was known as the Mar canal deriving its name from the beautiful Marsar. The major portion of the water of the Dal lake came from the Marsar lake situated beyond the Harwan water reservoir. There was a network of Mar canals flowing through the city. An interesting clustering existed along the canals, some of the houses belonged to the rich merchants, as can be deciphered from the scale and magnificance of the buildings along the waterway. The canal has since been filled up to form a road. An interesting feature here is the row of shops along the bridge which formed an interesting walking experience across the canal. The shops appear to project out along the length of the bridge, as can be seen, with the help of timber columns resting on the banks on both sides. At Sekhi dafar there was an interesting streetscape. It was probably an important street within the cluster along the waterway. There was a row of shops on the ground floor of the houses along the street. The houses overlooked the waterway on one side and the street on the of the houses along the street. The houses overlooked the waterway on one side and the street on the other.
Read more here
-0-
The pictures (towards the end) having the watermark India Pictures are from the website IndiaPictures
. *Most of these photographs were taken by famous photographer Ram Chand Mehta for Royal Geographical Society in 1930 and 1940s.
Also thanks to those that I may have missed!
-0-
Hari Parbat Temple
Stairs and entrance to the temple
Window with a view
Temple Rooms
View of Srinagar city from Hari Parbat
The Temple
The Goddess: Sharika Bhagwati, Chakrishwar
Return to Godhead
Lights
view from the window
Lone Singer
Empty Hawan Kund
view to the right: Old Durrani fort
No haer here
Created this video using these images of Hari Parbat
During calmer times, Vidia wrote to his family from Hotel Liward. He told Mira and Savi that the Kashmiris, ‘barring the Tibetans, are possibly the dirtiest people in the world. They very seldom wash…They associated – like the Indians of Trinidad and our family – cleanliness with godliness; only on religious days, therefore, they wear clean cloths…They have nevertheless a tremendous charm; perhaps they have this charm because of all their faults. Certainly there are few things more attractive than the friendliness and broad smiles of the Kashmiri children.’
The World is What it Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French, pp. 228
Patrick French in his brilliant ‘official’ biography of V.S. Naipaul quotes the above lines from a private letter sent by Naipaul to his two sisters while he was visiting Kashmir in 1962. Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul stayed in the valley for around five months, staying well into the first few months of 1963. During his trip to Kashmir, stayed at Liward Hotel (later corrected to ‘Leeward Hotel’ in his 1990 book India: A Million Mutinies Now) built on the bank, and in the middle of Dal Lake. In this “Doll’s House on the Dal Lake” Naipaul wrote a short novel called Mr. Stone and the Knights Companions. Turning away from his usual West Indies settings for the first time, Naipaul gave this short novel an English setting.
Mr. Butt – the owner of Hotel Liward and his helpful nephew Aziz and Kashmir later found place in Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness written in 1964. The book also had an account a physically daunting and hazardous journey to the Amarnath cave that he took on the advice of Karan Singh.
Naipaul again visited Leeward hotel, Mr. Butt and Aziz in 1989, just before Kashmir blew up with unprecedented violence. This time he was working on India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990). The hotel, now, had got a new (present) building.
-0-
Hotel Leeward, Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir
Photograph taken by me in June 2008.
Hotel Leeward is now a big military bunker for C.R.P.F (Central Reserve Police Force)
At that moment I didn’t know I was looking at the Hotel Leeward.
I took the photograph because of: sand bunkers, tin roofs, tin walls, barbwire, meditating ‘high speed’ boats and rested military men, in their clean white undershirts and khakis, unclogging a drainage pipe that goes into the lake. It is a beautiful lake.
While searching for a photograph of the hotel for this post, I realized I already had one with me.
-0-
The uploader of the great album Richardasplen, says:
I’ve had them for over 20 years. They were to be thrown out as junk. The Albums were in an appalling state of repair. Each Photo had to be lifted from it’s rotting support to be saved.They came into my possession with a pile of books, equally rotten, given by a friend. There are 2 Albums, the first produced in the early 1890’s, the second between 1905- 1910/12.This second album has been annotated on the reverse of each photo, the first unfortunately not, so I’m unsure where most were taken.
The collection consists of over 200 photos.
The photographs are probably by Fred Bremner.But, a lot of them are never seen before kind of stuff
Here is the link to the album of old photographs
And a big thanks to Richard!
-0-
Mattan. Probably 1910.
-0-
Curious, I looked for old photographs of Kashmir and came across some unseen gems like:
| Location: | Kashmir, India |
|---|---|
| Date taken: | 1943 |
| Photographer: | William Vandivert |
In this photograph taken in1943, one can see a typical Srinagar suburban street. Looking at this photograph, one can say that these street have changed very little since then.
Check out the complete set of photographs of this American couple enjoying their time in Kashmir
It’s an unbelievably large collection of more than 200 photographs. A bulk of them were taken by photographer Howard Sochurek in 1951.
Along with capturing life scenes from Kashmir(see the beautiful photograph of a bunch of Kashmiri kids with their beloved Kandis ‘fire pots’), these photographs also give hints to the political environment of the time. There are photographs of “Free Kashmir” rallies in Pakistan, Kashmiris preparing to defend themselves against Kabaili intruders, UN peace folks, then there are photographs of political entities of the time like Sheikh Abdullah in better times and the young prince Karan Singh. The only color photographs of Kashmir in this collection of Life are by James Burke (died in 1964 after falling from a cliff while shooting a photo essay in the Himalayas) and are titled ‘Nehru in Kashmir’. The curious one in this set is: A NC (National Confrence) organized boat procession (were quite popular at the time) with NC and Indian flags going down the Jehlum river in Srinagar to welcome Nehru. No date is given , but were most probably taken during Nehru’s visit to Kashmir in May 1953 just before the time Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad became Prime Minister of Kashmir. There are also photographs of the pro- Abdullah protests that followed.
You can browse this entire wonderful unseen Kashmir collection here
About the video presentation:
Photographs of Chakreshwari Sharika Devi temple at Hari Parbat, Srinagar, Kashmir.
All Photographs taken by me in June 2008.
Sound: A Kashmiri prayer (aarti/bhajan) in praise of Goddess Tripura Sundari. Recorded live at Kheer Bhawani shrine Kashmir.
-0-
Visit to parbat usually meant a visit to the big red rock at the top of the hill and/or a trip around the hill.
-0-
Five ancient hymns, collectively known as Panchastavi are still popular among Kashmiri Pandits.
and
The reason they are directed here:
and
Both these posts do not offer whta people are actually directed here looking for. Most people looking for beautiful kashmiri girls actually stay on the fable page for maximum 34 secs before they hop on to some other hyperlink.
So…
I am going to offer some more of what no one is looking for:
Taken at Pari Mahal, June 2008
A photographer’s complete set up for the tourists and visitors to dress up like an authentic Kashmiri.there are dresses for man, women, girls, boys and children. Hmmm…those head gears for men look a bit suspect.
A photographer’s display album. Lucky few get featured here. A memento for posterity. You were in Kashmir and look Oooh…so much like a real Kashmiri.
