Author: Vinayak Razdan

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mathematics of loss

2008

I have done the maths,
the world is doomed.
I am told my ancestors were 
exploiters –
ticks,
the bloodsuckers.
They got land
and more land.
And then, lost it all
in 1990.
In middle of conflict,
a family of wood-cutters
bought our house.
They pulled apart the mud bricks and wood:
hundred year old deodar windows and doors.
A fortress in cement was built.
A sawmill in the middle.
I count the number of trees cut.
I have done the maths,
the world is doomed.
In Money.
What they paid us,
I now make in a month.
I run the maths on inflation.
Numbers hold.
I too shall build a fortress
I shall again count the number of trees cut.

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Untitled Post



Lal aaes wyethin [Lal Ded was fat]
ti 
Nund oos lean [Nund Rishi was lean]
what was the point
Batte ti Musalmaan [Hindus and Muslims]
voyn donvay kameen [now both rascals]


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Breaking down Stones and Paintings

In Hindu lunacy circles, Kaaba is a Shiv temple. In some of the “proofs” is given the above image. it is a page from Bazil’s ‘Hamla-i haydari’. We see the idols of Kaaba getting destroyed by Ali. The place looks like a Hindu temple.

In the real story of the image, lies a certain beauty of how arts and cultures works.



‘Hamla-i haydari’ (Wars of Hyder) was written by Mirza Muhammad Rafi’ Bazil (d. 1712), in around 1654 AD. Bazil’s father came from Mashhad in Iran during the time of Shah Jahan. Bazil was a poet and sometimes governor of Gwalior and Bareilly for Aurangzeb. He wrote around 40000 verses detailing the war exploits of Islam and Ali (later expanding till the time of first four Khalifas) based on Shia tradition. He died before finishing the work and as the work became very popular, it was subsequently completed by some other poets. It came to be known as Bazil’s ‘Hamla-i Haydari’. At least 7 editions of the work were published.

The above page comes from a manuscript claimed to have originated in Kashmir in around 1808. [Given by BnF Department of Manuscripts ]

And that explains the Hindu touch to the painting. The hands that painted it had painted in a local template. 
The 360 idols of Kaaba get placed inside the colonnades as is meant in a Kashmiri temple.
 

The Gandhara inspired colonnade at Buniyar temple in Kashmir in which traditionally idols of various deities were kept

The idols get painted like the way Hindu gods were painted by Kashmiri artists even uptill 20th century.

‘The Goddess and Shiva receive homage’,
in Chandhigarh Museum and believed to be from around 1900 A.D.
Hand drawn diety on a horoscope
Painted by a Pandit family guru
gifted to a client on the occasion of Gour’trie
20th century.

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blasphemous bits

I would collect bits from people and sometime they would border on blasphemous. It seems impossible someone would sing this in Kashmir. This one by an unknown fakir from Sopore:
batt’e pae’th kar pooza
deedar labakh tanha
vat’ka’en chey kaabas manz
kyah maz’e chu sharaabas manz
pray like a pandit
alone, you will find Him
shiva’s stone is at kaaba
joy, is wine alone
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AIR interview of Dina Nath Nadim, 1971

An old radio interview of poet Dina Nath Nadim (conducted by M Y Taing) for All India Radio in around 1971.

Family history

Lal Ded
Poverty
Studies and JL Kaul
Hatred for community
Freedom to revolt against family and relatives
Hatred of regime
Lenin at a Tobacco shop, Bhagwaan Lenin
Anarchist Bomb making
Chakbast
Gandhi
Poem on Mej Kashmir his first in Kashmiri (interviewer goes wah wah but confuses Hindi and Urdu)
History of NC
Pandit convert to Muslim to join Muslim Conference in around 1933
Prem Nath Bazaz Marxim
Battan hienz Khenz
State Subject Movement and mining engineer Lambho Dhar Zutshi
then came Iyengar
Dina Nath Philasafer and his contribution to State Subject Movement
“Free-thinkers Association”
Mehmooda
Arrest
for atheistic verse
“I am poor”
Mushairas
Amil Darvesh
DP Dahr Poet
Ehsan Danish
Progressive poets
move to Kashmiri
but not before Hindi
Jalandhari
Lahoor
Faiz
Ramanand Sagar
Modernism
English
Making Marxism Kashmiri
Shams Fakir
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Naya Kashmir – Roos
Cornforth Marx. Only three chapters of Marx
Vakh
Shrukh
Vopar
failure with Vakh
shorter Vakh
safeed nazam haiku
Failure of Naya Kashmir
1957
member of communist party
teachers who supported him
Government who opposed him
Clarity
Bombur Yamberzal
music too, folk tunes from mother
marriage against wish
she died
Trade Union threw him out of his own school, moved to Lahore
Alone, met a girl
Love
Haeer
Love poems during this time
Honest: Sadiq, N.N. Raina, K.A. Abbas, Karra, Somnath Zutshi
Nazam at Mujahid Manzil
No Tea, No Chai
Cultural Front
Mahendra Raina
Rahman Rahi
Shela Bhatia
Decline of front in 1953
origin of communist party
Baskshi Gulam Mohammad didn’t do it
Kurban Ali, Ajay Ghosh, Dr Deen Mohammed Taseer
First member Mahmood
BPL Bedi author of Naya Kashmir document
maker of People’s Academy
Jia Lal Kalam and Sadiq would have been president
work with Bhagat theater as president
origins of ‘ras’ who came from outside Kashmir
Sat Lal Sitari
Basant Bagh Parsi theater. Amateur theater company. In urdu of Agha Hashar Kashmiri.
Alfred theatrical company
Saraswati dramatical sociey Karan nagar
national theater, Gaw kadal
Kashmir theater. First time women took part in it.
Attempt at making first Kashmiri film in 1928. He wrote script.
Script of R.C. Kak got approved.
Professor Jia Lal Koul was hero
Silent movie
Film banned on protest from pandits. It was on dowry.
Theater artist called ‘Ras Kath’
Satich Kahvit, first play, Nand Lal Mandloo
Actor Jagan Lal Saqi, Sudama Ji of radio 
Before Qabali Attack 
at Draibyaar, Mohan Lal Aima staged ‘Vidhva’
Visit to China
opinion on Chinese. Respect.
Visit to Russia
they influenced by East
he was there with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman [which gives the date of this interview]
Similarity between Tajakistaan and Kashmir
“it is like home”
On Kashmiri literature
Importance of Mehjoor
Bob Dylan stands no where
Traditional Humanism
Guṇaḍhya’s tale as known in Kashmir
opinion on Rehman Rahi
on Amin Kamil
Likes new poets Muzaffar Azim, Ghulam Nabi Gowhar, Vasdev reh, Radey Nath Massarat, Riaz Razi
First Kashmiri Story, “Jawabi Card” on radio, 1948. By Nadim.
Why his work is not yet compiled
Why Nadim
first name Makhmoor
Sehermakshi

Nadim picked from a book of Karim ur logath in 1935

his friendship with Mehjoor who was with Congress at the time
Bazm-e-Kongposh. Music used to make new poets popular
Talk about Shiekh Abdullah 
Riot of 1933
Shiekh had beard
He had popular support
Zindabad
It was a time
Communist initiation at house of Dr. Mewa Ram Lakhwara
Bakshi and Sadiq
closer to Sadiq
Bakshi supported cultural activities
by Sadiq was more appreciative in true sense
His favorite nazam, “Myon Afsaan”
and “Lakhcukuklakhchun”
and “KazultuAftaab” for a commrade, unpublished. A random scene from a street in Kashmir.
A lesson in social history of Kashmir.

Listen, imagine and see.


video link

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‘Body’ in Kashmiri Verse


Annigatti vanninam nanni kathe em lal-faroshan
Kanni manz draamo jawaharaey

In darkness,
that ruby-seller offered me
– naked words.
A stone split,
a gem was revealed.

~ Rasul Mir, 19th century

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
it 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.

yas andra tundras naar tatae
matya kon aakh yaar sinjh vate

this body
inside
like an oven
slow burns.
Madman,
why
you didn’t find a way to
a friend?

~ Fakir Nyam Sahib (19th century, Srinagar)

Tanni Gom Rabaab
Gagan gayum taare
Zeer o Bum th’hovth’hum Cheero lo

My body now a Rabab
veins: the strings
From these you cleave out
notes
high and low

~ Rahim Sahib Sopore, 19th Century*

Cchi saazas zindagii hu’ndis rabaabas suu’ty kyah nesbat
Rabaabas jartu’ swn vanu’nas rabaab aval rabaab aa’khu’r

Life’s song to the Rabaab
Bears no relevance;
Rabaab is nothing, but a Rabaab
Even when gilted dense

~ Abdul Ahad Azad, 20th century

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* A parallel can be found verses of Kabir
saba raga tamti rababa tana, biraha bajavai 
nitta aura na koi suni sakai, kai saim kai citta
All the veins are the stings, the body is rabab. 
it plays the songs of separation. 
No one else can hear it. Either Lord or the Mind.
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Ladakhi Singers





“Ladakhi girls dancing at Nemu Camp, 18 miles before Leh. They have visited Punjab and hence their style of dress.” July 1949. Enaskshi Bhavnani for Photo Division India.



After the show
Singers
 Hunder Nubra valley

I asked them to sing a “Bodhi” song. They laughed and said,”Aap nay toh humay Bodh bana diya!” 
They were Muslim, they sang love songs.
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Cannons in Kashmir

In July, I read about the origins of cannon in Kashmir.



Cannons were first imported in Kashmir in A.D. 1464 on the order of Budshah Zain-ul-Abidin using Turkish knowhow. Srivara, the court poet of Budshah called it ‘Top’. A year later the cannons were getting manufactured in Kashmir. The man credited for doing this was a Turkish pyrotechnician named Habib.

Image: “Guards at old fort in Srinagar demonstrate how ancient cannon was loaded to be fired. Srinagar, Kashmir, 1945.” [2010 post on 1945]
Source: Medieval Kashmir and the science of history (2004) by Walter Slaje.

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‘Paris Lingerie House’, Residency Road

In January, I discovered this rare shop in Srinagar.

‘Paris Lingerie House’, Residency Road. From Louise Weiss’s Cachemire (1955).

In 1920s, products from the shop were popular among expat British.

The trigger was the story of tailor named Butterfly given in ‘Travels in Kashmir’ (1989) by Brigid Keenan.

“And on other end we have the story of a Kashmiri tailor named Butterfly, maker of finest lingerie for British in India, who accidentally embarrassed his Memsahib clients when he brought out a catalogue carrying neatly sketched details of his comfy products and the names of the elite clients who had bought them.”

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