“Tracing connection between mythology and science, Governor Lt. General (Retd) S K Sinha today said that the latter cannot totally ignore the former.
Inaugurating an international workshop on physics and analysis of hot and dense matter at University of Jammu this morning, the Governor while referring to mythological belief said that emergence of the Himalayas from the ocean. Scientists were today studying the Big Bang concept which led to the creation of the universe. They may find an element of commonality between their scientific findings and some mythological beliefs. He said that Homer’s Idiyad describing the Trojan War used to be dismissed as mythology and poetic fantasy till recent archaeological excavations have established the historicity of that war, which over centuries had got embellished with mythology.”
Governor (he was not yet ex) was inaugurating a workshop on ‘A Large Ion Collider Experiment’ (ALICE)’.
Indian teams are contributing to two of the experiment in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Experiments that aims to re- create conditions that existed immediately (in a billionth of a second sense) after the Big bang. These two experiments are CMS experiment and ALICE . Starting on 10 September 2008, it is the single biggest experiment conducted in the world since NASA’s mission to space.
The team from Jammu University worked for ALICE under Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre Kolkata.
Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) for the LHC to be used in ALICE was built by Indian experts and the team from Jammu contributed to its creation.
Back to the (ex) Governor. I think it would have been understandable had he been quoting Frijof Capra. It would have been a nice ruse to talk about Amarnath.
But, taking about Homer’s Iliad (Idiyad?) at a physics workshop! He sure was a curious fellow and it’s a funny world.
Anyway, here is a little funny something to see:
Google search results for Big Bang India
and Google search results for Big Bang Pakistan
The biggest analysis of Indian genes has not been able to get a clear answer on whether there is any genetic foundation behind caste or religion.
After analysing 75 genes from 1,871 individuals belonging to 55 caste, tribe and religious groups for the last three years, the Indian Genome Variation Consortium could not identify definitive genetic links to these groups.
The same is true with religious groups. The research shows Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims are genetically close and both share genetic similarities with Dravidians.
Read the complete report at Deccan Herald (26th April, 2008)
Came across the trailer of Tahaan on youtube at IDreamProduction channel
Have a peek at what the movie promises:
Yes the voice-over is irritating. Too HBOish!
(They removed this trailer. Guess the voice over was really over the top)
Here is the new trailer:
Here is one more with a better use of the soundtrack:
Since the movie is still not out in the theaters (it will be in October), I am going to pontificate about the 2 minute trailer. And here I go:
The little boy commanding his donkey in Kashmiri to Pakh! Pakh! (Walk! Walk!) is a fine linguistic experiment.
The background score just in the mid of the trailer is authentic Kashmiri music and absolutely stunning at that. These are the fast beats of Chakkri. The music is set by Taufiq Qureshi, son of Ustad Alla rakha, younger bother of Zakir Hussain and a person of Kashmiri origin. The soundtrack sounds brilliant.
Apart from all this, the thing that really took me with surprise me was: a simple dialogue uttered by a Kashmiri
Ye Ga’da ab tumhara nahi raha Jao yaha se
How do I know it’s a Kashmiri voice? Notice the tone of the voice and the way hindi word Gadha is pronounced as Ga’da by the character. This pronunciation is characteristically Kashmiri. It may seem a trifle little matter. A trifle matter of tongue. But…
Here is a little note taken by Godfrey Thomas Vigne, an English travelers who visited Kashmir in 1835. In his book Travels in Kashmir he wrote:
The languages now spoken, which are derived from the original and pure Sanscrit, are denominated Pracrit. The Italian is a Pracrit of Latin. The Hindu, Gujerati, Tirhutya, Bengali dialects, and others, are Pracrits. The language of Kashmir is a Pracrit. The Kashmirians, says Abu Fuzl, have a language of their own. I was told on good authority, that out of one hundred Kashmiri words, twenty -five will be found to be Sanscrit, or a Pracrit, forty Persian, fifteen Hindustani, and ten will be Arabic ; some few are also Tibetian. There is an uncouth rusticity about the Kashmirian pronunciation which is almost sufficient, at least I thought so, to betray the language as a patois, even to a person who did not understand it. The Sikhs, their lords and masters, are well aware of their erroneous pronunciation, and have a standing order against the admission of any Kashmirian as a recruit, on account of their almost proverbial timidity ; and if a man present himself for enlistment, and is suspected of being a Kashmirian, he will be told to utter some word, such as Ghora (a horse), which, if he be of the valley, he will pronounce broadly Ghoura or Ghura, and be thus detected.
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And now my close friends would certainly understand why sometimes I sound funny, why Gaurav becomes Ghaourav and why Sau Rupay becomes Saoo Rupaye.
The Persian word sqay means ‘knowledge of war’. According to the legend, thousands of years ago, Kashmir’s King Dharyadev trained his fighters in this defensive art form.
The modern form of sqay was introduced in Kashmir by one Nazeer Ahmed Mir. Now sqay is practised in 20 Indian States. The swift movements and defensive steps of sqay are similar to those of kalaripayattu of Kerala.
kalaripayattuJust like in kalaripayattu, sqay employs weapons such as swords and shields. “Tora’, the sqay sword is made of bamboo with leather cover. Burgula, the shield is made of leather. Besides Sqay combines elements of Karate and Taekwondo. A wide range of combat methods such as blows, kicks, punches, locks and chops are used in sqay.
It has four kinds of competitions — Loba (fighting), Khawankay (Katta), Mathol (power breaking) and Aerosqay
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Like most people I had never heard about this martial art from Kashmir. It came as a complete surprise to me.
The info. here is from an article published in The Hindu Read more about it at The Hindu
Everytime the light goes off, people come out on the street to protest. They are protesting for land in Amarnath. On the phone I was told that Electricity meters of houses have been damaged by the protesters. I asked is the protesters are damaging the meters of their own house. In jest, I was informed: first they go out and destroy meter of others, and then they go home and destroy their own meter. Only a few years ago, Jammu was a meter less town. Electricity – the city did have some time in between 8-10 hour power cuts, voltage – if you torched a live wire intentionally, on good days it could tickle you to go into a voluntary spasm and break a smile on your face. Every house was and still is run by giant privately owned transformers. Step up – Step down is a ritual to be performed every hour or so for 24 hours, everyday, every night, every month and every year.
This electricity was almost free. Then the local administration stringent on the subject of electricity meters. On my last visit to the city, June 2008, my uncle told me now the electricity almost never goes, except of course when its our vari . And even the hours of vari are now normal – only 2 to 3 hrs. I was there for more than two weeks and the light did go off unscheduled. I was told: Bad Luck!
Actually now that I remember, there were meters earlier also but only now they are being taken seriously.
I guess the city never took them meters kindly.
Now every time the light goes off, with nothing better to do, people go out protesting for land.
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Those who remember history, or those who remember Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, or better still, those who remember Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown, will of course remember that the the story of Kashmir problem starts in 1947 with the burning of Mahoora Power House and plunging of valley into darkness.
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I was told that the Gujjars are being asked to leave Jammu. Where will they go? They have always lived in Jammu. They are told: Go back to the Valley.
Back at Jammu, my grandmother is worried. She is worried because there is a talk in that town:
All the trouble in city, all this violence over Amarnath issue, has its origin in Pandits of Kashmir. These Pandits carried their scourge with them to Jammu.
Somewhere hidden along with that brass Khos, pandit sneaked in the scourge.
My grandmother is worried that we would be thrown out of Jammu.
Word ‘paradise’ was introduced to English language from ancient Persian words pairi (around) and daeza (a wall). Western world got to know of this word when Xenophon, a contemporary of Socrates, used the word paradeisoi to describe the great garden at Sardis built by the Persian Emperor Cyrus. From Greek the word passed into Latin as paradisum ; and then into Middle English as paradis.
Francois Bernier, the french physician who came to Delhi in 1658, during during his visit to Kashmir in 1664–65 as part of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s entourage, was the first westerner to call Kashmir a paradise. Paradise – his response to the abundant natural beauty of Kashmir was in fact colored by opinion of Mughals who thought of Kashmir as ‘Jannat‘ or ‘Paradise’. Bernier wrote a number of letters during his travels in India. These letter, originally written in French were later translated and printed by various publishers in a book format. The first one was published in 1670 and , naturally, Kashmir was covered under the title Journey to Kachemire, The Paradise of the Indies.
After Emperor Akbar’s conquest in 1585, Kashmir was slowly developed into a retreat for Mughals. Naseem Bagh ( Garden of Pleasant Breeze) was built during Akbar’s reign in around 1586. However, it was his son Jahangir’s infatuation with Kashmir that lead to the creation of great gardens in Kashmir. And it was the Persian influence of Jahangir’s Irani wife and her family that decided how these gardens were actually going to turn up.
At Veri-nag, the place of spring considered to be the origin of Jehlum river, Jahangir constructed a beautiful Persian styled Garden enclosing a blue watered spring. This spot, around 78 km south-east of Srinagar, is said to have been the favorite garden of his Iranian wife Empress Noor Jahan.
But, the real testimony to the Mughal fascination with Kashmir are the Iranian influenced royal Gardens: Shalimar, Chashma Shahi and Nishat Bagh.
Photograph of Shalimar Garden taken by me in June 2008
Jahangir, for his beloved wife Noor Jahan, built the fabulous Shalimar Garden* in around 1619. It was originally named Bagh-i- Farah Bakhsh (meaning delightful). During the time of Shah Jahan, in around 1630 Zafar Khan, the Mughal governer of Kashmir extended the original garden, the new portion was named Bagh-i-Faiz Bakhsh ( meaning bountiful).
Shah Jahan, son of Jahangir, built the Chashma Shahi ( Spring Royal) Garden in around 1632.
Ali Mardan Khan, the Iranian man put in change of Kashmir by Shah Jahan, is believed to be the person who actually built this garden.
Photograph of Chashma Shahi, June 2008
Asaf Khan, brother of Noor Jahan, father of Mumtaz Mahal, father-in-law and wazir of Emperor Shah Jahan, built the beautiful Nishat Bagh (Pleasure Garden) overlooking Dal lake. This garden is believed to be the better planned and better located among all the three Mughal gardens of Kashmir.
Photograph of Nishat Bagh, April 2006
According to a local tale: During Shah Jahan’s visit to Kashmir in around 1633, the Emperor got completely enamored by the beauty of Nishat Bagh and subtly asked his father-in-law wazir Asaf Khan to consider handing over the garden to him. Asaf Khan was too much in love with his Pleasure Garden and choose to remain oblivious to this subtle royal suggestion. Snubbed, Emperor Shah Jahan ordered that the water supply to Nishat Bagh be cut. Nishat began to wither and would soon have been in complete ruin had a servant loyal to Asaf Khan not dared to go against the royal decree and defiantly restored the water supply to the garden. In face of such defiance, instead of being angry, in a benovalent mood, Shah Jahan passed a sanad – a royal Mughal grant that allowed the owner of Nishat Bagh to draw water from the royal stream.
The water to Shalimar and Nishat Garden was (and still is) fed by a reservoir situated at Harwan, a seat of ancient Buddhist monastery. Ages ago, famous Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna was supposed to have dwelt at this place. Located at this place is another garden of Mughal built.
Near Chashma Shahi, at the foothills of Zabarwan mountains, Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s eldest son, the sufi one, converted an ancient Buddhist monastery into a school of astrology and dedicated it to his master Mulla Shah. Pari Mahal or the Palace of fairies, was a place steeped in magical stories. Walter Rooper Lawrence, who visited Kashmir in 1889 as the Land settlement officer, wrote in his book The Valley of Kashmir (1895):
Strange tales are told of the Pari Mahal, of the wicked magician who spirited away kings’ daughters in their sleep, how an Indian princess by the order of her father brought away a chenar leaf to indicate the abode of her seducer, and how all the outraged kings of India seized the magician.
Photograph of Pari Mahal, June 2008
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‘Gar firdaus bar rue zameen ast / hameen asto, hameen asto, hameen ast‘
If ever there is Paradise on Earth / It is here! It is here! It is here!
– A farsi couplet of Amir Khusrau believed to have been uttered by Jahagir for paradise Kashmir.
“If one were to praise Kashmir, whole books would have to be written. According a mere summary will be recorded.”
“Kashmir is a garden of eternal spring, or an iron fort to a palace of kings — a delightful flower-bed, and heart-expanding heritage for dervishes. Its pleasant meads and enchanting cascades are beyond count. Wherever the eye reaches, thre are verdure and running water. the red rose, the violet, and the narcissus grow of themselves; in the fiels, there are all kings of flowers and all sorts of sweetscented herbs more than can be calculated. In the soul enchanting spring the hills and plains are filled with blossoms; the gates, the walls, the courts, the roofs are lighted up by the torches of banquet adoring tulips.What shall we say of these things or of the wide meadows and the fragrant trefoils?”
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June, 2008
Pari Mahal, now, has fewer security personal, although the empty bunkers inside the ancient buildings have not been dismantled yet. You never know when they would be back in business. Pari Mahal, with all its blazing lights, still looks great at night. From its highest terrace, you can see more valley and less lake, for a still better view – get on top of the dome at Shankaracharya. Ignore this. On a wall near stairs that lead to the main sanctum scrotum of the temple somebody has scribbled a word – Fakbar.
Vegi Nag has fallen victim to a ghastly attempt at restoration by the government bodies. Never too popular, fewer people would want to visit it now.
Harwan is said to be in shambles and people don’t frequent it often. It still remains the source of water for Nishat and Shalimar.
Nishat, Chashma Shahi and Shalimar continue to be popular among the locals, as well as the tourists. But few tourists stroll to the higher terraces of Nishat, you find more Kashmiris there – sitting, laying out on greens or walking contently in a garden. Snake sightings are still common at Nishat. There is still some water rivarly between Nishat and Shalimar. Fountains and canals at Nishat do sometimes run dry.
People bottle ice cold waters of Chashma Shahi in pet bottle. These bottles are later even sold. Walls of the central building at Shalimar Garden, once a venue of royal love games – a love pad – This Mughal summer house, the stones of which – locals had told Bernier – came from an ancient Hindu temples, is now a scratch pad for teenage lovers.
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*
Various meaning of word Shalimar:
Shalimar, in Sanskrit (?) is believed to mean ” Abode of love”, “House of Joy” and similar.
According to some it means ‘Abode of Lilies’.
According to some it means “the House of Kama Deva”
Maharaja Ranjit Singh believed Shala meant God and Mar meant Curse. He wanted to change the name of the garden. His courtiers told him that Shala was a Turki word meaning pleasure and mar means ‘place’.
According to another version Shalimar means “paddy growing area”
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There is a Shalimar Bagh in Lahore also. This one was built by Shah Jahan in 1641.
Then there is a Shalimar Bagh about five miles north of Delhi built by Shah JaHan. Also known as Aizzabad-Bagh ( after Shah Jahan’s wife named Aizzu’n-Nisa Begum), this was the place where coronation of Aurangzeb took place in 1658.
Both are an imitation of the Shalimar Bagh of Kashmir.
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And finally, there is Shalimar The Clown.
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Etymology of word ‘Paradise’: From William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns: A Year In Delhi
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Recommended read: Relating Paradise to Kashmir’s Historical Gardens at KashmirForum.org
Here is a list of must have books on history of Kashmir. Most of these books are travelogues written by early visitors to Kashmir. These books used to be out of reach of common readers and could only be found in labyrinth of some great library. Or, due to antiquity of these books, were priced out of reach of curious readers. Now, thanks to initiatives by Google , many online libraries and Project Gutenberg, these books in .pdf and .text format are available to all for free.
Here are the links:
Francois Bernier (1625 – 1688), French physician and traveler, visited Kashmir in 1664–65 as part of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s entourage. He is regarded as the first westerner to have described Kashmir.
Travels in the Mogul Empire By François Bernier
Translated by Irving Brock
Published 1826
Format: pdf
Size: 10.5 mb Link, Google books
Another edition of this wonderful book:
Travels in the Mogul Empire,
edited by Archibald Constable,
(1891)
Format: text and pdf Link, Columbia University Libraries
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Kashmir is also mentioned travels of Marco polo (1254 – 1324), famous trader and explorer from Venice who was one of the first western travelers to walk the Silk route to China.
His two volume travelogue can be downloaded here
The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1, 3rd edition (1903)
Format: text Download Link, project Gutenberg
The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2
Format: text Download Link, project Gutenberg
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George Forster, an English traveler in the service of East India Company, arrived in Kashmir in April 1783.
Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, through the Northern Part of India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian Sea
By George Forster
Published 1808 Volume 2: This one covers his travels in Kashmir
Format: pdf
Size:13.6 mb Link, Google books
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In 1822, William Moorcroft, a British East India Company veterinarian and his assistant, George Trebeck traveled through Kashmir while attempting to reach Central Asia.
Travels in Ladakh and Kashmir
By William Moorcroft and George Trebeck
Volume 2
Published 1841
Format: pdf
Size: 7.8 mb Link, Google books
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Victor Jacquemont (1801 – 1832), french botanist visited Kashmir in around 1831.
Letter from India: Describing a Journey in the British Dominion of India
By Victor Jacquemont
Published 1835
format: pdf
size: 8 mb Link, Google books
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Godfrey Thomas Vigne, an English travelers visited Kashmir in 1835.
Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the Countries Adjoining the Mountain-Course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, north of the Panjab with Map.
By G.T. Vigne
Published 1844
format: pdf
size: 10.9 mb Link, Google books
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Some more books by travelers:
A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil
By T. R. Swinburne
(1907)
Format: text Download Link, project Gutenberg
Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet
By William Henry Knight
(1863)
Format: text Download Link, project Gutenberg
Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir
By Mrs. Percy Brown
(1921)
Format: text Link, archive.org
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Perhaps the most important book in its field, a book by Reverend J. H. Knowles, The founder of modern missionary schools in Kashmir.
A Dictionary Of Kashmiri Proverbs and Sayings
(1885)
J. H. Knowles Link, archive.org
The book ( in pdf and text) there is not complete. It list proverbs only up till K.
Updated with a link pointing to the complete book.
For some more proverbs, you can check out the previews of same book at Google books
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Walter Rooper Lawrence visited Kashmir in 1889 as the Land settlement officer and wrote an exceptionally informative book on Kashmir.
Valley of Kashmir
by Walter Rooper Lawrence
[Link, archive.org (may slow down your browser, wait for couple of minutes for the book to load)]
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update 1/2/09
Travels in India and Kashmir.
by The Baron Erich von Schonberg.
1853.
London: Hurst & Blackett
Volume 1, Last few chapters of the book deal with his travel to Kashmir
[Link, archive.org,.txt ]
Volume 2, deals more extensively with his travels in Kashmir
[Link, archive.org, .txt]
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update 9/2/2009
Kashmir Described by Sir Francis Younghusband
Painted by
Major E. Molyneux
1911
London, Adam and Charles Black
[Link, archive.org, .txt]
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Update 17/2/2009
This particular travelogue heavily quotes from the works of earlier visitors to Kashmir, making it quite interesting.
Letters from India and Kashmir
By Duguid, J
written 1870;
Illustrated and annotated 1873.
London: George bell and Sons(1874)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]
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Update 14/3/2009
Travels in Kashmir And The Panjab,
from German of Baron Charles Hugel with notes by Major T.B. Jervis, F.R.S
By Karl Alexander A. Hügel
Translated by Thomas Best Jervis
Published 1845 (In German published in 1841 )
[Google Link]
Karl Alexander A. Hügel, was a contemporary of G.T. Vigne, and visited Kashmir in around 1835. The two foreign travelers even met each other in Kashmir.
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Update 14/4/2009
These books were meant a a guide for the early travelers to Kashmir
The Happy Valley: Sketches of Kashmir and the Kashmiris
By W. Wakefield (1879)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]
A Guide for Visitors to Kashmir.
By John Collett (1884)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]
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Update: July 31, 2009
“Beyond The Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir” (1912 )
By Ernest F. Neve.
[Link, archive.org]
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The list here keeps growing as and when I find more. Do leave the link in comment if you know of some more.
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Update: 25/5/2013
For reference to more books on Kashmir:
I had gone to attend a dear cousin brother’s wedding. On the night of his yajnopavit (sacred thread) ceremony someone mentioned that in a nearby hall, hosting guests of some other wedding, there is an old lady dressed in traditional Kashmiri pandit costume.
I went to that hall along with a cousin sister and took these photographs using her camera. It felt odd as I went there uninvited. People, mostly woman, were sitting in the hall forming their own mini groups. The old lady was sitting in a corner all dressed. I walked up to her, said ‘namaskar‘ and gave her a hug – touching the feet of elders is not the protocol among pandits, at least not yet. I asked her if I could take some photos of her. For her age, the lady was surprisingly shape minded and cheerful. She was kind enough to let me take her photographs. No, in fact she was delighted.
I went back and showed the photographs around. Everyone was delighted. In the 90s this ‘sighting’ would have been nothing special, but in this millennium, it was almost a miracle. It got people taking about old days. I remember many times being told stories of grand old pandit ladies who, during kabali raid of 1947, asked their families to leave them behind on road as they didn’t want to slow down their families while they were fleeing from murdering horde of Muslim tribal people and Pakistani soldiers.
In 90s, people remembered old ladies who had never been out of kashmir and then suddenly ‘post-migration’ found themselves in Jummu. Many of them, traveling in local buses – ‘meta’dors‘ or ‘muk’bus‘, would often ask the conductor to drop them off to their home, but on being asked, would give their address as some place in kashmir. The conductor, invariably some dugur boy, dugur kot not yet out of his teens, would yell, “Mata’yee,” his voice getting drowned in film music blarring from a pair of speakers kept under the seat next to the door, “aa yammu hai!” Amused and laughing, to the rest of the passengers and to the rest of the world in general, he would ask, “Ku’dru aa gaye yara aykashmiri!”
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The picture on left titled ‘A Panditani [Hindu] Kashmir’ was taken in 1900 by famous photographer Fred Bremner. Just like the lady in the photographs above, the woman in left photograph is wearing tarang (head dress), pheran (traditional kashmiri gown) and athoor/dejhoor(in the ears).
Read more about traditional Kashmir pandit dress at ikashmir
