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A lifetime worth of Bathing rituals


If I were to live my life based on the old Pandit code, I would have to spend most of my time bathing. The world is just too impure.

Photo: River bank, Srinagar. 1970s. Albert Robillard.

Karmakandakramavali by Sri Somashambhu of 11th century A.D. South India, the Shaivite work lays down rules and regulations pertaining to the daily practices of an orthodox Hindu, who is a rigid follower of the Tantric system.

From Kashmir Sanskrit Series (1947) edited by J.D. Zadoo, Karmakandakramavali tells us following about Snana (Bath):
There are five kinds of Snanas, namely – Mala, Vidhi Varuna, Agneya, Mahendra, Pavana, Mantra and Manasa.
Mala consists in employing earth, like soap, to remove all dirt that may have accumulated on the body. It is kind of preparatory bath taken before the principal one i.e. Vidhi Snana (obligatory bath). The Varuna is the bath with water (as Varuna is the lord of water) which is to be taken if one touches a pigeon, fowl, murderer, crow, heron, ass, horse, cat, pig, vulture, camel, cremation ground, an out-caste, a corpse, and a woman who has recently delivered. The Agneya, which consists in smearing the body with ashes, is ordained to be taken when one comes in contact with dirty women, eunuchs, Shudras, cats and mice. The Mahendra consists in wetting one’s body with the rain accompanied with sunshine. Pavana, in taking on the body the dust raised by the hoofs of cows. Mantra in sprinkling water with mantra and Manasa, in reflecting on God Shiva, prior to taking breathing exercises.
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SearchKashmir in Deepdream

I fed some of the images from SearchKashmir archive into Google’s Deep Dream code. [Method Used] The result from artificial neural network is dystopic, almost a reality, almost a future and almost a past. A machine dreaming of Kashmir.

Source Image: Something I made based on Lal Ded’s sayings
Verinag. Shot by me in 2014.
Source Image: Kashmiri Dancers, Srinagar. By Alexandre Jacovleff, 1931
Source: Pandit women. 1949
Source: A paint of Jhelum Bank in Srinagar by S.H. Raza
Source: Srinagar by S.H. Raza
Source: Kashmiri Pandits, 1895

Source: A painting by G.R. Santosh
Source: A painting by G.R. Santosh
Source: A painting by G.R. Santosh
Source: A painting by G.R. Santosh
Source: the famous image by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1948
Source: By Brian Brake, 1957
Source: Flower seller. By Steve Mccurry.1996
Source: Pandit Man, 1928.  By Martin Hurlimann.
Muslim Man. 1928. By Martin Hurlimann.
Boatwoman. Pandit Vishwanath, boatwoman. 1890s.
Dal Gate Tang Adda, 1945
Nagin Lake. Shot by me in 2014
Fateh Kadal, Srinagar July 1944
Prayers at Hazrat Bal. Cartier Bresson, 1948
‘Prayers at Hazrat Bal.
From the book Bonfire of Kashmiriyat: Deconstructing the accession’ (2006) by Sandeep Bamza
Nagin Lake, Shot by me in 2014
Security men on patrol. 2014.
Jhelum Bank. 2014.
View from Zaina Kadal.
2014

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Why not naked at Amarnath?


Revivalism isn’t easy. Customs and traditions change frequently. All evidence suggests that the tradition required pilgrims to take off their cloths inside the cave at Amarnath. Something akin to what still Naga Sadhus do at Kumbh Melas across India. Evidence suggests this is not done anymore at Amarnath, none of the recent photographs of the place suggest this.

Devotees in the Amarnath cave temple
Jammu, Pahari, mid 19th century
Collection: National Museum, New Delhi

From National Geographic Magazine, Vol 40, 1921.

Recently, in a documentary (uploaded by British Pathé ) about Amarnath from 1960 titled ‘Himalayan Pilgrimage’, I came across the same pile of cloths.

video link

When exactly did the practice stop? We don’t know.

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Kyahrov



The bed is too big.
Sleeping in separate corners,
between us, 
we can carve entire nations square.
An urge to paint Kashmir, puts me to sleep.
I keep running out of colors.
In the end, I draw from memories.
Even that, I can’t anymore.
Receipt of inheritance is lost.
I have lost count of the windows the house had.
They won’t let me cross.
This river of history has washed away another
corner of my story.
Wet eyed, I remember no more:
Horseshoe of luck is missing at the front.
Black horses break down the door.
Neighing, I hear, their breath on my back, I can feel.
Movement of Knight is unfair.
Rook is half there, eyeing the Queen.
King is ready to pack his bags.
Summer moles dug out and shot.
Winter Pawns sent off to little boxes.
Bishops on the minarets,
cutting straight lines, singing a strange song.
Castle is buried under grey dust.
In the end,
Kings, Queens, Bishops and Knights
dine together at an uncheckered table.
Tomorrow’s headlines,
“A match well fought! A nail biting ending!
Tables ablaze!”
All fair.
Kyahrov, be declared the finest player.
Before I go to sleep, let me say this:
Ramzaan, your pockmarked face,
I remember.
It is true.
In the end, our Kashmir,
like a simple game of chess,
can be drawn in
black and white.
Would you care for another round of the game?
This time let me bring my bag of horseshoes.
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Chanama

Give me tea, O Saqi, and let there be no delay;
let me have it bitter, if milk and sugar are not at hand.
Had Jamshid taken a draught from this pot,
his slow-beating pulse would have run like deer.
Have you heard the boiling kettle of tea cry bagg bagg?
Verily you would say it was Mansur shouting ana al-haqq.
There is a reference in the Book of God
Bread to eat and tea to drink
~ lines from Chanama (“A Tea Poem”) of Mulla Hamidullah ‘Hamid’, (d.1848) Persian poet of Shahabad, Kashmir.
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Tota Kaul’s Ragamala

First sarg (sa) has been taken from the cry of peacock; second, rekhya (re) taken from the cry of skylark (Papiha), third, gandhar (ga) from the sound of goat; fourth, madhyam (ma) has been copied from the voice of heron (Kulang); fifth, pancham (pa) from the melody of nightingale (Kokil), sixth, dhyot (dha) from the neighing of horse; and seventh nishad (ni) has been taken from elephant’s trumpet.
~ Pandit Raja Ram Kaul ‘Tota’, Ragamala
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SearchKashmir on your Wall #1


Every once in a while, someone would email me asking for an old photograph of Kashmir, a piece of SearchKashmir, so that they can put it on their wall, on their ‘Kashmir wall’. I would gladly oblige.

A couple of months back, a reader, Bhawna asked for a bunch of old photographs for a wall in her ‘Kashmir room’. I helped her with the photographs, but this time I asked for something back. I asked her to send me the images of her wall once it was done. I wanted to see what people are doing with these images. What it means to them.

Here’s Bhawna’s Kashmir wall:

I am thankful to Bhawna for sharing these images and her wall!

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If you have a piece of SearchKashmir on your wall, do share your wall.

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Superman complex

Doctor, what do you call this condition…this particular complex displayed by the Kashmiri Pandits?
I call this ‘Superman’ complex. An average Kashmiri Pandit walks this earth like the man of steel from Krypton. The explanation is simple. Since 1990, they think they are Supermen. Think about it. A planet gets destroyed, someone from it survives and finds shelter on a new planet where he can’t truly be himself even if the new planet has made him more powerful. He has taken upon himself to fix and protect his adopted planet, lest it ends up like his home planet. And he does it more zealously than the actual inhabitants. He is often misunderstood, almost despised and certainly envied. He gets weak in the knees anytime he comes close to a lost fragment from his old planet, his Kryptonite, the other ‘K’s. Often his villains are from his old planet while allies are from the adopted planet. His powers increase as he gets closer to Delhi, Delhi being the proverbial sun. And goes for meditation to Jammu, his Fortress of Solitude, to talk to dead ancestors. So you see, Pandits are essentially living out the Superman fantasy.
Thank you Doctor Saheb for the gyaan. Tohi chev mahaan. Namaskaar.
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Untitled Post

“It is here today that a struggle is being fought,
not in the battlefield but in the minds.”
~ Nehru
That winter, out of mind,
two parts of his brain declared war on each other.
Third one sat unperturbed in a corner thinking,
‘Let it all be over. I shall wait. Imagine, I am not even here.’
City was hit by palsy.
Shivers, they say, lasted two decades.
A decade later, many empty skulls with broken windows
were sold cheap in flea markets of his brain.
Many a birds made nest in them even as
many a birds had flown away to foreign lands. Or, to paradise.
Two decades later, they asked him,
‘Son, what do you see in your sleep?’
In delirium, he replied,
‘I see the demon of civilisation dance.
I see two elephants,
each with memories running back hundred years,
lock their tusks in violent embrace.
I see Mihirakula laugh.
I hear the elephants shriek as they fall off the tea table.
I see many a skulls trample under their feet.
I see they all are now prints on your kaleen.
And I see a third elephant too in the room,
in a corner silently knitting yarn
to keep war war-m for a winter lasting
another hundred year.’
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