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Sharaf Rashidov’s Song of Kashmir

In 1955, on a diplomatic goodwill mission for USSR to Kashmir, Uzbek communist leader Sharaf Rashidov, a name that in later years would be called ‘a communist despot’ and a few years later would be called ‘a true Uzbek hero’, came across Dina Nath Nadim’s opera Bombur ta Yambarzal, a modern re-telling of an inspiring old Kashmiri story. By the end of 1956, Rashidov was already out with his interpretation of the story in a novella titled ‘Kashmir Qoshighi’ ( also known as Song of Kashmir/Kashmir Song/Kashmirskaya song) acknowledging Nadim’s work.

I finally managed to get my hand on it. This is the English edition published in 1979 by Gafur Gulyam Literature and Art Publishers, Tashkent. Translation by A. Miller, I. Melenevsky. Illustrations by K. Basharov and R. Halilov.

From the foreword:

“Memory is a drawing on a rock and a picture on a canvas.

Memory is line of words carved on a stone slab and a book.

Memory is a fairy-tale, a tradition and a legend.

Memory is song and music.

In them we find the people’s memory, which widens its banks as it flows from generation to generation. This is where we find the people’s wisdom, the blazing torch that is passed from generation to generation.

Take it, bear it, pass it on!

Add grain to grain and line to line, fruit to fruit and music to music, blossom to blossom and song to song!”


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Previously: Russia and Bombur ta Yambarzal, including bits about the Russian animated film from 1965 based on the story.

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Kashmir, 1956


The free book uploaded this month: A photo-book published first in November 1956 by Publications Division. This is the second edition that came out in May 1962. Most of the photographs are from around early 1950s.

A corner of the Reading Room in the Women’s College at Srinagar. 1956
And with that SearchKashmir in now in its 7th year. 
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Complete listing of the project:
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Complete Guide to Awantisvara Temple, Avantipur


A century ago, when the digging began at Avantipora, people expected to find two temples dedicated to Shiva. Instead they found one dedicated to Vishnu (Awantiswamin Temple) and the other dedicated to Shiva (Awantisvara Temple). The smaller of the two, Awantiswamin was found to be more stunning while Awantisvara was found to be in a more decrepit state.

Awantisvara temple is located near the hamlet of Jaubrar about a kilometer to the north-west of the Awantiswamin temple. While leaving Srinagar and moving onto Bijbehara, this is the first ruin of Avanitpur.

This temple too is believed to have been built by King Avantivarman (AD 855 – 883 AD), the first king of the Utpala dynasty.

Archaeologist Debala Mitra gives the layout of the complex:

“Facing the west, the complex consists of a panchayatana temple in the middle of an oblong courtyard, two subsidiary shrines (one each at the north-easter anf south-eastern corners)”, a quadrangular array of cells around the periphery of the courtyard and a double chambered imposing gateway in the centre of the western row of cells in two flanks.”

The ruins suggest that the temple was laid to be a immense monument but for unknown reasons the construction was never completed.

From the book ‘Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand’ (1977) by Debala Mitra

What would have been a ‘ghata– (pot) shaped’ pillar. Something not found in design of Awantiswamin temple.

“The interior of the central shrine is still covered with a heap of large stones, and it is not yet known if any fragments of the image of Avantisvara-Mahadeva, which was worshipped in this temple, will be found.” ~ D. R. Sahni in 1913 after doing the initial digging.

The relief of Avantivarman and his queen.  
The ground is littered with stones bearing such carving which were meant to be part of the temple.

Some part of the relief is buried under the ground

The injury to the stone is definitely recent and man made.
From the book ‘Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand’ (1977) by Debala Mitra, the carved stone in a more pristine form.
Apparently there is something about breasts that makes the modern man very violent.

Found this beautifully carved and selectively mutilated stone slab sitting under a tree somewhere in Gurgaon, right next to a yellow, dusty, empty plot. [2010] 
This is one of the fluted shafts of the smaller shrines around the main complex

Vidyadhara, or the wisdom holders

In 2014, Awantiswamin is kept by ASI as site keeping in mind the tourists, there is an office and a ticketing system, while Awantisvara is more like a local public park. It is open for everyone with just a low barrier at the main outside gate designed to keep out the animals.

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Previously:
Complete Guide to Awantiswamin Temple, Avantipur

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Metamorphosis of Avantipur. 1868, 1910, 1915, 1917, 1956, 1977, 2014

We watch a ruin emerge out of the ground and a city engulf it.

Burke’s photograph from 1868
for Henry Hardy Cole’s
Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir’ (1869).
A postcard from Lambert’s Kashmir series.
Must be around 1910 when J. C. Chatterji  did the primary digging.
Below: A Photograph from ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys.

After Daya Ram Sahni’s dig in 1913
Photograph by Ambrose Petrocokino in 1917 [‘Cashmere: three weeks in a houseboat’ (1920) ]
1956
from a book published by Indian Publications Division
From Debala Mitra’s ‘Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand’ 1977
Photograph by Ranjit Mitra
ASI postcard from 1970s
Avantipur, 2014

Previously:
Complete Guide to Awantiswamin Temple, Avantipur

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A brief visual history of Boat Processions

Ruler on a boat with attendants
17th century, reign of Jahangir
British Museum
Jahangir’s trip to Wular Lake
George Landseer (1834–78) painted it in 1881 but depicts scene from 1860 when he accompanied
Lord Canning, Governor-General of India from 1856-62, to Kashmir.
‘The Viceroy’s tour in Kashmir – The procession of boats with his excellency nearing the Sumbul Bridge (Sumbal in Baramulla district) on the way to Srinagar’ -The Graphic. 18th December, 1891.
Lord Lansdowne (1888 – 1894) was the viceroy at the time and setting up of Durand Commission for defining boundary of British India and Afghanistan was one of the high-points of his career.
Maharaja’s Boat
From Francis Frith’s album. Around 1850s to 1870s.
via: Victoria and Albert Museum.
The State Barge
From an album by Bourne & Shepherd. 1880.
via: bonhams.com
A famous image from Maharaja’s Procession
cover of Italian weekly newspaper newspaper ‘La Domenica Del Corriere’, 11 January, 1925.
This is from time when Biscoe boys also took up boats besides the boatmen of Kashmmir
Boat of Lord Irwin Viceroy of India [1926–31], 1927
By Franklin Price Knott for National Geographic

Russian Leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev’s boat procession, 1955
via: Indian Photo Division

“The picturesque river procession on the Jhelum (September 24, 1949) which was one of the festive items during the meeting of the Kashmir National conference. The boat carrying Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah appears at the centre of the picture.”
via: Indian Photo Division
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Boat procession caught by James Burke
undated for Life Magazine
Based on the message “we convoke the constituent assembly”…it is probably 1951.
The is a welcome message for Nehru from ‘Shri Bhairavnath Trust, Chattabal’ !

Chattabal the place I come from was the usual start or end point of these later procession. And that trust was the pundit organisation associated with the Bairov temple of Chattabal, a temple which was later shut down in 1970s and burnt in 1990s. My grandfather was a member of the trust.

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The only boat frenzy I have witnessed comes from a land as rich in boat traditions but where it is not a thing of the past. It is still alive and celebrated.

Aranmula boat race, Kerala 2013

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The burning of Mansur in Kashmiri poems

When Kashmiris wanted to burn someone, they would often choose Mansur. Burning of Persian Sufi Mansur Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – March 26, 922) in Baghdad, was one of the most common idioms in Kashmiri sufi poetry.

If Lal Ded is considered the beginning of Kashmiri poetry, even in some of the lines attributed to her, we find Mansur. And Mansur is there in lines of Nund Rishi:

Koran Paraan Paraan kuna mudukh
Koran Paraan Paraan kun gai suur
Koran Paraan Paraan Zind kith ruzukh
Koran Paraan Paraan dodh Mansur

Why didn’t you die listening to Koran
How many turned to ashes listening to Koran
How did you live listening to Koran
Listening to Koran, Mansoor went ablaze

The same lines are sung by Pandits as vakh of Lal Ded replacing Koran with Gita. [listen] 
In fact in Abdul Wahab Shaayak’s Taareekh-e-Kashmir (1756), Lal Ded is called as Mansuur-al-Haaj’s sister. [*Political content in Vakhs of Lal Ded by R.L. Bhat]

A leaf from an illustrated manuscript on poetry, Kashmir, 19th century. 
via: christies.com. 
The scene depicts the burning and crucification of Mansur al-Hallaj.

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Jahangir/Akbar and the Kashmiri Oarsman


Last year I came across an interesting note in William Irvine’s Later Mughals (1922).

“Nawara, these boats were fashioned into fanciful shapes such as wild animals, etc. They were roofed in at one end, which was covered with broad cloth; they were better finished and lighter than a common boat (kishti). The boatmen were mostly from Kashmir and used Kashmiri calls to each other when working.“



Source was given as Mirat-Ul-Istilah (1745) of Anand Ram Mukhlis who was giving a description of Babar’s boating experience. Nawara, the Mughal word for river fleets, may now be an unfamiliar term in South Asia but boat people in another part of Asia do recognize it. Nawara or Nawa Rupa is part of boat legends of Myanmar.

And now, I finally have the graphical representation these boats and their Kashmiri oarsmen.


Ruler on a boat with attendants
17th century, reign of Jahangir
British Museum

I came across it in the book ‘The Arts of Kashmir’ Ed. by Pratapaditya Pal. In the chapter on ‘Panting and Calligraphy (1200-1900)’, Pratapaditya Pal presents it as the Mughal representation of Kashmiri landscape. In this painting a royal can be seen visiting the island of Zaina Lank in Wular lake. Although the inscription mentions the name of Akbar, Pratapaditya Pal assumes it is a mistake as memoirs of Jahangir, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri mention his visit to the island. However, Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari also mentions the man-made island of Zain-ul-abidin in Wular. Also, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri does at times reuse Abul Fazl’s writings for description of places. Particularly in case of Kashmir which the two visited together in 1589. Jahangir’s writing are more detailed about Kashmir probably because of his thirteen or so visits.

What is interesting in this painting, beside the animal boats, is the way ‘race’ distinctions are represented in it.

The boatman of the royalty has a prominent nose while the royals have an aquiline nose. The boatman has a very Kashmiri nose that sets him apart from the others. So the first persons besides royalties to be painted in Kashmir (and later photographed) were its boatmen. The boatmen whose ancestors built the island in Wular by unloading the countless stones into it on the orders of Zain-ul-abidin.

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Identifier: The sideburns
Jahangir holding the picture of Madonna (1620 AD)
National Museum Delhi

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Previously:

Kashmiri Boatmen in Mughal river fleet
Aurangzeb’s Kashmir fleet

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Goddess of Dance, Indrani

Goddess of Dance, Indrani
7th Century, Kashmir
Sri Pratap Museum 
This Goddess of Dance, Indrani
7th Century, Kashmir
Sri Pratap Museum


This one was came from Badamibagh in 1926. About 20 other were found in Pandrethan between 1923 and 1933 while digging of military barracks were going on in the area. More than 500 relics were found. Now not much remains.
Kashmiri Dancing Girl at Shalimar
photograph by Herford Tynes Cowling,
 for National Geographic Magazine, October 1929.

Vyjayanthimala in Amrapali inserted into a comic panel based on story of Hamsavali from Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara.
Somadeva, son of Brahman Rama, composed the Kathasaritasagara (between 1063 and 1081) for Queen Suryavati, daughter of Indu, the king of Trigarta (Jalandhar). She was the wife of King Anantadeva, who ruled Kashmir in the eleventh century. The story of Suryavati, Ananta, Kalsa and Harsha is perhaps the gruesomest tale from Rajatarangini that ends with Anata killing himself by sitting on a dagger and Suryavati going ablaze.  

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2017

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