in bits and pieces
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| Baramulla |
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| Background, Fort Hari Parbat, Srinagar |
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| Beaters at lunch during a hunt |
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| Kashmiri Carriers |
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| Kashmiri Children |
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| Doonaga |
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| Design of a Doonaga |
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| Plaits |
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| Breakfast Camp |
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| Liddar Valley |
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| Entrance to the Liddar Valley |
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| Pandritan Temple ruins |
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| Post Office and club at Achibal |
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| Sunset |
From ‘Indian Memories: Recollections of Soldiering Sport, Etc.’ (1915) by Sir Robert Baden-Powell
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The flip side of reads:
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| “near the Dal lake banks close to the garden of shalamar” |
Readers were easily able to identify the place as old Harwan Reservoir. The structure still stands.
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| from a book published in 1959 |
Although Edward Powys Mathers is more famous for ‘Bilhana: Black Marigolds’ (1919), which was later used by John Steinbeck for dramatic purposes in his American novel ‘Cannery Row’ (1945), Edward Powys Mathers was also one of the first translators of Kshemendra’s Smayamatrika.
His english version came out as ‘Harlot’s Breviary’ in volume 2 of book ‘Easter Love’ (1927).
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The book was available at Digital library of India but the reading method provided there is not too easy. So I have recompiled and uploaded the book to archive.org
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This postcard came with no date and only description: ‘cashmerian dancers’.
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| John Burke, 1868-69 |
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| By Geoffroy Millias. from ‘Irene Petrie : Missionary to Kashmir’ (1903). |
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| At Shah Hamadan By Brian Brake, 1957 |
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| by Douglas Waugh (late 1950s, early 1960s) |
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| From the book “Tikkus’ tourist & shopping guide of Kashmir covering Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh ” (1970) by Bharat Tikku. |
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| 2008 |
“In the upper part of the city the banks are lined with houseboats in which the visitors live. But lower down these banks, which are sometimes twenty and thirty feet high, have a very interesting and varied life at the water’s edge, where you find laundrymen and laundrywomen at intervals all the way along, and bathers, sometimes composed of groups of men, others of groups of women, and again men and women together. As a rule this bathing takes place at the foot of some of the wide stone steps that lead up from the water to the upper level of the bank, and frequently in the vicinity of a temple or mosque. There are also a number of small bath-houses, without roofs, and divided into very tiny little cabinets that are hardly large enough for a single person. These are indulged in by the more fortunate, or the better-to- do classes, who constitute but a very small percentage of the total bathing population.
This bathing, too, is a very interesting process to witness, especially the dressing, for, while the men are rather indifferent as to how much or how little clothing they may have on, the women are exceedingly modest and rarely, if ever, is there the least exposure of any portion of the body besides the arms, and head and feet. They go into the river with one dress on and when they have bathed they have not only washed their bodies but the garments they have been wearing, and when they come out they have on the bank, or steps, another garment which they put on, and so skillful are they in making this change that it is almost impossible to tell how it is done. One moment they are clad in the wet, clinging clothes which they have worn in the river, and the next by a rapid sleight- of-hand transformation they are dressed in dry garments of most pleasing hue.”
~ ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys
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Manchali (1973)
In the background: view of Kashmir
Hera Pheri (1976)
In the background: Char Chinari
Can’t be sure but both look like works of D.N. Walli.
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Previously:
Wall from Junglee (1961)
Video: A travel guide for Kashmir published in September 1960 by Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity,, Ministry of I&B., for the Deptt. Tourism, Govt. of India, New Delhi. Printed in Bombay.
Audio: Kashmiri music from film ‘Magic of the Mountains’ (1955) by Mushir Ahmed for Film Division. The first song is the famous lament of Habba Khatoon (16th century).
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The idea is simple. Every month I will be uploading one rare and out-of-print book about Kashmir to archive.org, so that others can read it for free.
January: A test run. Something that I had shared previously via images only. With archive.org, now the book is also available in easy to search text format
February: A book by Pandit Anand Koul that provides interesting information of industries of the state.
Things Seen in Kashmir (1931) by Ernest F. Neve
A book shared by reader from his personal collection. Now complied and uploaded to the archive.[Details] Probable date mid-1960s.
April: A photo book published by Publication Division in November 1956. This is the second edition that came out in May 1962.
Kashmir, 1956
May: An anthology of photographs, verse, and description, mainly of India including Kashmir, Delhi and now Af-Pak region published by a British soldier towards the end of World War 2. [Details]
Of Hills (1944) by Tom Ashley Lakeman
June: A travel guide by a former student of Biscoe.[Details]
Holidaying and Trekking in Kashmir (1969) by N. L. Bakaya
July: A School report for C.M.S. School from year 1926 [Details]
Lake and River Scouts in Kashmir
August: A rare trekking guide written by a woman and meant for women. [Details]
Trekking in Kashmir, with a family, or without one” (1930) by Barbara Earl.
September: A school booklet from year 1944 published by Church Mission School, Srinagar.
October: A book on first Kashmir war of 1947-48
November: A travelogue by a British woman about her visit to Ladakh in 1926
December: A book on farmers of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh
Farmers Of Jammu, Kashmir And Ladakh (1959)
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| Kashmir cover of ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India’, April 22, 1945 Photograph by A. K. Syed This is from a time when painting over the photographs was the norm. |