in bits and pieces
The article offers some interesting observations about Kashmiri way of living back then.
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| Came across it in rarest of Biscoe books, ’50 years against the Stream’, 1930. [Among other things can be seen the famous flood lights that were donated by Maharaja of Mysore in around 1918. A major milestone for electrification of Kashmir] -0- |
And actually found some more unseen photographs even though most of his work is now available online.
Apple eating competition’. Brian Brake. 1957. In the background can be seen (and ignored) G.M. Bakshi. The photograph is from one of his ‘jash-e-kashmir’ festivals. I don’t know about now, but even in late 1980s, ‘apple eating competition’ was a popular school game event…at least at Biscoe. I remember losing it once.
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Here’s a sample from year 1948:
‘Saffron Market’. Pampore, 1948. By Volkmar Wentzel. For National Geographic.
[Created by combining a two page spread]
Caption read: “At Autumn Harvest, Farmers, Pickers, and Buyers Swarm in Pampur’s Saffron Market. Homer sang of the “saffron morn,” Solomon of “spikenard and saffron.” Greeks perfumed theaters with saffron, a royal color; Romans tossed it in Nero’s path. England once cultivated the plant at Saffron Walden.”
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My friend Yaseen Tuman adds: Small hillock in photo is Shankaracharya Hill. Exact corner where Nehru Park Shikara Ghat Stands today and Hotels from this point to Dalgate.
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This postcard came with very little information. It was published by ‘Bombay Phototype Company’, which was in business around 1910-20. The place…I don’t know…that building in the background should be a good clue. I was hoping someone will be able to identify it.
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| Wood Movers 1950s. |
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| Sand Movers. March 2013 From my father’s camera. |
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| Bumzu cave Temple, Bhawan 1902 |
“The following day was spent in exploring the Bawan caves and the massive temple ruins of Martand.
The first cave I entered with much inward trepidation lest our touchwood torches should go out or loose stones be showered on us from the roof. We were shown the recess where a devotee of old lived his strange life and left his bones. A few yards beyond this further progress, except by crawling, was stopped by a recent fall of stones, and so we sought the entrance and made our way to the last and largest cave, which contains what is, perhaps, the very earliest Kashmiri temple. The porch has been cut out of the solid rock, and thence a gloomy passage leads to a flight of steps ascending to the little temple itself. A climb up the hill bought us to the plateau where the grand ruins of Martand stand sentinel, as they have done through countless ages. “
~ Photograph and text: ‘A walking tour in Kashmir by Miss. A.V. Stewart. Nursing sister in the Indian Army.’ For ‘World Wide Magazine. Volume 10. 1902.
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| Bhawan [Mattan] by V. C. Prinsep. 1877. From ‘Imperial India; an artist’s journals’ (1879) |
“The modern Martand, or Bawan, is over the edge of the plateau at another source of the Jhelum, which, having escaped the eye of the garden-making Jehanghire, has been turned by the pious Hindoo through two sacred tanks, and is now a holy shrine. The tanks are full of fish, a kind of tench, I should think, which it is the duty of the pilgrim to keep well fed with baked Indian corn. It is delightful to see the shoals of these dark green fish in the brilliant azure of the water. I made a sketch of the place from one corner, where squats each day an aged and very holy man, before whom the pilgrims come in flocks to prostrate themselves till their foreheads touch the ground. Unlike most holy men, this one is clean, and is moreover a very superior person, for seeing me surrounded and inconvenienced by fakirs, he sent his own servant to clear them away. I painted him into my sketch as an acknowledgement, and when I had finished made my lowest salaam. The old gentleman, being probably absorbed in a contemplation of the Deity, did not respond; or are piety and good manners incompatible?”