Kashmiri folk songs by Chicago based band Lamajamal (arabic word for ‘beauty’) [Youtube]. The album ‘Saazuk Safar’ (2012) was commissioned by funkar.org. It’s like debut of Kashmiri music on modern world music scene. Listen to traditional sound in a new way…I particularly liked the tracks ‘Rum Gayam Sheeshus‘ (sung by Asal Monfared) and instrumental ‘Hay Vayas‘
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Original version of ‘Rum ghyam sheeshas byegur gav bane myon‘ by Raaj Begum and Naseem Akhtar at Funkaar
Note: Repercussion of Kashmiri habit of not having any formal credit system for artistic works and too much dependence on oral culture, as no one introduces the poet before reciting his/her work: Four decades ago, the name of the poet who composed it and the song was on lips of every Kashmiri. Now, it took me hours to find the name of the poet who composed this ghazal. I finally found it in a book by S.L. Sadhu on Kashmiri literature published in 1974. The poet is Mirza Ghulam Hassan Beg Aarif.
Extracts from ‘Urdu Letters of Mirza Asadu’llah Khan Ghalib’ (1987) by Daud Rahbar
Be it known to you, dear young friend Munshi Shiv Narain, that I had no idea that you were who you truly are. Now that I discover that you are the grandson of Nazir Bansi Dhar, I recognise you as my beloved son. Thus, from now on, if I address you in my letters as “Benevolent and Honored Friend,” it will be a sin. You are undoublty unaware of the close ties between your family and mine. Listen. In the days of Najaf Khan and Hamadani, the father of your paternal grandfather was a constant companion of my maternal grandfather, the late Khwaja Ghhulam Husain Khan. When my maternal grandfather retired, your great-grandfather too unbuckled his belt, quit service, and never accepted employment again. All of this happened before I had reached the age of reason. When I became an adult, I encountered Munshi Bansi Dhar in the constant company of Khan Sahib. The latter initiateed a lawsuit against claimants to his estate of perpetual title, the village of Kaitham, and Munshi Bansi Dhar acted as his attorney in the case. Munshi Sahib and I were about the same age – he may have been a year or so older or younger. We played chess together and became fast and loving friends. It was not unusual for us to be together until midnight. Since his house was not far, I went there whenever I liked. Between their hues and ours, the only intervening buildings were the home of Machhya Randi and two blocks of rented homes owned by my family. Our larger mason is the one which is now owned by Lakhi Chand Seth. The baradari of stone which is joined to the main entrance of this mansion was my sitting-room and lounge. Then there was the mansion known as Ghatya-vali haveli and near Salim Shah’s hovel, another mansion and another adjoining the Kala Mahal, and beyond that there was another block of rented houses called the Gadaryon-vala Katra and then another similar block called the Kashmiran vala Katra. On the roof of one of the houses in his last block, I used to fly kites and we used to have kite matches with Raja Balvan Singh. There was a veteran soldier named Vasil Khan in your family’s employ who used to collect the rents from the tenants of the block of rented houses which belonged to your grandfather.
Keep listening, for I have more to tell. Your grandfather became very wealthy. He purchased extensive farmlands and established himself as a zamindar. He paid between ten and twelve thousand rupees as revenue to the government annually. Did his holdings come into your possession? Write to me in detail telling me what happened to those estates.
Asadullah
Tuesday, October 19, 1858
~ Ghalib’s letter to Munshi Shiv Nara’in Aram
Ghalib’s association with Aram began in 1858 when Ghalib negotiated with him to publish the Dastanbu (Bouquet of Flowers), Ghalib’s account of his experiences during the uprising of 1857 (covering happening between May 11, 1857 and July 31, 1858), after which the two enjoyed a warm correspondence for the next five years. As we learn in this letter, Ghalib had enjoyed the friendship of Aram’s grandfather, Munshi Bansi Dhar, though neither Aram nor Ghalib had apparently thought to make this connection before entering into their own relationship.
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“Exalted Sir,
Today is Monday, the third of January, 1859. Clouds enveloped the atmosphere near the end of the first quarter of the day. Now it is drizzling and a cold wind is blowing. And I have nothing to drink. Disinterestedly, I have eaten a meal.
December clouds
Flood the horizon;
Yet my clay cup
Has not a drop of wine.
Sad and sorrowful was I sitting when the postman brought your letter. I recognised your personal handwriting on the envelope. This gladdened me. I read the letter. It contained no mention of obtaining my objective. This saddened me.
Tyranny has drive us abroad.
No news from home is happy.
In those low-sprites moments, I said, “Let’s have a chat with His Eminence,” and I began to write even though the letter needed no reply.
…”
~ Ghalib in a letter to his close friend Khwaja Ghulam Ghaus Bekhabar.
Khwaja Ghulam Ghaus Bekhabar (1824-1904). is said to have been descended from Sultan Zainu’l-Abidin Bad Shah, one of the kings of Kashmir. Born in Nepal, Bekhabar was raised and educated in Benaras, finding employment at the age of seventeen under his maternal uncle, Sayyid Muhammad Khan, Mir Munshi to the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of North and West, making his home in Agra, the capitol city of that Province. In 1843, during the regime of Lord Ellenborough, Bekhabar was transferred for a brief period to the Vernacular Secretary’s office at the Governor General’s headquarters. He eventually succeeded his uncle as Mire Munshi on the latter’s retirement in 1885, at which time he moved to Ilahabad where he spent the remaining years of the life.
Bekhabar kept a hospitable table and was a most sociable and entertaining conversationalist. His home was daily gathering place for many lovers of literature, including his close friend, the poet Miraza Hatim Ali Beg Mihr. Himself a poet and writer of prose in both Persian and urdu, Bekhabar played a major role in the publication of Ghalib’s ‘Ud-i-Hindi’, a selection of the poet’s Urdu prose [ 1868, his letters mostly, something that Aram also wanted to publish around a decade ago. ].
“Inquiring of a boatman why he did not make his wife, a really pretty woman, and his children engaging little things, wash every day and wear clean clothes, his explanation was, that if he kept his wife cleaner than those of other boatmen the Baboo would report to the Vakeel that he was earning more, and he would be more heavily taxed.
[…]
‘Topee and turban, or, Here and there in India’ (1921) by H. A. Newell, The photograph by R.E. Shorter.
The Hindoos, with the same cast of Jewish features, are fairer than the Muhammedans, and their women are seldom seen; but returning from Ganderbul to Srinuggur, early one morning at Shadipore, we surprised a great Hindoo festival. Shadipore is situate at the confluence of the Scinde river with the Jhelum, where the waters are peculiarly sacred, and on this occasion, six in the morning, a concourse of both sexes were bathing almost in puris naturalibus. As soon, however, as they saw boats approaching, the women rushed to the bank, and were soon, cowering and peeping from under their embroidered shawls. Not to disturb their devotions, we passed quickly to a camping ground in a grove of chenars a mile farther down, and later in the day went to the festival, preceded by the sepoy, clad in white, with a scarlet puggery, wearing the breast band of his order, and armed with a scimitar, which he is not allowed to draw except in self-defence. Sepoy attendants are sent by the Baboo at Sriiiuggur to accompany travellers ignorant of the country and its customs during their stay in Kashmir, and are useful in procuring coolies and provisions at the established rates, and in keeping off beggars, loafers, and loos wallers (thieves).
The mela, or fair, a very large one, was attended by many of the’ wives and daughters of the chief Hindoos. Their hair, instead of being separated in plaited braids over the back as is the fashion among young Muhammedans, is gathered round a pad on the crown of the head, and forms a not ungraceful pyramid. Over it a silk shawl, scarlet embroidered with orange, is thrown, which falls to the brow in front and to the ground behind. Across the forehead they wear a fillet of gold or silver ornaments. A ring hangs from the left nostril, and is attached to the ear by a chain of gold. Ears, thumbs, fingers, and toes are covered with rings ; and bracelets, armlets, anklets, and necklaces, with pendants of bright-coloured stones, coral, and turquoise, complete their list of jewellery. On their thumbs they carry a ring holding a little mirror an inch in diameter, which they consult frequently. They have much to look to, the gradations of collyrium round their eyes sparkling eyes in youth, brilliant from belladonna when their natural lustre has begun to fade ; the arch of their thick black brows ; the arrangement of their hair and rings ; and the devices and adornments by which, in attempts to heighten, they lessen their charms. For withal, and spite of all, some, not all, are beautiful. Soft, oval faces, large almond-shaped eyes fringed with abundant lashes, noses finely cut though of the Jewish type, classic lips, invariably pearl-white teeth, rounded arms, slender fingers bright with hernia, and forms tall and well proportioned, are often seen. They wear a boddice and loose trousers of scarlet or blue silk, fitting tight at the ankles, which are covered with silver anklets. Some of these clank like prisoners’ chains ; others send forth a tinkling from the many little silver bells that hang from them.
” Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
To tell her dear husband the way that she goes.”
But all is not couleur de rose even among ” the brightest that earth ever gave ” in the vale of Kashmir. To see them eating is not attractive. A dish ‘full of rice, ghi and curry, unctuous and flavoured with onions and garlic, when placed in the centre of a group of women and children, is soon disposed of in the most natural, if not most graceful, style. Each grasps a handful, great or small as appetite dictates, and dexterously throws it into her widely-opened mouth. Me’las or fairs are mere assemblages of multitudes without amusements beyond those of eating, drinking, tom-toming, offering rice, flowers, and ghi to idols, and bathing a practice which they seem to reserve for these occasions. On the plains they rig up large roundabouts and turnovers, and then it is a truly absurd spectacle to see middle-aged men, and even patriarchs, grinning with delight at being whirled or tumbled about, a sport which in other countries would amuse none but a child.
~ “Letters from India and Kashmir: written 1870” by J. Duguid
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Didn’t know about
“A ring hangs from the left nostril, and is attached to the ear by a chain of gold.”
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Which reminds me of the photograph in which it is hard to tell if the women are Pandit or Muslim….
A map of the Mughal province of Cachemir (Kashmir), 1770. Compiled for Colonel Jean Baptiste Gentil, agent for the French Government to the Court of Shuja-ud-daula at Faizabad. Source: British Library
