Tag: A Kashmiri Tourist in Kashmir

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Love, what is your own address?

Feb, 2016.
Kalaam: “Chan” Rasul Mir
Singer: Rashid Hafiz
Recorded in Srinagar.  At place named after a Pakistani Commando who crossed over for Jihad in 1965.


Khaane Kam Kam tchai karith vaeranai
Paane ashqo chui katyo dhikaano

Houses many have you destroyed
Love, what is your own address?


video link

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Maithun/Amorous couple from Kashmir

20th Feb, 2016

Most old archaeological texts mentioned it. But, it took me two trips to find and identify it in the rubble.

“Maithun/Amorous couple” from Kashmir, Avantipur, mid 9th century. One of the most common motif in Hindu temples. These are the only two surviving in Kashmir.

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The courtship in the courtyard nearby.

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19th Feb, Manasbal

A boy and two girls standing next to a green mazaar of a pir next to the lake.

Girl A: Dopmay na me chu ne karun. (Told you, I don’t want it with you)

She opens up her phone. Takes out the sim card and gives it to the boy.

Boy: Wayn kya! (please!)

The mediator friend, Girl B: Boozi wayn! (Listen, please!).

The girl is now furious and visibly upset. She will not listen.

“Dopmay na me chu ne karun.”

She throws the phone to the ground, probably a gift, smashes it to smithereens and walks away.

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Biloreen saaq, seemeen tan, samman seena, sareen nasreen,
Jabbeen chuy aayeena aayeen ajab taaza jilaa, Jaa’noo

~ Rasul Mir, 19th century Kashmiri love poet.

Crystal Legs
Body Mercury
Jasmine Bosom
Daffodil Butt
Forehead,
a wondrous
polished
mirror,
my love

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yas zali bad’nas ash’qun naar
su zaani kyah gov hijr-e-yaar,
Maqbool kornas dil nigaar

The body set on fire by love
it knows meaning of separation from love
Maqbool, accepts an idol in place of heart.

~ from ‘Gulraiz’ by Maqbool Shah Qraalwari, (d. 1877) Kashmir. Based on work of Zia Nakhshabi, a 14th century Persian poet.

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Those Stones of Burzahom


The is the last piece of 2nd set of my Kashmir travelogue. 3rd set to start soon. 

First dig. Burzahom
1935

Many a discoveries in Kashmir were purely accidental. Among the many is the discovery of Burzahom.

In 1932, Helmut de Terra arrived in Kashmir valley on a geological study tour. On a clear spring day, he undertook an excursion on the river Jhelum. Travelling along the river bank, at one place, he noticed a strange object emerging from the river bank. On close inspection he realized it was a stone knife made of volcanic rock and fashioned like old Paleolithic Levallois blades. It was the first such discovery in the valley, in fact, first sign of Stone Age man ever found in the Himalayan region.

De Terra was to return to Kashmir many times looking for more signs. In 1935 , De Terra with T. T. Paterson as part of Yale-Cambridge University Expedition, finally arrived on the curious stone mounds atop Yanderhom Karewa about 10 Kms north-east of Srinagar, just above the marshy flood-plain of the river Jhelum. To the discoverers it was obvious that the stones were menhirs. In subsequent did, stone axes, pestles and bone tool were found.

The flood plain is now where people live. While the stones still stand, next to a cricket field.

Road to Burzahom 

The burial pits discovered in 1960s 
Burial pit. Burzahom. 1962 . From 1960 to 1971 extensive digging was carried out by T.N. Khazanchi to discover the cultural remains of a civilization.

The people who live around the area believe the pits to be dwellings of Jinns and consider the place to be haunted. Some people come and tie threads on the steel mesh, making wishes.

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I found Harwan


In February 2014, I tried to look for Harwan Buddhist site, ended up finding a water filtration plant, returning believing it to be the heritage site. [Read all about it here]

In November, I went back to look for it.

I found Harwan.

I took the right turn this time. I realized why most people miss it. The place is too hidden, you have to hike to the place. Most Pandits visiting are too old, can’t climb, have no old association with the place.

And older cousin of mine however did remember the quite little place near Chandipur where they would sometime go for excursion with Walden school.

Diaper Pebble Technique

The lonely worker was carrying out repair for damage suffered by Stupa due to the flood of September.

I remembered that this high terrace was buried under debris due to cloudburst and flood of 1973 and  finally cleared in 1978-80.

Coming in from some distance, I could hear the sound of men sitting somewhere inside an invisible security bunker.

The sun was setting, it was time for me to move.

I am convinced that when the place was conceived, the level of Dal Lake would have been higher. The site would have stood just next to the water body.

From Louise Weiss’s Cachemire (1955)

In 1950s, you could just walk around Harwan and the now famous tiles could be seen strewn all around the place. Back them people hoped, it would be an open museum for the tiles.

One the way back, I again lost the way. I couldn’t figure out how to get back to the main road.

“hum wayti, maalya”

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Wood carving Workshop on Jhelum river

Wood carving workshop on Jhelum river.
Fateh Kadal, Urdu Bazaar.

Way to the Ghat

Upper floor

The entire building used to be wooden. It is now being remade in cement and bricks. The upper floor was still under works. If I could get into that floor, the view would have been something like this:

from the book Irene Petrie : Missionary to Kashmir (1903). Photographs by Geoffroy Millias.
Had been trying to find the spot for quite sometime
Only other option left is to find Ahmed Joo’s Shop

Stories from Kashmir

This entire floor was under water in the flood of 2014

He was kind enough to tell me that the shop/house once belonged to a Pandit family long ago.

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camp in Uri

Inside the army camp on entering Uri

Remains of 1947 war.

Female and Male
Markhor

Remains of the era when this area for famous among hunters.

Varah at Baramulla

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Gosain Teng

Baramulla bridge with Gosain Teng in background (with in Kaznag and Shamasabri ranges, an extension of the Pir Panjal Range). Illustration  published in ‘Church Missionary Intelligencer’ (1854).

Gosain Teng, Baramulla. ‘Teng’ is the Kashmiri word for ‘Hillock’ and ‘Gosain’ is the Hindi/Sanskrit Goswami meaning ‘Ascetic’. Nowadays atop the hill is an army bunker. According to entry for the place in Hasan Shah’s (1832-1898) ‘Tarikh-e-Hassan’ there are supposed to be four springs atop the hill. Kunds named after Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman.

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How High was the Water


About sixty days after the flood
A city still damp
daubed in two shades


Camps near Dal 
Camp dwellers.
Most of the government camps look empty. People mostly stay with relative with a nominal person staying in the camp the mark his presence, expecting relief. People on radio sound angry about the way damage is being assessed and relief being handed out.

Clearing silt from the ghat near Fateh Kadal foot bridge

Not wishes tied to the walls of a shrine
Polythene and rubbish brought in by water
stuck to the Mesh panel of a little garden by the ghat 

Soaked ancient brickwork of a house along the river

After two weeks under fifteen feet of water
Dead plants in a private garden along Nageen lake
A positive side effect of the flood has been that the markets are flush with vegetables of great quality. 

A roadside stall offering flood infested material for sale.

The level at SPS museum along Bund road

Level of water inside the museum
Knees of the deity
I was told, most of the damage to display material has been to the papermache works. With about 2% almost of them gone.
Soaked old journals inside the Library of the museum

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