Tag: art

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Paintings of Kashmiri Water Deities and Origins, 1882


Two rare Kashmiri painting collected by David J. F. Newall in 1850s and presented in his book ‘The Highlands of India’ (1882) and Preliminary Sketches in Cashmere; Or, Scenes in “Cuckoo-cloudland.” By (D.J.F. Newall.) [With Illustrations.] (1882).

“Hindoo Picture Emblematic of the Draining of the Cashmere Valley
The Water Demon Juldeva overwhelmed by Suttee (or Siva) below the hill of Harrie Parvat”
The only depiction of the deity that I have seen in which the bird is part of the scene

In the story, the goddess Sharika [Tripursundari] kill the demon Jalodbhava by taking the form of a Myna (Haer in Kashmir, hence the name of the hill. Identifiable in the painting) and dropping a pebble on the head of the demon (hence setting the precedent for stone throwing in Kashmir).

The stone depicting the goddess on Hari Parbat. 2008.

“Hindoo Picture emblematic of the creation of the river Jhelum or Vetasta.”
The only depiction of the river deity that I have seen

The story as collected by Newall and presented in ‘Notes on Pilgrimages in the Country of Cashmere’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume XXXV, Issue IV, 1867

I now come to the last pilgrimage of which I Have noted the details, and which may perhaps be almost more properly called a fabulous account of the river Vetusta, as I am not aware that it is at any time undertaken by the Hindus of Cashmere, and as I rather think that some of the places named are under waters of that river. I extract exactly as I find it in my notes.
“Fabulous account of the origin of the river Jhelum or Vetusta.”
“Mahadeo being here engaged in self-contemplation, Raja Bhagerut arrived, and prayed for a Nag or spring in which to bathe and be cleansed from his sins. A stream then issued from the head of the destroyed which, on arriving at Wamoo, was swallowed by a certain demon, rejoicing in the name of Kalneemie Assur. A second spring was in like hammer swallowed by the thirsty demon. Whereupon Raja Bhagerut descended from his place of prayer at Vetusta Khoond, and engaged the demon, whom, after a brisk encounter (described in the graphic language of the Sanskrit ring (sic in MS.) he is stated to have injured, but was unable to destroy or drive away. (Kalneemie Assur probably graduated in the Vedic art of self-defence!) In fact it seems a polite way of stating that the Raja got the worst of it, as the demon is stated to have given chase, and to have come as far as Hurnag (Virnag) in pursuit. At this however, the wrath of the destroyer was aroused. He encountered the demon, and slew him, got his head in chancery and finally grassed him. I have in my possession a picture of this event where Mahadeo is represented as literally sitting on his face! Lion (or Mahdeo) then commanded the spring to follow Bhagirat Raja, who, descending the valley, passed successively.
1. Kanibul
2. Sumbooderi Tirat
3. Deokieyar
4. Bejbeharie
5.Sungum
6. Shriya
7. Mullyar
8. Gunputyar
9. Soomyar
10. Baramoola, the residence of Raja Bhagerur, where the pilgrimage terminates.”

Newall had no knowledge of Sanskrit, in fact the story was narrated to him by his source in Persian reading from a Sanskrit Manuscript.

Kalanemi, a very popular demon from Vaishnav stories, a perennial enemy of Vishnu, even Kansa is said to be a incarnation of Kalanemi. The story of birth of Vitasta seems to draw upon the stories of birth of Ganga (the reference to Raja Bhaghirath) and slaying of Kalanemi by Vishnu/Shiva in multiple puranas.

The imagery of the demon was uniform in Kashmiri style irrespective of story from which culture was being drawn.

An illustration to the Shahnama (“Book of Kings”): Rustam and the White Div,
Kashmir, circa 1800 
Verinag.
Feb, 2014

From Newall’s writings it is clear that he had collected a lot more of such paintings but sadly only these two seem to have been published.

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The painters
‘Group of Hindu artist’ from ‘Afoot Through the Kashmir Valleys’ (1901) by Marion Doughty.

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Bala’yan Cha heng aasaan

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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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Papier-mâché, Battle Scene

Papier-mâché. Papier-mache. Knights fights with Lance, Bows, and Arrows. 1958. Brian Brake for National Geographic.


“Kashmiris adopted papier-mâché making from the Persians and made it a high art. Artists create durable trays, boxes, candlesticks, and bowls, coating them with varnish. This painted cartoon on a box copies a motif of the Moguls, 16th-century Mongol conquerors of India and Afghanistan.  Spearmen and archers duel to the death, littering the ground with sabers, shields, quivers, and severed arms and heads.”


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Ceiling of Pandrethan

Photograph of the Meruvardhanaswami temple at Pandrethan near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken in 1868 by John Burke. Pandrethan, now mostly in ruins, is one of Kashmir’s historic capitals, said by Kalhana in his poetical account of Kashmiri history called Rajatarangini to have been founded by king Pravarsena in the 6th century AD. Its name thus derives from Puranadishthana or ‘old town’. The small stone Shiva temple in the picture dates from the mid-10th century, reputedly erected by a minister named Meru. It was set in a spring-fed tank and its plinth is now submerged. This general view of the temple is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ (1869), in which he wrote, ‘The small village of Pandrethan is situated on the Jhelum, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Srinagar…The Temple is close to the village, and stands in the centre of a tank of water…At the time of my visit, the water was about two feet over the floor of the Temple, and I had to obtain a small boat to enable me and my surveyors to take measurements. The stone ceiling is elaborately carved in bas-relief figures, and it is one of the most perfect pieces of ancient carving that exists in Kashmir…The pyramidal roof is divided into two portions by an ornamental band. The corner pilasters are surmounted by carved capitals, and the pediments of the porches appear to have terminated with a melon-shaped ornament. The ceiling is formed of nine blocks of stone; four resting over the angles of the cornice, reduce the opening to a square, and an upper course of four stones still further reduces the opening, which is covered by a single block decorated with a large lotus.’

The above image and description is easily available at British Library. What I am actually sharing is something inside the temple. The design that could be seen on the ceiling. 
The design on the ceiling was first copied by Alexander Cunningham in around 1848 after a tip-off by Lord John Elphinstone. When Cunningham visited the temple, there was evidence that one time the ornamentation, the designs and the figures of the temple must have been profusely plastered over to cover its naked idol beauty.
Inside, he found figures on the walls plastered as also the ornamentation on ceiling. He gives it as the reason why George Trebeck didn’t notice any figures or any designs on the ceiling when he became the first European to enter the temple in around 1822. 
Alexander Cunningham had the plaster removed and the figures on the ceiling appeared.
Cunningham’s copy of the design
Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture by Alexander Cunningham
Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal (1848)
 “The ceiling is formed of nine blocks, four of which rest over the angles of the cornice, and reduce the opening to a square, which is just one half of the size of the other. The same process is again repeated with an upper course of four stones, by which the opening is still further narrowed to a square of 4 feet ; and lastly, this opening is covered by a single stone decorated with a large expanded lotus, surrounded by a beaded circle. The smaller angles are occupied by naked human figures, something similar to those of the Payach ceiling, but without wings. These figures besides have only one leg and one arm outstretched, which affords more variety than the other treatment at Payach. Each of the larger angles is filled with two figures holding out a garland, which falls in a graceful loop between them. The whole rests upon a cornice supported by brackets, which were so much decayed that I found it impossible to trace their decorations or even their exact shape. The spaces between the brackets were also much injured ; but they appeared to have been filled with some kind of ornamental drapery hanging in curved folds.”
The winged figures noticed by him on the ceiling of Payach:
A much more detailed (lesser know) copy of Pandrethan ceiling prepared by one R.T. Burney was presented by W.G. Cowie in his 1865 paper ‘Notes on some of the Temples of Kashmir, especially those not described by General A. Cunninghan’ (Journal of The Asiatiic Society of Bengal Volume 35, Part 1. 1866)
W.G. Cowie  states: “General Cunningham’s drawing of the ceiling of the temple is not quite complete. From the accompanying very accurate sketch made by Mr. R. T. Burney of the Civil Service, (Plate XVIII.), it will be seen that the angles of the square in which the beaded circle is, are occupied by naked human figures, as well as the angles of the other squares. These innermost figures have both arms outstretched, like those at Payach seeming to hold up the circle. They have drapery about their shoulders, resembling light scarfs. The brackets supporting the cornice were once ornamented, and show marks of great violence having been used to destroy the carving. Each appears to have represented a human head ; for on several of them there still remains on both sides what looks like plaited hair. The pediment pilasters project 5 inches beyond those supporting the trefoiled arches. The corner pilasters of the building are 1 foot 10 1/2 inches thick. I found what I took for mortar in all parts of the building.
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Plaited hair in a Harwan Tile

Traditional Kashmiri plaited hairstyle.
1890s 
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Among Kashmiri Pandits “mas parun” –  plaiting hair of the would be bride on the day of “Devgon“.

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Kashmir in Satyajit Ray’s Art

To get the feel of the era right for Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), among other things, the art director used authentic antique Kashmiri shawls from private collection. The art director was Bansi Chandragupta. If Satyajit Ray is considered one of the greatest Indian film directors of all time, his regular art director Bansi Chandragupta can be considered one of the best and pioneering art directors in India.

Bansi Chandragupta was born in 1924 in Sailkot. When still a child his family moved to Srinagar where he did his basic education. In 1942, in midst of ‘Quit-India’ movement he moved to Bengal and was introduced to Satyajit Ray as a painter. Along with Ray he was one of the founders of Calcutta film society. In years to come, Bansi Chandragupta went on to be Ray’s ‘Kashmiri’ friend who helped him in creation of almost all his cinematic masterpieces.

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Portrait of a Kashmiri Girl
Bansi Chandragupta
Early 20th century 
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Kashmiri Opera Performers, tracing 1955/2013


It’s 1955. First Kashmiri opera Bombur ta Yambarzal (The Narcissus and the Bumble Bee) by Dina Nath Nadim, that has already had a few re-runs, is again put up at Nedou’s Hotel for special guest – military leader and Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin who is accompanied by First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev. By the end of 1956 Uzbek communist leader Sharaf Rashidov brings out 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. Almost a decade later, in 1965 , the year of second Kashmir war between India and Pakistan, USSR’s famous Soyuzmultfilm studio produces an animated film called Наргис based on Rashidov’s Song of Kashmir. Interesting the film retained the original Kashmiri names of all the characters sketched originally by Dina Nath Nadim, all the names except Yambarzal who is given the popular name Nargis, the name of this film.

[More details at a post from 2011: ‘Bombur ta Yambarzal’. From Russia. With Love.1965.]

A group photograph of the artists who gave performances in honour of the visit of Soviet leaders at Srinagar.

Image from Photo division India.
[Date of event via a Russian archive at visualrian: 05/11/1955]

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Within an hour of posting this photograph to Facebook page of the blog, I started getting comments identifying the people in the photograph, words along the way painting a beautiful picture of connections and relations:

Archana Kaul That is my mom( Nancy Kaul now Nancy Dhar) when she was in college, and is seated first from the left!!
5 hours ago
Puneet Dhar I wonder if Zia Durrani is also here? Bindu check with Ma? Is that her next to Ma?
5 hours ago
Indira Rao Archana, your mom looks absolutely lovely! I still fondly remember her teaching us music. One of the ghazals she taught us (hum apne gham ka fasana) continues to be one of my favorite
4 hours ago
Zia Durrani I am the one standing all the way to the right!! My cousin Farkhanda is the fifth standing from the left. She died last year. Gargi is the second standing from the left. I recognise some other faces, but can’t remember their names.
4 hours ago
Sudha Koul Principal Mahmuda ( Govt. College for Women, Srinagar.), the tall one standing in the middle, so young and striking! Thanks Bindu!
26 minutes ago

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Comment in July, 2018

Roshan Dass Raj Dulari the one sitting in the middle of front row must be around 77 now. she is a bundle of talent 

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Vessels Redux

Above: Martand shot by Brian Brake in around 1957.

Below: A photograph of an old terracotta Kashmiri vessel brought to Jammu along with other things. Shared around two years ago by Man Mohan Munshi ji.

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Harwan Tiles

“These terracotta plaques at Harwan each of which was
moulded with a design in bas-relief, are of a character which makes them unique
in Indian art. Pressed out of moulds so that the same pattern is frequently repeated, although spirited and naive in some instances, they are not highly
finished productions, but their value lies in the fact that they represent
motifs suggestive of more than half a dozen alien civilizations of the ancient
world, besides others which are indigenous and local. Such are the Bahraut railing,
the Greek swan, the Sasanian foliated bird, the Persian vase, the Roman rosette,
the Chinese fret, the Indian elephant, the Assyrian lion, with figures of
dancers, musicians, cavaliers and ascetics, and racial types from many sources,
as may be seen by their costumes and accessories.”
~ Percy Brown, Indian Architecture: Buddhist and Hindu
periods (1942)
Aurel Stein in his edition (1892) of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini identified terraced site of Harwan as Sadarhadvana, ‘The wood of six saints’, the place where once lived the famous Bodhisattva Nagarjuna of Kushan period in the time of King Kanishka. The site was first excavated in year 1923 by Pandit Ram Chandra Kak. Based on  masonry styles Kak categorical the structures and findings into three types: (i) Pebble style (ii) Diapher Pebble style, and (iii) Diapher Rubble style. The pebble style being earliest in date, the diapher pebble of about 300 A.D. and the last one of about 500 A.D. and later.
Here are some of the photographs of the tiles of Harwan ( Harichandrun, originally in Kashmir) provide by Kak (came across in booklet ‘Early Terracotta Art of Kashmir’ by Aijaz A. Bandey for Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar (1992)):
First one, a tile that gave me an opportunity to interpret a symbol.
Here above are shown four full blown lotus flowers; below a procession of geese running with their wings open. It is to be noted here the four geese from left have already picked up a stalked flower in their bills while the extreme right bird is about to pick it up. This males the scene more alive.
The point here is that it is not just an ‘alive scene’, it is an animated scene, there are no four, five geese, there is only one goose, the way the scene is set, it looks like an “animation cel;”, it is as if the artist was not trying to capture just the subject but also motion, hence we have an animated scene of a geese in motion, catching, leaving, holding on to a flower. 
Why geese? What does this motion symbolize? 
Goose in Indian motifs (both in Buddhist, to a great degree also in Hindu art and lore ) is the most common and recurring symbol of an ascetic in search of truth. In art, geese with a flower in beak would be the state of perfection, and the flight would be the journey that an ascetic undertakes. And then in addition, there is this impression of “passing” time that the flight symbolizes. It is a simple and obvious explanation.
In fact, it must have occurred to some other observers too. In ‘The Goose in Indian Literature and Art’ (1962), Jean Philippe Vogel cautions against such a tempting answer easily. “It is tempting to assume a connection between the yogis and the geese, although the latter appear also on tiles belonging to the courtyard where they seem to have a merely decorative function.”
Can’t a religious symbol be used in a secular space with a decorative function? But then, that would be akin to how in present times say a ‘Ganesha’ statue might be found in a corner of drawing room of a Hindu household, performing a decorative and a religious function. Is is difficult to assume that people back then too were capable of doing something like this. 
Dating back to third and the fifth century, Harwan is not an easy site to decipher. Each symbol is capable of throwing interesting questions at the observer. Take the case of ascetics. When we see ascetics in these tiles, are we seeing Buddhist ascetics? Although Harwan is often thought as a Buddhist site, there are theories according to which the Buddhist site was built on top of an existing site claimed by a religious sect called Ajaivika belonging to Nastika thought system. The sect peaked at the time of Mauryan emperor Bindusara around the 4th century BC. But by the time of Ashoka the sect quickly went downhill (apparently, the fact they published a photograph of Buddha in negative light didn’t go well with Ashoka the Great and he had around 18000 followers of the sect executed in Pundravardhana, present day Bengal). The sect disappeared without leaving much trace.

However, it is interesting the only image of an Ajaivika ascetic may have been provided by Kashmir. Below is given a page from ‘Indian Sculpture: Circa 500 B.C.-A.D. 700’ by Pratapaditya Pal.

Some other tiles from Harwan (a site that was almost lost again and buried after a cloud burst in 1970s):

A female holding a flower vase in upright hand, the left hand lifts the end of transparent long robe. The woman on either side has lotus petals, below in a separate register is a procession of four geese. The marked difference, this tile from harwan displays, is in its shape which is unconventional but could have fitted in the pavement plan at the site.
Medallions contaning cocks, regardant, with stylized foliate tails. Below in running spiral in an unending whorl. 

A squarish tile has in the centre two seperate stamps, the left one in a dotted boarder a standing male figure with splayed out feet, a long tunic extending upto knees, holding in the left hand a long spear, while the right rests on the lip. All along the border of the tile on each side is a procession of four geese.

A female holding flower vase, a male holding spear, medallion with cock, and procession of geese.

In the left a deer looking back, with moon at the top and wheel below. right, a mounted archer “The Parthian shot” of ancient Iran.

Upper register, a couple in a balcony. The coarse features of the couple having high cheek-bones, prominent noses and low receding fore head, allowed thr excavator (R.C. Kak) to identify them with a racial group of Central Asian people. Below, a feeling deer who is just to be struck with an arrow.

A composite mortified tile from Harwan. the tile above has lotus flowers; below in one compartment is a winged conch-shell, through the upper part of it protrudes neck of a bird (?) emitting pearl. This composite creature is flanked on either side by a fish at the bottom. To its right in a separate compartment is another composite figure, in this case half human and half vegetal; the upper part is of a female bust.

Three lotus petals and two rams.

Two cocks fighting over a lotus bud. Two deers at night.

Medallions with cocks with grape vines scroll above and below

Mixing of motifs. Cock, Lotus, Geese,

Lotus

unconventional. A free hand drawing of a flower.

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Zorawar’s War Horses

A monument dedicated to
 General Zorawar Singh in Jammu

Zorawar kay ghoday dhoday
Kuch log ujhday
Kuch desh bhasay

My Great-Great-Great Grandfather was a man named Kamal Joo Razdan/Raina, a cashier in Zorawar’s Army, posted at times in Gilgit. The family lore has it he even had a sword, a royal gift.

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Fragment from a painted scroll: Zorawar Singh’s army marching through the mountains

A Buddhist Shrine: detail from a painted scroll. [In the bottom left corner can be seen Zorawar’s Army, looking on]
From Kashmiri Painting by Karuna Goswamy, 1998.

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In Leh, we hear Ladakhi women singing the song of Zorawar Singh’s wife:

I do not wish to eat bread received from the sinful northerners
I do not wish to drink water received from the sinful northerners
Amidst the inhabitants of this land I have no friends and relations…
When arriving at the Zoji-la-Pass, my fatherland can be seen…
Although I can see my fatherland, I shall not arrive there…



In Jammu, a wife of a soldier sings:

Tera miga ladga i manda, O gadda,
tera miga lagda i manda,
Eh Patwari migi khat rehyum liki dinda,
sau sau karnian Chanda.
Kehsi banai Rama
Jange di Chakri


I am sick of separation, my love,
I am sick of separation,
I entreat the Patwari again and again,
To write a letter for me, but he refuses,
So you leave the army and return home.
Why, O God Rama, have you created a permanent institution like the Army?



~ lines found in book, ‘Jammu and Kashmir’ by Somnath Dhar (1982) [link]


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Map of Kingdom of Kashmir from David McCormick’s ‘An artist in the Himalayas’ (1895).



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