A mixture of herbs, shrubs, leaves, wild fruits and roots together known in Kashmir as loussi ghass. The mix includes brie (red berries), shangar (herbs), ladrigand (haldi/turmeric root), shontgand (Ginger root) and many more of such. It used to be sold by Buhur…the grocer guys…named liked Shabu Buhur or among muslims by Khazir Woan. The bath ritual is still among Kashmiri Muslims, so the herb mix is still sold in Kashmir by certain old traditional grocers. My father brought it all the way from Srinagar.
boiling
Cooling
Post Bath:
Rice balls are mixed with hend (supposed to be dried dandelion leaves, father misplaced the leaves, so we used paalak). Fish is cooked and kept with it in a plate. Fish is essential for the ritual. Beside it we can put yellow meat and some vegetable dish.
A kaajwot (pestle stone) is kept on the ground. The child is placed on it and then brought into the house. Burza is burnt [Burzu myat kadun], and waved around the head of mother and child. My father had brought the bark from a Birch tree in Pahalgam around 10 years ago. A name is given to the child (if a girl, 2 generations ago, name was changed at the time of girl’s marriage in another ritual]. And the oldest lady in the house sings a line “sokh-ti-pun-syun“.
Burza/Birch bark
welcome
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In Kerala, we found the practice of Ayurvedic bath post child birth quite a common culture. The are women who are employed for it. There are herb mix that are sold. Goes on for about 40 days. The new born is given special massage using oils although doctors recommend caution with the newborn and ask to rely only on good expert hands.
Quick reference notes I have been keeping for last few months (with input from friends and family).
• Kashmiri word for pregnant: ba’ri’tch. [Baariya. Sanskrit word for wife.]
• in Kalyug 13 year old girls will give birth
• During eclipse, whatever the woman is doing…the baby will have its mark. If a woman picks knife…the child will have cut mark. If woman plays with fire…child will have burn mark. And so on. Stay indoors during eclipse. Muslims also believe in it. Muslim neighbours used to ask Pandits for the exact timing of eclipse, it used to be a giveaway that the lady is expecting a child.
• Generally stay indoors.
• Maag month (January/February) born sleep with half eye open.
• Ghat paksh born with slit eyes
• Mool: Baddest time according to Kashmiri Jantri (almanac) for giving birth
• Find someone who has thumb (Frozen neck). Get massaged (kari thumb) by pregnant woman. [My parents actually asked one of my friends if he needed massaging. It was embarrassing to say the least and infuriating. Had a little light with parents]
• Pregnant woman is not supposed to see a maharaj – groom
• She should generally not sit in the room with the entrance door, whoever visits the house should touch her head
• She is not supposed to be informed of any deaths. Pregnancy time generally a time of impurity.
• Ath wairith Zan. Born with hands open. Lucky kid. Like Akbar.
• Owl hooting in tree. Boy is predicted.
• In 9th month give butter. Kishmish sheera Raisins soaked overnight. (kateer)
• Woman needs to sit carefully during last days of pregnancy in order to avoid having a child with ‘Tond ‘ – conical enlarged head.
• While leaving for delivery, tie a knot in chunni that the woman is wearing.
• eat “ha-nd“, dandelion leaves post delivery. Rich in Iron
The thing to note in the photograph is a glimpse of ancient pre-islamic Kashmir. Notice the kid in the front with the partial tonsure. The one with Ronaldo cut.
Tarikh-i-Kabir of Muhammad-ud-Din Fauq (1892) mentions that muslim kids just like non-muslim kids used to grow a tuft of hair on the crown of their head. This hair used to be later shaved off on a particular day, at some shrines (like at Baba Rishi near Gulmarg), and the event was much celebrated (zarakasai). The tuft was known as Shika (Sanskrit), topp (“cap” in Kashmiri) or bichur (‘tuft’ as in Bil-bichur like of Bulbul).
The act of having tonsure was and is common in eastern religions.
In Islam, there are hadith against keeping partial tonsure. As the Kashmiri Muslim society moved closer to following a more literal and puritan version of Islam, the practise disappeared
Left: Goddess Sharada enthroned surrounded by fairies. From a Private collection. Probably 18th century. Kashmir. Notice the way angels are painted around the orb. Came aross the image in “Cosmology and Cosmic Manifestation: Shaiva Thought And Art Of Kashmir by Bansi Lal Malla (2015). While writing about the image, the author missed an important art connection.
Right: 16th century, Ṣafavid Iran. Miraj painted by Sultan Muhammad for a manuscript of Nizami Ganjavi’s Quinary (“Panj Ganj” or “Khamsa”. Art styling inspired by Buddhist China. Khamsa was a work popular in Persian and Mughal courts. Notice the way fairies are drawn and the headgear on them.
In the right image, Khamsa influence on the court culture of Kashmir can be seen as late as 18th century. This mixing of culture, arts and “sacred” was not a phenomena unique to Kashmir, other major cultural centers also experienced it and continue to experience it. Only in case of Kashmir, it is least studied in detail.
A few pages from some rare old books in Persian, Sanskrit, Sharda, Urdu and Kashmiri. Shared with SearchKashmir by Anupama Tiku Dhar from personal family collection belonging to her grandfather. Some of them are handwritten. Offers a peek into reading habits of Kashmiris about hundred years ago. Interestingly, a bunch of these books were published in Lahore which was back then an educational hub for Kashmiris. This was a period when Sharda script was well past its prime, Persian was in decline, Urdu was on the rise, Sanskrit was getting revived under State patronage and their were signs English was going to be the language of future.
Anupama writes:
In 2003 when my late maternal grandfather Pandit Jia Lal Khushoo’s ancestral home at Exchange Road, Srinagar was sold, his vast collection of books also had to be appropriately disposed. The books included discourses in English on History, Literature, Indian Philosophy, Religion, bound copies of periodicals as well as some printed books in Persian/Urdu and hand-bound manuscripts in Persian, Urdu and Sharda. The Urdu and Persian manuscripts were rendered in beautiful calligraphy by Pandit Shridhar Khushoo, who was Pandit Jia Lal Khushoo’s grandfather. My grandfather himself was an avid reader proficient in English, Hindi, Kashmiri, Urdu and Sharda. He retired as the Chief Conservator of Forests, J&K.
The books in English were donated to the Jammu University Library as per the family’s decision. Those in Persian, Urdu and Sharda were retained to be gifted to a more suitable recipient. They were kept in storage with my mother in Pune, on behalf of the Khushoo clan. When I learnt about the existence of these rare works recently, I inspected them. I am not literate in Persian, Urdu or Sharda but my grandfather had fortunately annotated each of them in English. This led me to realize that these books were most suited for an institution like the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. They are now in the process of being formally handed over to the Institute.
Information about the books was provided by various readers of FB: SearchKashmir, particularly Ayaz Rasool Nazki and Ovais Ahmad.
All the info. is compiled below:
Dewan-i-Hafiz published by Munshi Nawal Kishore Press Nawal Kishore was based in Lucknow.
Published books in Persian/Urdu including those by Chakbast/Sarshar etc.
Shivalagan and Valmiki Ramayan in Kashmiri ( in Urdu/Persian) from a copy by calligrapher Pandit Shridhar Khushoo.
Srimad Bhagwat Gita in Urdu , (Ganpat Karit ? ) Doesnt give the name of translator.
A Bhagwat Geeta by a Kashmiri gentleman, Madan, done in early 20th century, was praised by likes of Allama Iqbal and Tej Bahadur Sapru.
Back of the same book
It was published at ‘Gulzar-e-Hind’ Press in Lahore under the supervision of Munshi Gulzar Muhammad, Manager of the press. Published as desired by Haji Chiragudin, Sirajudin, Booksellers , Lahore, Bazar Kashmiri.
Sikandarnama in Persian, handwritten by Pandit Shridhar Khushoo
Top of the front cover has “Om Shri Ganesha Nama” while the lower half glorifies Allah and offers supplication to Prophet Muhammad.
Translation of Mahabharata in Urdu by Malik-u-sho’arā (Poet Laureate) Munshi Dwarka Prashad (Nom de plume – Ufaq Lakhnavi). Published posthumously by M/S Lala Ram Dutta Mal and sons from Kashi Ram Press Lahore. 1926.
A page from ‘Kashmiri (?) Mousiqui’ (Soofiana Kalaam) in Persian.
Handwritten by Pt. Shridhar Khushoo.
[Input by Amir Hosein Pourjavady on FB]:
Left page is about the right time of performing each ragas and raginies.
The right page also contains the famous poem by Zahuri Torshizi [?], written by a Shi’i Muslim since the author is talking about Shi’i ritual of Muharram. The books is probably a 19th century Nawabi musical treatise written in Lucknow.
A page from ‘Dashmas Kandas’ (90 Adhayas) of Bhagwat Gita in Persian handwritten by Pandit Shridhar Khushoo.
Probably one of the 5 from Nizami’s ‘Khamsa of Nizami’, probably the story of Sassanian Prince Bahram Gore titled “Haft Paikar”
‘Bhagwat Gita’ in Sharda script[?]
Vishnu Pooja’ in Sharda script
A page from ‘Shiv Pooja’, tantrik text.
‘Brihat Shiva Pooja’, tantrik text.
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Interesting that while comments on Persian and Urdu texts arrived within hours of posting them to Facebook, Sharda and Sanskrit texts remained without comment and details.
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.
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
Nazir Josh, “Ahed Raza“or Comedy King of Kashmir, performs at Delhi International Week of Justice Festival (2008).
The act here is a sharp satire of government machinery.
Nazir Josh, a man from Budgam first became a comic phenomena that swept Kashmir in the early 1980s thanks to a 52-episode serial called “Hazar Dastan” or “One Thousand Tales”. The serial directed by his cousin Bashir Budgami for the State Doordarshan channel. It proved to be an instant hit and Ahed Raza Nazir Josh became a household name.
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I was young and “Shae’hi Dokkur“, Royal Hammer, a phrase from that serial, was part of the vocab that I was building. And then I forgot all about it.
An interview of M.K. Raina published in the India Foundation for the Arts. [Found this interview thanks to : punarjanman.wordpress.com]
Last year theatre director and actor M K Raina conducted a month-long theatre workshop with IFA support in Akingam village of Kashmir. The workshop participants were children from families that have traditionally performed Bhand Pather. Bhand Pather is a form of farcical theatre that is said to have entered Kashmir from Persia through the Muslim courts in the 14th century and then spread through the rest of north India. Kashmir’s Bhand Pather has been a vibrant tradition but the form has suffered over the last two decades of unrest in the state. Raina’s aim was to restore the self-confidence of the once-active performers of Akingam village as well as start a process of training children in this theatre.
Raina tells us more about Bhand Pather, the experience of the workshop and his future plans. What does a typical Bhand Pather performance consist of?
M K Raina: It is an open air form performed around Sufi shrines during the annual Urs of Sufi pirs. Thousands of people gather around the shrines during the Urs. They watch the performance and pay the Bhands – sometimes with cash but mostly in kind. The Bhands also perform around Hindu temples. They go into villages during harvest time and they could turn a village courtyard or an orchard into a performance space. They climb trees, they go into houses and peep at their audience from windows, they act entirely according to their whims and fancies.
The performance starts with a wind instrument called swarnai – if you hear the sound of the swarnai, you know the performance is about to begin. The music is dominant and then there are the maskaras or jesters – there could be five or eight or or ten maskaras. They are the spirit of the performance. There is often the figure of a ruler from outside who is exploiting the natives; the jesters fool him and bring him to some kind of an understanding. He will normally speak Persian or gibberish English or Punjabi. They will speak in Kashmiri. He cannot understand them and they cannot understand him. He has a whip which creates a sound of a pistol when he cracks it and that’s a very vivid element. Sometimes the stories are mythological; sometimes you find traces of the Ramayana.
Each performer has a special musical score called mukam. Each mukam has its own name and comes from the classical Sufiana qalaam tradition of Kashmir. The Bhands sometimes sing Sufiana verses too. They mix these with theatre songs and peasant songs; it’s a distinct repertoire of music. They play two percussion instruments – the dhol and the nagara – along with the swarnai and thalej or cymbals. Bhand Pather has been suppressed by militants over the last two decades. What were the greatest challenges you faced conducting the workshop in Akingam village?
MKR: The performers of Akingam lost their mentor and teacher Guru Mohammed Subhan, a SNA awardee. He became a victim. The militants didn’t want Subhan to perform Bhand Pather, they considered it unIslamic. They put him under house arrest for nine months. Eventually he died from extreme humiliation and shock. His death was a big blow to the performers and they lost their self-confidence. Yet I chose Akingam village because one of the oldest Bhand theatre companies in the Kashmir valley – the Kashmir Bhagat Theatre – is based here. Also Akingam is surrounded by many heritage and sacred sites and there are villages around which also have groups performing Bhand Pather. A village called Muhurpur next to Akingam used to have Kashmiri Pandits Bhand performers but they left the village in 1990. The people of Akingam are deeply Sufi and philosophical in outlook – you start chatting with them and before you know it you are involved in an intellectual discussion on the meaning of existence.
The villagers took us in. The whole village was galvanised into action. The women started cooking for us. The young participants of the workshop staged a performance at the end of the four weeks. A huge crowd turned up from Akingam and from the surrounding villages. I am certain that this was the first time in 19 years that that such a large crowd has gathered together for a cultural event in Kashmir. Some of our friends from Srinagar who had come for the performance could not believe that such a gathering was possible without government support and without any security or police. It is also true that though we met with some resistance along the way it was minor. The militants do not oppose the Bhand Pather today as much as they used to. You have said: “Kashmiri children have lost their power of imagination and self-expression …perhaps it has to do with the collapse of the education system and two decades of violence.” Can you tell us how children and young people responded to the workshop and what you did to draw them out? MKR: Because of the threat of violence, children have to be indoors by 3 pm. They suffer from a lack of exposure. Nobody asks them to think for themselves, to imagine. All adults tell them is – shut up, keep quiet, don’t go out because this or that will happen. A people who have traditionally lived their lives in forests and among nature have had to confine themselves to their houses. I went to the houses of Bhand performers in three or four villages and told them – look you have to send your kids for this workshop. They sent them gladly. These elders themselves visited the workshop and performed too – we had a week which was like a little folk festival. We got a flavour of Bhand from other regions of Kashmir.
When working with the boys, my collaborator Rakesh and I woke up to the fact that their bodies were not in the right proportion. There was a stiffness, a distortion, a lack of grace. I started asking myself whether these problems were due to the stresses and tensions that their mothers had gone through before the children were born or if they were a result of the atmosphere they had grown up in.
Initially, it was difficult for the boys to understand that meaningful images and ideas can be communicated just by making an instrument out of the body, like any musical instrument. But eventually they got it. Performance is in their blood after all. You will soon embark on a two-year IFA-supported project wherein young performers will be trained in different aspects of the form by Ustads. What are the ways in which you see these younger performers making Bhand Pather their own? MKR: I am hoping to set up a little school in Akingam. My worry has been that the elders will die. Two are very old and they are the best. I’ve told them – I will come to the village when you die and shower rose petals on your grave only if you’ve taught children. Otherwise, I’ll only say you were a good man, but I won’t come with rose petals!
The thing is that these Ustads have a methodology for teaching what they know, but they are very tough and they tend to get impatient. I have to teach them to be patient with young people. But they’ve seen me working so I think they understand the importance of making a child relax. One of my conditions is also that the children will have to continue with their formal schooling.
They will have to understand the basics of the form first. Later they can experiment. I don’t necessarily want them to only perform the traditional repertoire. My dream is to do King Lear with them.
But right now the focus is on setting up this school. Akingam has been designated a heritage tourist village. The government is making a campus where a small building has already come up which has been given to us to use as a rehearsal and teaching space. The idea behind the heritage tourist village is that since Akingam is on the way to Pehelgam and Amarnath, maybe tourists will stop here. And if they do we can perform for them.
I watched my last paether in 1988. The nineties was the decade of our disappearances, and the bhands and their plays disappeared as well. On January 26, 1990, Subhan Bhagat and his fellow artists were in New Delhi to perform at the Indian Republic Day ceremony. Eight days earlier, CRPF had massacred more than 50 demonstrators in Srinagar. When Bhagat returned home, visitors with Kalashnikovs arrived. Bhagat promised not to perform again in New Delhi. After his death in the mid-nineties, the mantle fell upon his son, Hasan Bhagat.
The intense violence of the nineties left no space for folk theatre and Hasan became a driver. But he had been thinking about contemporary Kashmir. “Maybe it will take some time to stage plays about today, but they are being already written,” Hasan told me a few years ago.
– Basharat Peer, author of recently published first-of-its-kind novel, ‘Curfewed Night, wrote in a Times of India article (4 Jan 2009), titled ‘Living to tell the tale of loss’. Not a fan of TOI, but this fine article really surprised me.
