farmer Archives - SearchKashmir

Free give away rare book this month for SearchKashmir Free Book Project. This is the twelfth and final book released this year.

Kashmir specific photographs from the M.S. Randhawa’s ‘Farmers of India’ series were previously shared in July by Man Mohan Munshi Ji [here]. The photographer was Hari Krishna Gorkha.

I am now sharing the entire Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh section from M.S. Randhawa’s ‘Farmers of India’ series. Volume 1 (1959).

Interesting bits:

Kashmiri name of things.

Apples: Abru or Ambri. Mohi Amri. Khuddu Sari. Nabadi Trel. Sill Trel. Khatoni Trel. Dud Ambri. Wild Apples: Tet shakr. Malmu.

Pears: Nak Satarwati. Nak Gulabi. Gosh Bug (Bub). Tang.

Walnuts: Kaghazi. Burzal. Wantu.

Local name of the type of soil: grutu, bahil, sekil and dazanlad.

Most of the archaic information in the write up comes from Walter Roper Lawrence’s ‘The Valley of Kashmir’ (1895), which in turn relied on expertise of Kashmiri historian Ghulam Hasan Shah (1832-1898). That should some idea about the lack of documentation on such matter since then. Also, the importance of this colonial work for the new bureaucracy of independent India.

The books does offer tabled details on the area under cultivation and the approximate output.

Read and download here:
http://goo.gl/lmAhYH

Above is a picture of two Kashmiris in Srinagar shot by Brian Brake in 1957. What else can this picture tell us?

I showed this picture to couple of old uncles who grew up in Kashmir and they told me this interesting bit:

The man in the background is a farmer. Obviously, because his legs are painted. The paint used to be called Ka’lim, or coal tar [or Tar’Koul, as in Kashmiri]. It was a popular practice among rice farmers in Kashmir. During sowing season [May-June, just around when Brian visited Kashmir], before getting into water-logged fields, the sower would put coal tar on his legs, as water proofing, to avoid insects and skin irritation. Of course, then for months his legs would be painted black.

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Previously:

Byel Tamul

Tag: farmer

Farmers Of Jammu, Kashmir And Ladakh (1959)

Painted Legs, 1957