in bits and pieces
A persian song ‘What Plan, O Musulmans’ based on ‘Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi’ of Rumi. This version was collected by Ananda Coomaraswamy from a Kashmiri minstrel named Abdullah Dar in around 1913 and presented in ‘Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir’
That story goes that Moulvi Ghulam Hasan Shah (1832-1898) of village Gamru near Bandipur once visited Rawalpindi to procure a copy of a Persian History of Kashmir written by one Mula Ahmad of village Pindori. The book was said to be the translation of an ancient work called Ratnakar Purana that contained account of 47 Kings of Kashmir not mentioned in Kalhana’s Rajatarangini. During Budshah Zain-ul-abdin’s (1422-1474) time a search was launched to look for old Puranas and Taranginis so that an updated version of Kashmir could be brought out in other Persian by Mula Ahmad, the court poet of Zain-ul-abdin. They had names of about 15 different Rajataranginis but only four could be traced: those of Kalhana, Khimendra, Wachhulakar and Padmamihar. Out of these Khimendra’s Rajataranginis was found to be grossly unreliable, but using the other a translation of Rajatarangini was prepared. However, a few years later some birch bark leaves of an old Rajatarangini written by one Pandit Ratnakar, called Ratanakar Purana was found by one Praja Pandit. From these leaves an account of 47 ‘lost’ kings of Kashmir was made known, and these were added to Mula Ahmad’s History of Kashmir. Later, Ratnakar Purana was again lost and survived only in Mula Ahmad’s translation.
It is said Hasan Shah was able to obtain a copy of Mula Ahmad’s translation from a Kashmiri immigrant in Rawalpindi named Mulah Mahmud. Hasan Shah later incorporated it into his three volume ‘Tarikh-i- Hasan’. However, he was to later lose the Mula Ahmad’s History of Kashmir in rather odd circumstances. He was traveling on a boat with the book when the boat capsized. Hasan Shah was saved but Mula Ahmad’s book was lost forever. In 1902, kashmir Durbar tried to procure a copy of Mulah Ahmad’s copy but Mulah Mahmud had since died and his family had moved to Kabul at the invitation of Amir Abdul Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901. So the only source for the ‘lost’ kings of Kashmir comes from Hasan Shah, seventh generation progeny of one Ganes Koul.
In the history of Kashmir written by Westerners in English, the first mention of Hasan Shah comes from Walter Rooper Lawrence, the Land settlement officer in Kashmir from 1889 to 1895. Lawrence was taught Kashmiri by Hasan Shah. He acknowledged:
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The above piece is based on a brief biography of Hasan Shah written by Pandit Anand Koul for Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1913. Anand Koul also gave us an account of eight ‘lost’ kings (from A.D.s) based on Hasan Shah’s writings. A few years earlier, in 1910 for the same journal Pandit Anand Koul wrote a long (contoversial?) piece titled ‘History of Kashmir’ based on Hasan’s writing and presented account of of 47 kings (from B.C.s). Here the line of missing kings is linked to Pandavas. And as an additional proof he brings up Pandit belief in Pandav Lar’rey, belief that Mattan was built by Pandavs.
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I have compiled the two pieces together and are now available here:
at Archive.org
containing
A biography of Kashmiri historian Hasan Shah and History of Kashmir by Pandit Anand Koul for Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal vol 9 (1913)
History of Kashmir by Pandit Anand Koul for Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal vol 6 (1910)
Ai kangri! ai kangri!
Kurban tu Hour wu Peri!
Chun dur bughul mi girimut
Durd az dil mi buree.
Oh, kangri! oh, kangri!
You are the gift of Houris and Fairies;
When I take you under my arm
You drive fear from my heart.
~ A persian distich from Kashmir about Kangri collected by G.T. Vigne in around 1835.
A closer transliteration (odd though that the lines have been quoted in a bunch of books, no one pointed out the obvious):
O Kangri, with you by my side, I don’t need Houris or Fairies, you are my heart’s only consolation.
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Transmuted into a shrine’s threshold
is every idol of the past
Infidel, come and bow before it
The day autumn plunders
the rose from garden,
Nightingale, give up
your nest to the storm
~ lines from a Ghazal by Ghani Kashmiri (d.1669), a 17th century Persian poet who lived in Kashmir during the time of Aurangzeb.*
Bibin karamat-i-butkhanah-i’ mara ay shaykh
Ki chun kharab shawad khanah-i’ Khuda gardad
Look at the miracle of my idol-house, o Sheikh
That when it was ruined, it became the house of God!**
~ lines of Chandrabhan ‘Brahman’ quoted by Nek Rai.
In time of Akbar, Bir Singh Dev Bundela killed Abu’l Fazal near Gwalior at the behest of Prince Salim. In return Bundela got Adul Fazl’s property in Mathura on which he built a temple. In time of Aurangzeb, Husain Ali Khan, the faujdar of Mathura tore down this temple on the order of Aurangzeb. A local poet Nek Rai, in sadness, quoted lines these attributing them to Chandrabhan Brahman.
Chandrabhan ‘Brahman’ (1582-1661), was son of Dharam Das of Lahore (a mansabdar, at the court of Akbar). He was a disciple of ‘Abdulhaklm Saialkoti’. In Shah Jahan’s court (1626–56) he was employed as a private secretary of Prince Dara. He later went on to serve Aurangzeb too. His muslim friends thought of him as a muslim. His son was Khwaja Tej Bhan.
In ‘Bahar-e-gulshan-e-Kashmir’, an anthological two volume, more than 1000 page work containing verses by hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit poets and brief biographical notes, commissioned by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru in 1931-31, Chandrabhan ‘Brahman’ is given as a Kashmiri Pandit.
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* Ghani’s lines found in ‘The Captured Gazelle: The Poems of Ghani Kashmiri’. Tahir Ghani Translated by Mufti Mudasir Farooqi and Nusrat Bazaz.
** Chandrabhan’s lines given in ‘Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics’ By Muzaffar Alam, Sanjay Subrahmanyam.
This is probably the first proper collection of English translations of verse by Mulla Tahir Ghani, or Ghani Kashmiri (d. 1669), a Persian poet from Kashmir who lived during Aurangzeb’s time and whose language was respected even in Iran. A poet whose creations, whose idioms, influenced Indian writers even as later as Mir and Ghalib.
The collection comes with a insightful introductory essay by Mufti Mudasir Farooqi on Ghani Kashmiri and Persian language in Kashmir.
The book offers translations of Ghazals, Quatrains (Rubaiyat) and a Masnavi.
As one reads through Ghani’s work, one gets to step into Ghani’s world, his joyous exclamations, his saddening doubts, his dejection of the way world works and his playful jokes at the world.
The compilation comes with English transliteration, so you actually get to read the original work as well the translation (a practice that should always be followed for such work. But somehow is seldom followed). The translations try best to retain the meaning of the original, the only problem is for a reader not already familiar with the way Persian poetry works, particularly in case of some Ghazals where the reader can easily forget the central theme of a composition in an attempt at catching the meaning of translation of an idiom.
One of the most interesting work translated in this book is Masnavi Shita’iyah oe Winter’s Tale, a graphic and poetic description of Kashmiri winter by Ghani Kashmir that ends with lines:
Hinduye didam ki mast az ‘ishq bud
guftamash zin justjuyat chist sud
Dar javaban gift an zunnar dar
nist dar dastam ‘inan-e ikhtiyar
rishtaye dar gardanam afgandah dust
mi barad har ja ki khwatire khwah-e ust
I saw a Hindu drunk with devotion
‘Such striving to what end?’ I asked.
In reply said that wearer of the sacred thread:
‘The reins of will are not in my hand.
“The Friend has yoked my neck with HIs thread
And pulled me by it wherever He wills.”
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There is an interesting famous story given in the book. It is said that when Ghani Kashmiri was invited by Emperor Aurangzeb to his court, the poet snubbed him and refused.
The poet said to Mughal governor Saif Khan, ‘Tell the King that Ghani is insane.’ Saif Khan asked, ‘How can I call a sane man insane?’ At this Ghani tore his shirt and went away like a frenzied man. After three days he died.
What is not given in the book is a probable reason for Ghani’s hesitation at joining the royal court. The explanation for this behaviour may be sought in the story of his master Shaikh Muhsin Fani.
“Fani was a court poet of Shahjahan and was greatly honoured by the Emperor. But when Sultan Murad Bakhsh [youngest son of Shahjahan] conquered Balkh [in Afghanistan] a copy of Muhsin’s diwan was found in the library of Nadhr Muhammad Khan [Uzbek, happened in around 1646] the fugitive sovereign of the kingdom which contained panegyrics on him. This detection of duplicity very much enraged Shahjahan who removed him from the court. However the Emperor allowed him a pension. Fani returned to Kashmir and spent his days in instructing and educating youngmen.”*
* From ‘A Descriptive Catalogue of the Hindustani Manuscripts in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras’ (1909)
Also, another thing not mentioned in the book is that his old takhallus Tahir is Chronograph for the year when Ghani (his later takhallus) started his poetic career.
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Buy The Captured Gazelle: The Poems of Ghani Kashmiri from Flipkart.com
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| Agra, Summer. 2011. |
Kardast havaye Hind dilgir mara
ay bakht rasan ba bagh-e Kashmir ma ra
gashtam zi hararat-e gharibi bitab
az subh-e vatan bidih tabashir mara
The scorching winds of India distress me.
O Fate, take me to the garden of Kashmir.
The heat of exile robs me of peace.
Grant me a glimpse of my land’s milky dawn.
~ A Quatrain by Ghani Kashmiri (d.1669). Came across it in The Captured Gazelle: The Poems of Ghani Kashmiri. Translated from Persian by Mufti Mudasir Farooqi and Nusrat Bazaz.
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Previously:
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| Cherry Earrings July. 2013. I had to promise my little cousin a ‘pizza treat’ for posing |
My mother remembers
in spring
she would run around with cherry earrings.
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| Cherry Picking. Kashmir. 1953 (From the archive of Indian Photo Division)
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dimyo dilaas
gandyo walaas
peirtho gilaas kulni tal
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Kashmiri word for Cherry comes from Persian word for Cherry: gilaas
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Update: April, 2016
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Irania film “The Silence” (1998)
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| Image: Indian memories (1915) by Robert Baden-Powell |
Agar kahat ul rijal uftad, azeshan uns kamgiri
Eke Afghan, doyam Kamboh soyam badzat Kashmiri |
the 1st, an Ufghan, the 2nd, a Kumboh, and the 3d, a wicked Kushmeerian.
Ze Afghan hila bhi ayad, ze Kamboh kina bhi ayad,
Ze Kashmiri nami ayad bajuz andoho dilgiri ||
Probable transliteration:
If a deceptive Afghan comes
If a tyrannical Kamoh comes
If an infamous Kashmiri comes
Nothing except sorrow follows
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Other variations:
– ‘Eastern Experiences’ (1871) by Lewin Bentham Bowring, pp.274
Agar kaht-i-mardurn uftad, az ín sih jins kam gírí; Eki Afghán, dovvum Sindí, siyyum badjins-i-Kashmírí
Though of men there be famine yet shun these three First the Afghan, second Sindi, thirdly the rascally Kashmiri.
– Arabian Nights by Richard F. Burton, Vol. 10, pp. 178-219
If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne’er let three lots come near ye: First Sindi, second Jat, and third a rascally Kashmeeree.
– Arabian Nights by Richard F. Burton, Vol. 6, pp. 156
– A meaning given in The People Of India (1908) By Herbert Hope Risley, William Crooke
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“a snake in his morals and a fowl in his manners”
The Kashmiri bears an evil reputation in the Panjab, and indeed through-out Asia. Proverbs liken him to a snake in his morals and to a fowl in his manners, and men are warned against admitting a Kashmiri to their friendship. Moorcroft writes of the Kashmiri, ‘ Selfish, superstitious, ignorant, supple, intriguing, dishonest and false, he has great ingenuity as a mechanic and a decided genius for manufactures and commerce; but his transactions are always conducted in a fraudulent spirit, equalled only by the effrontery with which he faces detection;’ and Drew admits that they are ‘ false- tongued, ready with a lie, and given to various forms of deceit.’ Hugel has nothing good to say of the Kashmiris, and it is a matter of history that in the Mutiny the Kashmiris of Ludhiana turned against the English, and in the Settlement Report of the Kangra district the Kashmiris of Nurpur were spoken of unfavourably by Mr Barnes. But it must be remembered that Moorcroft was speaking of the city people, and that the Kashmiris of Ludhiana and Kangra were the shawl-weavers, who are the lowest and meanest of the population, and it would not be fair to apply Moorcroft’s epithets to the villagers as a body. He admits, too, that the vices of the Kashmiris are not innate, but are due to the government under which they lived. ‘ The natives of Kashmir have always been considered as amongst the most lively and ingenious people of Asia, and deservedly so.
~ The valley of Kashmir (1895) by Sir Walter Roper Lawrence.
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Update:
Some more. These from Seir Mutaqherin: or a View of Modern Times, being a History of India from the year 1118 to 1195 of the Hedjirah. From the Persian of Gholam Hussain Khan, V1-4. 1789. A history pf Muslim nobel families of Bengal. Translated by Nota Manus alias Raymond alias Haji Mustapha, a French-born Muslim convert.
Cashmiri, bi Piri; Bengallee, Djendjali. The Cashmirian acts as an Atheist ; but the Bengallee is always one from whom there is no disentangling one’s self.
and one directed at Kashmiri women
Cashmiri, bi Piri ; ne Lezzet, ne shiri. The faithless Cashmirian affords neither taste nor flavour.
From the book “Kashir” (1947) by G.M.D Sufi
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| An illustration to the Shahnama (“Book of Kings”): Rustam and the White Div, Kashmir, circa 1800 Source: christies |
“Even now, the people of cashmere read and hear with pleasure, some of the touching episodes about the ancient persians in the Shahnameh of Firdousi. During my visit to that country, last May I frequently heard the Pandits saying:
i.e.,”the person who reads Shahnameh, even if he were a woman, acts like a hero.” The episodes are rendered into Cashmiri songs, and sung on special occasions by musicians and singers, before large assemblies at night. In the midst of a very touching episode, when, owing to the difficulty or the danger of the favourite hero of the episode, who has for the time become a favourite of the audience as well, the excitement of the hearers is raised to the highest pitch,the singer suddenly stops and refuses to proceed further. The hearers get impatient to know the fate of their favourite hero, and subscribe among themselves, a small sum to be given to the singer as the price for releasing the favourite hero from what they call his “band,” i.e., difficulty or danger. It is only, when a sum is presented, that the singer proceeds further. They say, that even on marriage occasions, some of the marriage songs treat of the ancient Persians. For example, I was told that one of the marriage songs, was a song sung by the mother of Rustam, when her son went to Mazindaran to release king Kaus.
It was for the first time, that I had heard in Kashmir, the following story about Rustam and Ali. I do not know, if it is common to other parts of India. They say, that Rustam was resuscitated about 500 years after his death for the following reason. Ali, the favourite of the holy Prophet, had fought very bravely in the war against the infidels. The Prophet complimented him, saying: “You have fought as bravely as Rustam.” This remark excited the curiosity of Ali, as to who and how strong this Rustam was. To satisfy the curiosity of Ali, but without letting him know about it, the Prophet prayed to God to resuscitate Rustam. God accepted the prayer. Rustam re-appeared on this earth, and met Ali once, when he was passing through a very narrow defile, which could allow only one rider to pass. Rustam bade Ali, Salam Alikum, i.e., saluted him. Ali did not return the Alikum Salam. Having met in the midst of a narrow defile, it was difficult for anyone of them to pass by the side of the other, unless one retraced his steps. To solve the difficulty, Rustam lifted up the horse of Ali together with the rider hy passing his whip under his belly, and taking him over his head, placed him on the other side of the defile behind him. This feat of extraordinary strength surprised Ali, who on return spoke of it to the Prophet.
After a few days Ali again met Rustam, who was sitting on a plain with his favourite horse, the Rakhsh, grazing by his side. On seeing Ali, he bade him Salum Alikum, but Ali did not return the salam. Rustam then requested Ali to bring to him the grain bag of his horse, which was lying at some distance. Ali found it too heavy to be lifted up, and it was after an amount of effort that he could carry it to Rustam. Ali thought to himself: What must be the strength of the horse and of the master of the horse, if the grain-bag of the horse was so extraordinarily heavy? On going home, he narrated to the Prophet, what be had seen. The Prophet then explained the matter to him, and said that it was Rustam, whom he had seen during these two visits, and that God had brought him to life again at his special request. He then reprimanded Ali for his want of respect towards Rustam, in not returning his salams, and said, that, had Ali been sufficiently courteous to Rustam, he would, have prayed to God to keep him alive some time longer, and in that case, he (Rustam) wouid have rendered him great help in his battles.”
~ Cashmere and the Ancient Persians, Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, B.A. (1871), read on 9th December 1895 for Asiatic Papers Papers Read Before The Bombay Branch Of The Royal Asiatic Society. Published 1905.
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