Image: ‘Kashmiri belle’ by Gladstone Solomon, 1922.
Gladstone Solomon was the principal of Bombay school of art from 1919 to 1936.
Payaam daadam nazdiike aan but-e-kashmir Ke zeere halqaye zulfat dilam charaast asiir Juwab dad, kin deewanuh shood dili too zi ushuq,
Buruh nuyarud deewanuhra mugar zunjeer
I sent a message to that Cashmerian idol, Why is my heart held
captive under the curl of your ringlets? She answered, Because
your heart is distracted with love; and the madman is not suffered
to appear abroad without a chain.
~ unnamed Persian poet.
Came across the lines in ‘Dissertations on the Rhetoric, Prosody, and Rhyme of the Persians (1801), Part 1 by Francis Gladwin. It is provided as an example of ‘Sawal-Jawab’ style of Persian poetry. Gladwin gave the verses in persian script and the translation but didn’t provide the name of the author or the verses in roman script.
“Inquiring of a boatman why he did not make his wife, a really pretty woman, and his children engaging little things, wash every day and wear clean clothes, his explanation was, that if he kept his wife cleaner than those of other boatmen the Baboo would report to the Vakeel that he was earning more, and he would be more heavily taxed.
[…]
‘Topee and turban, or, Here and there in India’ (1921) by H. A. Newell, The photograph by R.E. Shorter.
The Hindoos, with the same cast of Jewish features, are fairer than the Muhammedans, and their women are seldom seen; but returning from Ganderbul to Srinuggur, early one morning at Shadipore, we surprised a great Hindoo festival. Shadipore is situate at the confluence of the Scinde river with the Jhelum, where the waters are peculiarly sacred, and on this occasion, six in the morning, a concourse of both sexes were bathing almost in puris naturalibus. As soon, however, as they saw boats approaching, the women rushed to the bank, and were soon, cowering and peeping from under their embroidered shawls. Not to disturb their devotions, we passed quickly to a camping ground in a grove of chenars a mile farther down, and later in the day went to the festival, preceded by the sepoy, clad in white, with a scarlet puggery, wearing the breast band of his order, and armed with a scimitar, which he is not allowed to draw except in self-defence. Sepoy attendants are sent by the Baboo at Sriiiuggur to accompany travellers ignorant of the country and its customs during their stay in Kashmir, and are useful in procuring coolies and provisions at the established rates, and in keeping off beggars, loafers, and loos wallers (thieves).
The mela, or fair, a very large one, was attended by many of the’ wives and daughters of the chief Hindoos. Their hair, instead of being separated in plaited braids over the back as is the fashion among young Muhammedans, is gathered round a pad on the crown of the head, and forms a not ungraceful pyramid. Over it a silk shawl, scarlet embroidered with orange, is thrown, which falls to the brow in front and to the ground behind. Across the forehead they wear a fillet of gold or silver ornaments. A ring hangs from the left nostril, and is attached to the ear by a chain of gold. Ears, thumbs, fingers, and toes are covered with rings ; and bracelets, armlets, anklets, and necklaces, with pendants of bright-coloured stones, coral, and turquoise, complete their list of jewellery. On their thumbs they carry a ring holding a little mirror an inch in diameter, which they consult frequently. They have much to look to, the gradations of collyrium round their eyes sparkling eyes in youth, brilliant from belladonna when their natural lustre has begun to fade ; the arch of their thick black brows ; the arrangement of their hair and rings ; and the devices and adornments by which, in attempts to heighten, they lessen their charms. For withal, and spite of all, some, not all, are beautiful. Soft, oval faces, large almond-shaped eyes fringed with abundant lashes, noses finely cut though of the Jewish type, classic lips, invariably pearl-white teeth, rounded arms, slender fingers bright with hernia, and forms tall and well proportioned, are often seen. They wear a boddice and loose trousers of scarlet or blue silk, fitting tight at the ankles, which are covered with silver anklets. Some of these clank like prisoners’ chains ; others send forth a tinkling from the many little silver bells that hang from them.
” Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
To tell her dear husband the way that she goes.”
But all is not couleur de rose even among ” the brightest that earth ever gave ” in the vale of Kashmir. To see them eating is not attractive. A dish ‘full of rice, ghi and curry, unctuous and flavoured with onions and garlic, when placed in the centre of a group of women and children, is soon disposed of in the most natural, if not most graceful, style. Each grasps a handful, great or small as appetite dictates, and dexterously throws it into her widely-opened mouth. Me’las or fairs are mere assemblages of multitudes without amusements beyond those of eating, drinking, tom-toming, offering rice, flowers, and ghi to idols, and bathing a practice which they seem to reserve for these occasions. On the plains they rig up large roundabouts and turnovers, and then it is a truly absurd spectacle to see middle-aged men, and even patriarchs, grinning with delight at being whirled or tumbled about, a sport which in other countries would amuse none but a child.
~ “Letters from India and Kashmir: written 1870” by J. Duguid
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Didn’t know about
“A ring hangs from the left nostril, and is attached to the ear by a chain of gold.”
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Which reminds me of the photograph in which it is hard to tell if the women are Pandit or Muslim….
At the beginning of 20th century, it seems, there were so many Kashmiris living in Punjab that if a random photographer went out to shoot a random Punjabi woman there was a good chance he would come back with a random shot of Kashmiri woman.
The following postcard dated 1907 (Bombay) and captioned ‘A model of Panjab Beauty’ is probably the strangest curio in my collection.
Another beautiful case of disjoint text and images. In this case a simple goof-up by an ‘angreez’ leads to a funny situation where a ‘pandit’ photograph ends up getting tagged as ‘musalmaan’, and then almost a century later, due to a vacuum created by lack of information, on a ‘social network’ the photograph and the actual subject does the rounds in all three social groups, in a ‘secular’ manner, devoid of any specific context, as a symbol of ‘Kashmiri Beauty’.
From National Geographic, 1921. Photograph by Fred Bremner. What is interesting about this photograph is that the caption suggests that the woman pictured is a boatwoman while the special danglers in her ear point to the fact that she is a Pandit woman.
Another photograph. Another pose. Same woman. By Fred Bremner in around 1900.
A drawing from 1860s by Austrian artist Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871). Found it in ‘Schwind des Meisters Werke’ (1906) by Otto Albert Weigmann. The drawing is based on the story of “The Magic Horse” that appears in The Arabian Nights/Thousand and one nights. The scene depicts a Prince of Persia rescuing a Princess of Bengal from a King of Kashmir.
The are a couple of variations of the story (as it reached west) but mostly goes something like this: An Indian arrives in Shiraz with a magical mechanical flying horse. The price of Shiraz takes it for a test ride without knowing the landing instruction. He somehow lands in Bengal and brings back a princess with her. The Indian steals the princess and flies away to Kashmir. The king of Kashmir rescues the princess from the Indian by killing him but wants to marry the princess much against her wish. Princess loves prince of Shiraz. Meanwhile, the prince of Shiraz arrives in Kashmir with a plan to take back the princess. His plan works and he flies away on magic horse with the princess.
What is interesting about Schwind’s this particular painting is that in an earlier version of it the reaction of King of Kashmir was muted, he was an amazed spectator. But in the later painting, the one we see here, the Kings and his courtiers are gesticulating in helpless anger. Schwind took the text, in which no mention is made of reaction of King of Kashmir and added a layer of emotion over it.
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‘Aakho Sherer-e-Sheerazo‘ (You have come from city of Shiraz) remains a popular Kashmiri song at weddings. It’s about women singing about an ideal bridegroom who arrives from Shiraz. Probably not related to the tale but an interesting fact.
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Hemjuneh, Princess of Kashmir, be-spelled and held prisoner behind a trap door.
From ‘Tales of the Persian Genii’ (1917) by Francis Jenkins Olcott. Illustration by Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany(1882 – 1955).
The story is told by Mahoud, a jeweller of Delhi, who tries to free her from a merchant of Fez who serves an an evil Enchantress, but is turned into a red toad. Her story is something like this:
A King of Kashmir wants to marry her daughter to the prince of Georgia but the girl does not want to get married at all. Then one day an enchantress in the form of an old woman hands her a handkerchief having a sketch of a handsome man. Enchanted, the princess resolves to marry that man. She seeks that old woman’s help and is flown away to Fez only to realized that the Enchantress has brought her there on request of a local merchant who had heard her beauty. She is now stuck in a foreign land with a bunch of evil types. Luckily for her a good genie, a servant of Soloman, arrives who tries to help her. This genie first admonishes the princess for leaving home of her parents on her own will driven by words of some stranger. He then puts a spell on her to protect her. The spell works in a strange way. If the merchant of Fez looks at the princess, she shall fall asleep till the next full moon. She shall sleep behind a trapdoor that the merchant can only find on the night of full moon and can only be opened by a friend of his. It is in this scenario that the jeweller of Delhi opened the trapdoor for the merchant of Fez but then tried to help the princess.
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Kids chanting “Samamber has a lover in Iran” in front of would-be husband of Samamber, daughter of Qazi of Kashmir. Haider Beg of Persia, a silent admirer of Samamber pays them to do it.
Illustration by Hilda Roberts for “Persian tales written down for the first time in the original Kermani and Bakhtiari, and tr. by D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer. (1919). The story is a Bakhtiari tale presented in the book. In this a story a woman from Kashmir goes to a place in Persia to collect herbs once every year. A man sees her and falls in love with her. The woman does’t like it, challenges him, almost kills the guy and goes back to Kashmir where her father arranges her marriage. The man from Persia arrives in Kashmir and tries to win her even as she is about to be married. After some twists, the woman falls for the Persian man and goes away with him, gets married. Later still in the story, the man asks his wife to leave him and marry his best friend as his best friend has fallen in love with her (a scenario on Hindi cinema was to make countless flicks). She agrees. But at last moment truth is revealed, she is re-married to her original husband and everything turns out fine.
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Princess Farruchnas daughter of Togrul bey, who ruled over Kashmir. Doesn;t want to get married but later falls for Persian prince Farruchshad. From ‘Gulistan: Tales of Ancient Persia’ (1977) by Gotlinde Thylmann Von Keyserlingk, Karl Thylmann. The story is identified by Richard Burton as “Farrukh-Shad, Farrukh-Ruz, and Farrukh-Naz”.
video link
Directed by Hamid Bala. A re-enactment of Hafiz Nagma set to love lyrics popular among Pandits as a Bhajan ‘Harmokh Bartal’ and believed to be dedicated to Shiva for reference to Harmukh mountain. A similar attempt at re-enactment was made in early 1980s.
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In 1920s, HafizNagma was banned in Kashmir by the ruling Dogra Maharaja. The Ruler felt that this dance form was losing its sufi touch and was becoming too sensual, debased and hence judged by him as amoral for the society. It’s place was taken up by Bach’a Nagma, or the boy dancer, much like Bacha bazi of Afghanistan, although Kashmiri would claim minus the nasty exploitation bits.
A page from a government of India publication on Kashmir, 1955
For short diminutive women of my grandmother’s generation. Most things in this world do have a clear reason.
In school we all must have read about Vitamin D, its relation with sunlight and how lack of it causes Rickets and Osteomalacia. What we not told in school books is how these simple associations were arrived at and how Kashmir, its socio-environmental conditions, played a vital part in human understanding of this biological association.
In 1920s, a Superintendent of H.H. Maharajah of Yammu & Kashmir’s Diamond Jubilee Zenana Hospital, obstetrician Kathleen Olga Vaughan noticed an interesting phenomena among Kashmiri women. She found that women of rich high-born families were more likely to develop weak bones as compared to poor women of boatmen tribe. Kathleen Vaughan was able to deduct a reason for this strange phenomena. She linked it to diet, place, season, to the presence of veil and to the lack of sunlight.
These were some of her observations:
There is a marked seasonal incidence; the disease is worse in winter and early spring, during and after confinement to the house in the cold weather, and improves markedly during summer and autumn. A common history is that of confinement to the house at 8 or 9 years of age, marriage at 10 or 11, menstruation at 12 or 14, and close confinement in the husband’s house until after the first child is born; in the most high-class families the women hardly leave the house till they die. The ordinary woman has more freedom, and when she has borne two or three children she goes out with other women.
[…]
Purdah, which means a curtain, is used of the system which ensures the seclusion of the woman from all men except her husband and her brothers. It varies in strictness, and is much less strict in Kashmir than in India. In Kashmir it really only affects the women of marriageable and child-bearing age. Among the better classes they are more or less confined to the house.
Girls of 9 are not allowed out alone, and if brought to hospital are often closely veiled. The Hindus, who in theory do not observe this custom, do so in practice. The young girls from 8 or 10 to 15 rarely go out until married, and then not till after the birth of one or two children. Marriage takes place before puberty in many cases, because in order to ensure early marriage the younger the bride the less are the fees to the priests. One of the greatest sins a father can commit is not to have married his daughter at puberty. After marriage she is confined to her husband’s house, and her food and happiness depend entirely upon her mother-in-law, who often keeps her short of food, from an idea that she will have an easier confinement if the foetus is kept small by spare diet. It has been pointed out by other observers that much tuberculosis originates in these girls during the first year of married life owing to these miserable conditions.
[…]
The women wear but one garment and go out in the winter as little as possible. They live in the lowest rooms of the high wooden houses in the winter, so as to be on the same floor as the water supply and the fire.The ground floor is the warmest. The windows are sometimes less than half a yard square, and protected against thieves by being near the ceiling and closed by wooden lattice-work. All windows are so made, but on the upper floor are larger. In winter they are covered with oiled paper to keep out the cold. The minimum of available light is thus admitted, and some rooms, specially liked for warmth, have no window at all.
That the light supply is sufficient for health in all ordinary life is proved by the rarity of rickets and the healthiness of the boat women and the country women working in the fields, but a degree of seclusion which would have little effect on the plains of India produces osteomalacia in Kashmir. A photographer who lived for many years in Kashmir said that he always gave twice the exposure he would in England to get a good result in Kashmir, which looks as if the actinic rays might be deficient. most of the oblique rays of the sun in mid-winter are cut off by the mountains encircling the valley.
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Anaemia and debility characterize pregnancy, with vague pains in the ribs, back, and legs, increasing until walking is difficult or impossible at term.
[…]
Anaemia is always present, and unfortunately is admired, as a fair complexion is considered as a sign of being well bred.
[…]
Rickets is not common in Kashmir. The few cases I have seen were in female children who had lost their mothers in infancy, belonged to wealthy Kashmiri families and had been kept indoors with the women, Usually even infants go out, and male infants are taken out by the men and boys to show to their friends when very young. A girl child is never made so much of.
[…]
The water of the river is considered sacred that it cannot be defiled. It can hardly be matter for surprise that everyone suffers from intestinal worms. Large round white ones are the commonest, and their leaving the body is often a sign of the impending death of a patient, as a house-surgeon with long Indian experience once pointed out to me.
[…]
There are three indigenous Kashmir cures for “trouble in the bones”: (1) a special clay called baramulla earth; (2) pills made of fish liver; (3) rubbing with mustard oil and exposing to sunlight.
1. Baramulla earth is a greyish-white fire-clay used for making fireplaces in wooden boats, and for portable fire-pots on which to cook food. A lump of this earth taken from a patient with osteomalacia, who ate pieces of it, was analysed for me by the Clinical Research Association, which reported that it was a ferruginous clay containing high percentage of calcium phosphate (calcium phosphate 16.2 per cent., ferric oxide 11.8 per cent., hydrated aluminium silicate (in clay) 71.2 per cent., and undetermined residue 0.8 per cent.). Sulphates were present to a very small extent. The radio-activity of the sample was not more than is usually found in any natural earth; arsenic and similar metals were not detected.
2. The fish-liver pills were sold by a Panditani (Hindu woman) living at the city fish market. She makes them herself. The analogy with cod-liver oil is interesting.
3. The mustard oil and sunlight cure is chiefly used by the men for their rheumatic pains.
[…]
Sunlight alone can cure the disease, and cod-liver oil without sunshine is of very little use.
[…]
Many when pregnant are suckling one or two previous children. A man in Srinagar once said to me:”The reason I am so small is that when I was a baby my elder brother took all my mother’s milk because he was a strong boy; and then my mother had another baby and gave her mild to him, so I got none” – a common history.
From ‘Osteomalacia in Kashmir’ by Kathleen Olga Vaughan, for British Medical Journal, 1926 March 6. Via: US National Library of Medicine. A more detailed study on the subject was later published by her titled ‘The purdah system and its effect on motherhood : osteomalacia caused by absence of light in India’ by (Cambridge : W. Heffer, 1928).
One of the response of British to the events of 1857 was to try and better categorize the people they ruled. They went around with their cameras and shot all kind of natives, all tribes, castes, races, religions, belonging to places all across the length and breadth of this land and put them in books and added neatly brief captions to these photographs describing in brief the ‘must remember’ of each native type. All this in hope that it would help them govern these people and more importantly the land better. One of the gigantic product of such an exercise was the eight volume series titled ‘The People of India‘ published between 1868 and 1875. It’s a pretty plain book, a book of colonial pen. But it is a picture book. And a picture book is always interesting. Interestingly, there are essentially two type of tribals captured in this famous colonial work: those natives that were still tied to their heathen faith, all looking, well, tribal, and those that had crossed over to Christ, looking like they have just had a fresh scrubbing and headed straight for their study desk.
Anyway, from various volumes of ‘The people of India : a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan’ (1868) by John William Kaye, Meadows Taylor, J. Forbes Watson, here are photographs of some of the Kashmiris that one could come across in India back then.
“Zahore Begum is a Cashmere Mussulmani, and follows the profession of a courtezan. As may be supposed, her charecter is not very respectable. She belongs to the Soonee sect of Mussulmans.
She has a very fair complexion, black hair and eyes; she wears a black silk dress and yellow shawl; a diamond ring on her left thumb, cloth shoes, embroidered with gold and set with precious stones, and her silver anklets have small bells attached to them.”
“Aftab Rae, like Ramnarain, is a Pundit, or expounder of the Hindoo scared books. He is a Brahmin of Cashmerian origin, but his family have lived at Lucknow for more than a century. He has himself resided in Allyghur and the neighbouring districts for nearly fifty years. Persons of this class are rarely to be met with in this part of Hindoostan. They are for the most part shrewd, clever, and designing. Their habits are migratory, generally seeking employment in the civil department under Government. They go any distance to obtain it. They are Brahmins by caste, and a keen-eyed, crafty race. Their food is mutton, fish, vegetables, and grain, but not beef; and they generally live to the age of seventy or eighty years. Aftab Rae is seventy years of age; his height is five feet six inches, complexion fair, hair and eyes grey.”
“The gentleman here represented is a fine specimen of his class, a secular Brahmin, in the service of Government. Well educated and liberal in their ideas, they are for the most part above the narrpw-minded and exclusive sectarianism of Brahmins of religious or priestly profession, and prove most intelligent and valuable public officers. The Pundit is, or was, tehsildar, or collector of revenue of the Roorkee district. He is a native of the valley of Cashmere; and as will be evident from the Photograph, his features are of the highest class of Aryan charecter – identical, in fact, with the European; and the difference between them, and those of other Brahmins represented in this work, will be at once evident on comparison. Pundit Jowalla Natli is a person of essentially European mind. He has mastered the English language, which he both writes and speaks with a fluency and correctness rarely attamed by a foreigner ; and his honorary title of Pundit could only be assumed upon a high standard of proficiency in the Sanscrit literature of his own country.
His costume is a richly embroidered robe or choga of Cashmere cloth, trimmed with fur, with an under vest of cloth. His trowsers and shoes are of Enghsh fashion, and the embroidered cap is perhaps an invention of his own, since it is not common among his people. Notwithstanding his English habits and manners, the Pundit preserves the rules of his own caste inviolate; while he, and his class generally, are free from those gross superstitions and idolatrous observances, which are followed by Brahmins of other and less enlightened professions. There is no doubt that educated natives of India, in the class to
which the Pundit belongs, are increasing in numbers and in influence ; but they can do little as yet, perhaps, to affect the ignorance and bigotry of their countrymen. “
Cashmiri From Cashmere. Mussulman. Simla.
[from Volume 4]
“MAHOMEDAN merchants from Cashmere are very commonly met -with at Simla, and, indeed, in all the northern stations of India. They bring shawls, scarves, embroidered cloths, and other local manufactures for sale, as well as dried fruits, which are readily disposed of. The costume of the Cashmiris differs from that of ordinary Mahomedans of India. Instead of the tight and often ungraceful tunic, the garment shown in the Photograph, which is called chogha, is almost universally worn, especially in winter. The best are made of soft serge, or cloth, woven from the fine wool of the shawl goat, and the natural colours, brown, grey, or white, are preserved. These garments are frequently handsomely embroidered on the chest and shoulders, as also down the back, by silk or woollen braid in remarkably chaste patterns; and there is no class of Cashmere manufacture, perhaps, which more perfectly exhibits the exquisite taste of the artizans of the country, than these embroideries. They are never in varied colours, and the best effects are produced by braids in monotone, crimson upon white, dark grey upon light grey, and other combinations. These manufactures, both in shawls, scarves, cloaks, and even choghas, are now becoming known in Europe, and are to be found for sale in the shops of London and Paris shawl merchants; while in the beautiful collections of the India Museum, many specimens of the finest descriptions of work can be examined by those interested in Indian productions.
The Mahomedans of Cashmere are in no wise different from their brethren of Northern India. They are, for the most part, Soonnies, and have a strong admixture of Aftghan blood; but, as a rule, they are not a military class, nor have they ever been remarkable for the military spirit so abundantly displayed by Mahomedans elsewhere. They are, however, a fine, handsome race of people, and their women, who have not unfrequently fair, ruddy complexions, are esteemed very beautiful — the Circassians, as it were, of India. Since the sale of Cashmere to Golab Sing, the Rajah of Jummoo, by Sh H. Hardinge, in 1846, the oppressive character of the local administration has induced many of the shawl weavers and embroiderers to leave their native country, and settle in the northern cities of India ; and in most of them, colonies of native Cashmiris have been established, which subsist upon the manufacture of articles in local estimation; but the shawls have not the softness or beauty of those produced in Cashmere, and the best articles produced are perhaps the embroidered shawls, scarves, and choghas, before alluded to.
Cashmere was originally an independent Mahomedan kmgdom, but was conquered and attached to the imperial dommions by the Emperor Akbur in 1587, and was used by him and by his successors as a place of retreat from the summer heats of India. It passed from the Mahomedan rule to that of the Sikhs in 1818, and remained in then- possession till its sale to the Rajahs of Jummoo. Could the entire possession of the Punjab have been foreseen, it is not improbable that the beautiful valley might now have been a British province. “
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Diljan. Bazar woman. Saharunpoor.
[from Volume 3]
“Diljan, the “heart of life,” is like Wuzeerun, a Mahomedan courtezan. Her dress is black tunic, black silk trowsers, and Cashmere shawl.”
Wuzeerun. Bazar woman. Mahomedan. Saharunpoor.
[from Volume 3 ]
“THIS photograph represents a Mahomedan bazar woman, or professional courtezan. Her dress is a yellow tunic, green silk trowsers, and red Cashmere shawl. There is little to be said for women of this class, who exist under many denominations all over India, and the nature of their profession debars description of them. Many are dancing women, Mahomedans as well as Hindoos. They can never contract real marriage, though some of them avail themselves of the form ” Nika,” under the Mahomedan law, the offspring of which is legitimate, though in a secondary degree. In such cases those married and secluded become honourable women. Public coutezans are devoted by their families to the profession from their early youth ; and, on attaining a fit age, they are married to a dagger, or a tree, with all the ceremonies of a real marriage. This custom obtains as well among Hindoos as Mahomedans. Many of the great Hindoo temples have bands of courtezans attached to them, who are maintained by the revenues of the establishment, and who follow then trade without public shame. It is a strange anomaly that, while a courtezan, born of, or adopted into, a courtezan family, is not held to pursue a shameless vocation, other women who have fallen from good repute are esteemed disgraceful. The practice of purchasing children to be instructed as courtezans was commonly practised some years ago, even in British territories, and is frequent at the present time in those of native Princes; but the stringent nature of the laws existent under the British rule against all practice of slavery, however it may be disguised, prevents any open violation of them, and the customs formerly existent can hardly now escape punishment. “
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In 1927, a year after his wife died, Franklin Price Knott (1854-1930) at the age of 73 embarked on a 40,000-mile tour of Japan, China, the Philippines, Bali, and India during which he took a lot of photographs using a then recently developed technique of creating color photographs – autochrome. These vivid images of his travels created a sensation in America. Franklin Price Knottwas one of the first to have his color images appear in National Geographic magazine.
Today Franklin Price Knott is credited as one of the pioneers of color photography, for giving public an appetite for color and in developing this appetite, Kashmir played a vital role as the scenes colored by him for Kashmir are believed to be his best work.
Franklin Price Knott’s Kashmir was printed in October 1929 issue of National Geographic Magazine.
A boy awaits the arrival of the Viceroy and Lady Irwin with flowers. Jammu (not Kashmir).
Native state officials float downriver to meet the Maharaj. Srinagar.
The above two images illustrate how these first ”color’ photographs were created
Students of a school [C.M.S] gather outside for photo. Srinagar.
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“The Maharaja summoned me to the green and blue tiled pool in the royal palace at Jammu where he was bathing with a dozen natives diving and splashing. After the swim servants brought to him tray after tray of exquisite jewelry; pins, necklaces, rings and bracelets. From some trays he would select a piece and wave the rest away. When I finally photographed him with his aides, he was wearing, I was told $4,000,000 worth of pearls.
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It is regrettable that in this Vale of Kashmir surrounded by glitterng ice-capped mountains and considered the world’s most beautiful valley, there are almost no womeen except those of the laboring classes, to be seen. It is contrary to social custom for women of the better classes to be seen on the streets or in public places.”
Here are some other photographs of Kashmir published in National Geographic over the years (minus the more recent ones). Their site offers no information on year of the photograph. So here I have added some additional notes. Now Rewind.
On walls of Kashmir corner at Chor bizarre, Noida. Photographers: unknown. Years: unknown.
Here with captions from my mother.
[Update the photographer (of most of these is) famous Ram Chand Mehta]
Gujjar Woman and Child
‘gabbi raech’
Shepherd
[Note from Man Mohan Munshi Ji: [This is a photograph ] of a Kashmiri Pahal woman Her head dress and silver ear rings are unmistakably kashmiri/ Dress of Gujar women is totally different . More ever Gujars mostly tend buffaloes and not sheep. Herds of Bakarwals or Gaddis consist of sheep as well as goats. Only herds of Kasmiri Pohals are entirely of sheep]
do’ud’goor
Kashmiri Milkman
Kashmiri Muslim Woman
Beauty
Kashmiri Pandit Woman. 1939.
with targa, pootz, lou’ing and wankh
