“I know no country on earth where so many witches could be enlisted for Macbeth, if, instead of three, Shakespeare had wanted a hundred thousand.”
Words of French naturalistVictor Jacquemont in another translated version of his originally in french, ‘Letters from India'(1834). I have previously written at length about his letter [here] but after coming across a fresh caustic version of his judgement on un-beauty of Kashmiri women in ‘The Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany, Volume 15’ published in 1834 by East India Company [Google Book Link] and in ‘Letters from India and Kashmir’ (1870) by J. Duguid, I felt like borrowing an old insult and digging up his bones from the grave and then burying him again. And what better way than this…
‘A Beauty of the Valley’ by G. Hadenfeldt, found in ‘The Charm of Kashmir’ (1920) by V.C. Scott O’connor. [previously posted here]
Natch Girls, albumen print by Francis Frith from 1870s.
Dancing-girl of Cashmere, a wood engraving from the 1870s by Emile Bayard. Above two are from the servers of columbia.edu, scavenged from an ebay listing dated 2001 and 2009 respectively. Someone over there must have gone through the same loop that I am going through now. [My detailed post on Kashmiri Natch Girls ]
from ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys.
Trusting for some means of escape when the hour had approached, and with a brief command not to create any delicacy that could not be made to get comfortably on my small dish, I tried to improve my acquaintance with the female portion of my crew. My task was not easy, for Mrs. Assiza suffered from shyness and a complete ignorance of all languages save Kashmirian; but I was able, as I tried to make myself understood, to admire her clear, rose-tinted, olive skin, the straight nose and brows, and the fine, brown eyes, set off by the tiny read cap worn under the homespun head-covering folded squarely on the head. The universal frock of puttoo disguised effectively her figure, but the short sleeves turned back with white displayed her well-firmed arms, and the brevity of her “pheran” showed her splendidly-developed calves. Good-looking and strong, like most of her compatriots, the little lady was well up to taking paddle or steering the boat, and during the day worked the long, heavy wooden pestle with astonishing energy as she crushed the grain in her wooden mortar with long, regular movements. The child toddled up to say, “Salaam, Sahib,” nearly falling over its toes in its efforts to bow with reverence and elegance, while clutching tightly a bunch of great purple iris, recently gathered from a Mahomedan graveyard, covering the whole of a small mound near by.
The passage and the photograph is taken from the book ‘Afoot Through the Kashmir Valleys’ (1901) by Marion Doughty. Everything is fine with the Sahib’s description except from one minor detail that can be observed in the accompanying fine photograph of beautiful Mrs. Assiza. The pheran that Assiza is wearing has a fold at the lower end below the knee. The fold is called laad’th and is unique to the pheran of Kashmiri Pandit woman. Even though on first glance the dresses of all Kashmiris may seem same, there were always some distinct differences between the dressings of the two communities. Kashmiri Muslim woman never wear a pheran with laad’th. The actual name of the woman is not given, she is just the wife of one Mr. Aziza, boatman of the writer. In fact that name should be Aziz, Kashmiris tend to add an a at the end of the name when calling out for a person, more so if the name happens to be Aziz.
So what were you writing Memsaab and what’s the story of Mrs. Aziza.
In 1941 when Pandit Nehru’s young niece decided to join the film industry not only did Yashodhara Katju become the first Kashmiri heroine of silver screen but perhaps one of the first woman from a good family to set foot in the not so good film industry – an event that was certainly newsworthy.
Film India, August 1941.
From FilmIndia Magazine collection generously shared with me by Indian film enthusiast Memsaab who runs one of the best blogs on Indian Cinema.
Text from the news-piece:
Well-known Society Girl Joins Indian Films
Miss Katju, niece of Pandit Nehru Comes to National Studios
Fourteen year-old Yashodhara Katju comes from a famous family of Kashmir Brahmins who have settled in the United Provinces for generations.
Well connected by ties of blood and friendship with some of the leading families of U.P. Yashodhara is at present studying in the Senior Cambridge class and in addition happens to be an accomplished dancer, having taken an extensive training under some of the best dancers in the country. She is reported to be a fine exponent of the Manipuri and Kathakali schools of dancing.
Her first screen role is likely to be in “Roti” a social picture directed by Mr. Mehboob for the National Studio.
Yashodhara Katju. Film India, August 1943
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Interestingly, right next to that news-piece was an ad for Afghan Snow cream. One of the biggest name in beauty creams in India right until the 1970s.
Found this beauty in ‘The Charm of Kashmir’ (1920) by V.C. Scott O’connor (Vincent Clarence Scott, 1869-1945). Miss Gertrude. Hadenfeldt’s water color of Kashmir are still quite popular. She had spent around five years in the valley.
– A Snake Charmer in the New Bazaar, Srinagar, Kashmir, 1892
from Illustrated London News. [found it here at Columbia.edu]
[Update: It was the work of J. E. Goodall]
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‘[They] are good-looking…but they are crafty’.
wrote Buddhist pilgrim from China, Huen Tsang who arrived in Kashmir in A.D. 631 as a state guest and stayed for two years. The exact words,”light and frivolous, and of a weak, pusillanimous disposition. The people are handsome in appearance, but they are given to cunning. ‘They love learning and are well-instructed.”
The song was playing on the T.V and my nani breathed out the names.
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Image: Sharmila Tagore in Shakti Samanta’s Kashmir Ki Kali (1964). Religion unknown.
Tchand’re Taa’che – Moon Headgear. Kashmiri Pandit woman also used to wear it. Kan’waaj’e – Ear Rings
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The women are sometimes very handsome. The parda-nashins are, of course, very rarely seen. The men wear a long shirt called firan, which in the case of Hindus has long, narrow sleeves, and Muhammadans short, full ones. The Hindu woman or Punditani wears a girdle and has a white cap, whereas the Mussulman! wears a red head-dress. The black hair of young girls is braided in many thin strands, covering the back and forming a semi-circle, with a knot of hair hanging down the back, and stretching sometimes nearly to the feet.
– John Collett, A Guide for Visitors to Kashmir (1984)
It was a somewhat wistful face, with great, shy, light- brown eyes. Her hair, too, was light brown, braided in many small braids, all caught together at the ends,reaching below her waist, and finished off with a large tassel of black wool, according to the decree of fashion in these parts. All round her forehead, soft, light-brown curls, blown by the wind, escaped from under her little cap. Her skin was very fair, and showed a delicate colour in her cheeks. There was a rebellious air about the pretty mouth. Dzunia was going to keep watch in her father’s fields, to sit in a quaint little erection of straw and dried branches, like a huge nest, to scare away the birds and keep a look out for other pilferers. Her brother would not come to relieve her till late in the evening, and she had at least three hours of lonely vigil. She would break it by running home presently for a bowl of tea, but it was dull work.
P. Pirie, writing about a young Kashmiri village girl in Kashmir: The Land of Streams and Solitudes (1909)
Owing to hard work they soon lose their good looks. They are married at an early age, soon after ten. Little girls wear small skull-caps, and may have their hair beautifully done in a large number of plaits spread out over the back and gracefully braided together. After marriage, however, a thicker turban-like red cap, studded with pins, is worn, and over it a square of country cloth to act as a veil and cover the whole back. The rest of the usual dress of the village women is an ample pheran of dark blue cotton print, with a red pattein stamped on it; or the gown may be of grey striped cotton or wool, with wide sleeves turned back and showing a dirty lining. Round the neck a collar of silver or brass, enamelled in red or blue, or a coral and silver bead necklace, is usually worn; and large metal ear-rings are common. Glass bangles or massive silver bracelets and finger rings, with agate or cornelian, complete the list of ordinary jewellery worn by Kashmiri women. The feet are bare, or leather shoes, often green, are worn. The houses are without chimneys, so the inmates become smoke-begrimed. There are fewer Mohammedan women than men. The ratio is about nine to ten. Perhaps for this reason polygamy is comparatively uncommon.
More females are born than males, but baby girls do not receive so much care as the boys, and the mortality from smallpox and infantine diseases is higher. The girls are often mothers at the age of fourteen.
Kashmiri women vary very much. A very large number of the peasant women are dirty, degraded and debased. But there are not a few who are very different and who are capable and manage their houses and children and even their husbands.
– Ernest Frederic Neve, Beyond the Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir (1915)
The little girls of 6 — 9 are very pretty but their beauty must soon go, for though the women are mostly pleasant-looking, very few indeed can be called pretty. The little children wear bright-coloured tight-fitting caps, heavily ornamented with showy ” jewels ” and with very heavy flat triangular ornaments hanging at either side of their head with short chains of beads or pearls attached to them : they also wear heavy necklaces and anklets. The women wear long ear-rings with a great number of objects dangling from them which rather resemble a well-filled key-ring.
The little girls have their hair done in rather a peculiar manner : numerous little plaits lengthened by the addition of some foreign black material are joined behind the neck to the two outside plaits which meet in a knot with a tassel or cord hanging from it.
– Ambrose Petrocokino, CASHMERE: Three Weeks in a Houseboat (1920)
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Image: A Kashmiri woman in Hijab and Pink slipper. June 2008.
Monsieur Jacquemont does not speak in very flattering terms of the mountain-maidens of this district, but I cannot agree with him. They are women of very graceful and prepossessing appearance, with regular features, and I must do the men the justice to say that they are not less handsome than the women.
There were, amongst my coolies, two young men as beautifully formed,and as graceful in their movements, as any that I have ever seen. It is natural that the lower limbs of the inhabitants of these steep mountains should be very much developed, but it is an error to think that this development gives an herculean appearance; on the contrary, the exercise of journeying over these rugged ways, serves to give a delicate outline and pliant grace to the form.
– The Baron Erich von Schonberg wrote in his Travels in India and Kashmir (1853), London: Hurst & Blackett
During calmer times, Vidia wrote to his family from Hotel Liward. He told Mira and Savi that the Kashmiris, ‘barring the Tibetans, are possibly the dirtiest people in the world. They very seldom wash…They associated – like the Indians of Trinidad and our family – cleanliness with godliness; only on religious days, therefore, they wear clean cloths…They have nevertheless a tremendous charm; perhaps they have this charm because of all their faults. Certainly there are few things more attractive than the friendliness and broad smiles of the Kashmiri children.’
The World is What it Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French, pp. 228
Patrick French in his brilliant ‘official’ biography of V.S. Naipaul quotes the above lines from a private letter sent by Naipaul to his two sisters while he was visiting Kashmir in 1962. Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul stayed in the valley for around five months, staying well into the first few months of 1963. During his trip to Kashmir, stayed at Liward Hotel (later corrected to ‘Leeward Hotel’ in his 1990 book India: A Million Mutinies Now) built on the bank, and in the middle of Dal Lake. In this “Doll’s House on the Dal Lake” Naipaul wrote a short novel called Mr. Stone and the Knights Companions. Turning away from his usual West Indies settings for the first time, Naipaul gave this short novel an English setting.
Mr. Butt – the owner of Hotel Liward and his helpful nephew Aziz and Kashmir later found place in Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness written in 1964. The book also had an account a physically daunting and hazardous journey to the Amarnath cave that he took on the advice of Karan Singh.
Naipaul again visited Leeward hotel, Mr. Butt and Aziz in 1989, just before Kashmir blew up with unprecedented violence. This time he was working on India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990). The hotel, now, had got a new (present) building.
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Hotel Leeward, Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir
Photograph taken by me in June 2008.
Hotel Leeward is now a big military bunker for C.R.P.F (Central Reserve Police Force)
At that moment I didn’t know I was looking at the Hotel Leeward.
I took the photograph because of: sand bunkers, tin roofs, tin walls, barbwire, meditating ‘high speed’ boats and rested military men, in their clean white undershirts and khakis, unclogging a drainage pipe that goes into the lake. It is a beautiful lake.
While searching for a photograph of the hotel for this post, I realized I already had one with me.
By the start of 20th century, tourists started to pour into Kashmir. And good tourists need a good Guidebook to a comfortable holiday.
The journal was written day by day, and the sketches were all done on the spot; and if this account–bald and inadequate as I know it to be–of a very happy time spent in rambling among some of the finest scenery of this lovely earth, may induce any one to betake himself to Kashmir, he will achieve something worth living for, and I shall not have split ink in vain.
– Writes T. R. Swinburne in preface to A Holiday in The Happy Valley with Pen (1907), a book “with” no less than “24 Coloured Illustrations”.
The journal starts with lines of Arthur Hugh Clough’s Amours de Voyage (1849), a novel written in Verse form that was inspired by the siege of the Roman Republic.
“Over the great windy waters, and over the clear crested summits,
Unto the sea and the sky, and unto the perfecter earth,
Come, let us go!”
Having reached the “perfecter earth” Kashmir, Swinburne notes:
While the gentlemen of the Happy Valley have been lashed by the tongue and pen of every traveller, the ladies, on the contrary, have been rather overrated.
In all communities where the men are invertebrate the women become the real heads of the family, doing not only most of the actual work, but also taking the dominant position in affairs generally. This I have observed strikingly in the case of the three “slackest” male races I know—the Fantis of the Gold Coast, the Kashmiri, and the crofters of the West Highlands.
Further on the subject of “female loveliness in Kashmir” he notes that the “opinion is divided” and writes:
Marco Polo (who probably only got his ideas of “Kesmur” from hearsay) echoed the prevalent opinion by saying, “The women although dark are very comely” (ch. xxvii.). Bernier is enthusiastic: “Les femmes surtout y sont très-belles,” and hints at their popularity among the Moguls.
Moorcroft, Vigne, and others swelled the laudatory chorus until Forster, “having been prepossessed with an opinion of their charms, suffered a sensible disappointment,” and even was so rude as to criticise the ladies’legs, which he considered thick!
Lawrence saw “thousands of women in the villages, and could not remember, save one or two exceptions, ever seeing a really beautiful face;” but the heaviest blow was dealt them by Jacquemont, who, as a gay Frenchman, should have been an excellent judge: “Je n’avais jamais vu auparavant d’aussi affreuses sorcières!”
Again, in one corner, we had Bernier and his extremely beautiful ladies and on in the other corner we had Jacquemont and his hideous witches. The rest of the opinions could be placed somewhere in between these two extreme end.
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This is page 8of the series Fables of Kashmiri Beauty
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