in bits and pieces
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| Mouth watering Sheer Chai tah Tailwre (salt tea and Kashmiri bagel) |
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Previously:
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| ‘This man is ordered to walk in front of you to enforce 4 miles speed per hour.’ In 1958 I came across a road bridge somewhere near Jammu & Kashmir – Himachal Pradesh border where speed limit was enforced by a man walking in front of any vehicle crossing the bridge. |
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| A view of the worlds 14 the highest peak known at present as Nanga Parbat (Naked Mountain). It is also called by the natives as Dyamur (Moor’s head). |
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| View of Nanga Parbat drawn by Alexander Cunningham published in his book Ladakh published in 1854 |
During the Purana times it was known as Dumra Lohita (The king of mountains ) which can be visualized by the fact that submit of Nanga Parbat 26,660 ft above the msl with its base at the side by the side of Sindu (Indus) at about 3,500 ft. exposes a fall of about 23,160 at the Astor valley or one of the passes connecting Kishenganga valley with that of Indus valley. The unparalleled view is more impressive than that of Grand Canyon of Colorodo USA and Namchebarwa Peak and Bed of river Tsangpo(Brahmaputra). The fall of more than 23,000 ft exposed to the gaze of observers during the purana times led to the belief that Dumraluhita (Nanga Parbat ) is the highest mountain in the world.
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| The originally Persian mythical bird, Simurgh, holding fast nine elephants symbolizing lower constituents of the partial self. Kangra school, 19th century. Gouache on paper. |
I came across stories of Simurgh a couple of times while reading things about Kashmir. And interestingly in these stories Simurgh was a very lose term that was easily applied to many kind of mythical birds.
The story titled ‘Good King Hatam’, narrated to Reverend James Hinton Knowles by a barber of Amira Kadal named Qadir, revolves around a golden egg-laying bird Huma. In the footnote to the story Knowles tells us that Huma is ‘A fabulous bird of happy omen peculiar to the East. It haunts the mountain Qaf. It is supposed that every head it overshadows will wear a crown. The Arabs call it ‘anqa’ and the Persians simgh (lit. of the size of thirty birds).’
Another story about Kashmir and Simurgh comes all the way from ancient China.
According to a Chinese legend, a king of Kashmir named Chi-pin caught a Simurgh and caged it, but the bird never sang a single note for three years (in an Indian original the bird would be a kalavinka , a melodious songbird). The king’s wife then tells him that Simurghs only sing when they see their own kind, so the king deceives the bird by putting a mirror in its cage. Mistaking its own reflection for the lost mate, Simurgh sings a mournful song and dies. The story about the “single simurgh” (ku-luan) is from Liu Ching-shu’s Garden of Anomalies (I-yilan). *
* from ‘The age of Eternal Brilliance: Three Lyric Poets of the Yung-ming Era’ (Richard B. Mather, Yue Shen, Tiao Xie, Rong Wang ) and ‘The oceanic feeling: the origins of religious sentiment in ancient India’ (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson)
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| Vanity box with mirrors and tray used by ladies of the affluent households of Kashmiri Pandits during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
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| The box is made of budal wood (pencil cidar) and profusely painted with Kashmiri designs similar to those used in Kashmir paper mache articles. |
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| Sketch map of Jammu & Kashmir by J .& C.Walker Sculpt., 1842 |
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| Sketch of Interior of Srinagar along Jhelum 3rd bridge (Fateh Kadal) and Shah Hamdan Ziarat in the distance drawn by Day & Hagelith |
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| Sketch of Charchinari island in Dal Lake by by Day & Hagelitch. Faint view of Mahadev and SriDwara mountains is visible in the background. |
In year 1942, the three sketches were published in London by Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street.
An engraved copper plate, Ratendeep (Deep) , copper vessel, copper Niaruin for pouring water on Saligram and a copper spoon for amrit on a brass Badrapeeth used by my grandparents ( 1868-1954).
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| Kasher Kh’ase (Kashmiri Teacups ) (Left) Loi hund Khos (Bronze Cup) (right) German Silver’uk Khos |
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| (left) An engraved brass vessel used for measuring the rice for cooking of a large joint family. Capacity of the vessel is about 3/4 of a seer. (right). An engraved copper tumbler kept for some religious rituals. |
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A 150 years old Shiva Painting by an unknown Kashmiri Pandit artist. I was told by my grandfather(1868-1954) that this painting was in our ancestral house before he was born.
