in bits and pieces
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Father Monserrate’s Map, 1590
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Map by Sanson d’Abbeville, 1652
Rennell’s Map 1792.
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Kyshmier [Kashmir]. The Cheefe Citty is called Sirinakar [Srinagar]. The Riuer of Bhat [Behat or Jehlam] passeth through it and findeth the Sea by Ganges or, some say, of it self in the North Part of the Bay of Bengala. It bordereth Cabul to the East Southerly. It is all Mountaines.
From the Appendix to ‘The embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the court of the Great Mogul, 1615-1619, as narrated in his journal and correspondence’ (1899).
A note in the book does point out the obvious error in sending Vitasta eastwards and mentions that William Baffin’s map from 1619 of Mughal empire , based on Sir Thomas Roe’s account did get the direction of the river right.
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| William Baffin’s Map [via: columbia.edu] |
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| Slow primordial death. |
Created based on satellite images of Dal Lake dating from 1998 to 2012 made available by Google (here, although they were supposed to have images dating from 1984 but somehow the actual data available is only from 1998. The image came alive and death of the lake became clearly visible by applying certain line filters on the images. I tried something similar for Wular, but there the lake is hardly visible in any case, all one sees is movement of a green cover.
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| A monument dedicated to General Zorawar Singh in Jammu |
Zorawar kay ghoday dhoday
Kuch log ujhday
Kuch desh bhasay
My Great-Great-Great Grandfather was a man named Kamal Joo Razdan/Raina, a cashier in Zorawar’s Army, posted at times in Gilgit. The family lore has it he even had a sword, a royal gift.
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| Fragment from a painted scroll: Zorawar Singh’s army marching through the mountains |
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| A Buddhist Shrine: detail from a painted scroll. [In the bottom left corner can be seen Zorawar’s Army, looking on] From Kashmiri Painting by Karuna Goswamy, 1998. |
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In Leh, we hear Ladakhi women singing the song of Zorawar Singh’s wife:
I do not wish to eat bread received from the sinful northerners
I do not wish to drink water received from the sinful northerners
Amidst the inhabitants of this land I have no friends and relations…
When arriving at the Zoji-la-Pass, my fatherland can be seen…
Although I can see my fatherland, I shall not arrive there…
In Jammu, a wife of a soldier sings:
Tera miga ladga i manda, O gadda,
tera miga lagda i manda,
Eh Patwari migi khat rehyum liki dinda,
sau sau karnian Chanda.
Kehsi banai Rama
Jange di Chakri
I am sick of separation, my love,
I am sick of separation,
I entreat the Patwari again and again,
To write a letter for me, but he refuses,
So you leave the army and return home.
Why, O God Rama, have you created a permanent institution like the Army?
~ lines found in book, ‘Jammu and Kashmir’ by Somnath Dhar (1982) [link]
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| Map of Kingdom of Kashmir from David McCormick’s ‘An artist in the Himalayas’ (1895). |
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From ‘The Vale of Kashmir’ (1906) by Ellsworth Huntington
‘Kashmir and Northern Part of Panjab’ from ‘Notice of a Visit to the Himmáleh Mountains and the Valley of Kashmir, in 1835 ( by Charles von Hügel, January 1, 1836)
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Came across it in ‘Twelve months of war in Kashmir’ by India. Information Services (1948) [LINK].
A map listing important places of arts and craft from the book ‘Art and Crafts Jammu and Kashmir Land People Culture’ (1987) by D.N. Saraf.
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Map of Srinagar. Names of some of the place are hard to identify with present Srinagar. Suggestion and corrections are welcome.[Update: some input from Yaseen Tuman on Facebook page of the blog:
road from Saidakadal bridge to Ashaibagh is no where
Amdakadal is exactly where Sadrebal is today
Sodarbal has to be corrected with Naushahar
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Map of Jammu
Some other
Zoji La Pass [Based on a photograph by Samuel Bourne, 1864]
Srinagar Bridge
Map of Kashmir
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Asian cut from ‘A Map of the Entire World According to the Traditional Method of Ptolemy and Corrected with Other Lands of Amerigo Vespucci’ by Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507. [available here]. This was the first map that depicted a world separated by Pacific ocean.
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Note to self: do not try it again for sometime. It can drive one mad.
