in bits and pieces
Time – 12:57 AM
While the music plays, in an adjacent room, almost invisible, men play zaar – cards, they play Flaash – Flush and they play Paplu – ‘Rummy’. Money goes around. Alcohol moves around like a shy new bride. Prized. Concealed. Consumed. In moderation.
proponents of “Jewish origin of Kashmiri people” can have a field day looking at the image.
It looks like some sort of Star of David and some sort of Tree of life.
After the bridal shower, the Devgon havan – a fire ritual, is performed.
To the left of the fire, drawn in sendir vermilion sindurah on a rectangular cardboard, can be found a Kapavriksha wishing tree, celestial tree of life, spurting out of two interjecting but oppositely inverted equilateral triangles, a figure having only four corners.
To the right of the fire are kept two bricks, up-right, side-by-side, in front of which burns an oil lamp.
The dancer is known as Bacha, the Kid – usually a lithesome (at times, effeminate) boy/man who dances, sometimes comically, always attired like a woman in a multi-colored frock-like dress. The song-dance proceeding are known as Bach Nagma Jashan – Kid Dancer’s Celebration. Presently, the most popular song-dance for marriage celebrations.
In older times, another kind of celebration was more popular – Hafiz Nagma, ‘Female Dancer’s Song’.
In this performance, just like in case of Bach Nagma, songs were usually set to Sufi lyrics or Sufiana Kalam, but the dancer who performed on these songs was always female and known as – Hafiza. These dancers were much celebrated at weddings and festivals.
In 1920s, Hafiz Nagma was banned in Kashmir by the ruling Dogra Maharaja. The Ruler felt this dance was losing its sufi touch and was becoming too sensual, de-based and hence amoral for the society. Now, songs being the same, in an odd parody, female Muslim dancers were replaced by young Muslim boys who dressed like women. It came to be known as bacha nagma and remains a popular for of celebration at Kashmiri weddings. Hafiz Nagma also survived but in an increasingly Islamic going society, kept losing ground.
This wasn’t the first time that Kashmiri people had a brush with effeminacy. Kashmiris believe that Mughal Emperor Akbar, after his conquest of Kashmir, in an attempt to counter manly valour of its people and remove any possible future trouble, decree-forced Kashmiri men to were feminine gown like dresses – pheran.
Kashmiris love their pheran. Kashmiris love Bach Nagma.
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Bach Nagma Jashan on the night of Maenzraath
in swirls
Like a singing woman
Hands up- Hands down. Shoulder up-Shoulder down. On his knees.
thumka thumka
Even some Punjabi bhangra with young guys.
More people he manages to get on the dance floor, the more he is showered with money. When I got dragged to the dance floor, he started doing something like Kathak with his feet, really working those ghungroos. Only problem, his feet were hidden under his frock, and I had no idea what he was doing. What was I supposed to do. Made a fool of myself. I just followed his step.
Around 11:30 and already a sleepy audience.
Time to get them ladies dancing.
That what the bacha does, he is supposed to get everyone to dance. Someone from the family secretly and often overtly points him in the right direction.
In between folk song, a funny song to wake up people, it starts something like this:
Aav ai Aav ai Rajesh Khanna/Syeeth-Syeeth Dimpul Khanna (Chorus)
Aav ai Aav ai Rajesh Khanna/Syeeth-Syeeth Tinkle Khanna (Chorus)
Here comes Rajesh Khanna, Here comes Rajesh Khanna, along comes Dimple and Twinkle Khanna.
(Then the singer say’s that he has seen many beautiful woman. All of the beautiful woman, ladies and girls. But…)
Korayv kor kissai tamaan/ Korayv kar’e bhumaye fanah
Girls put an end to the tale/ All girls purged their brows away.
(Then the singer sings about Men and purged turbans, Daughter-in-law and purged Mother-in-law, Mother-in-law and purged Daughter-in-law, and so on. and so forth. What’s Rajesh Khanna and his family doing in it all? Don’t ask me! )
Hikat.
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Video to be posted soon.
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Update
Videos of Bach Nagma dance:
Rabaab is believed to have come to Kashmir from Central Asia. In Kashmiri folk singing, it is mostly used for Sufiyana kalam.
The sound of this stringed instrument is also part of folk music from Afghanistan and Punjab (in Bow variation?).
Side view of the wonderful instrument.
Hatsa tulba Photo’ha Go ahead, take a photo.
The musicians name is Bashir, it’s written on the instrument in ball-pen ink.
Musical Troupe for Maenzraath prepare for Bach Nagma Jashan
Old instruments mix with new.
From left to right:
Stage is set.
Just after dinner, around 10 pm., the troupe start the celebration, always with a Kashimiri Bhajan. Those who want to leave start to leave and those who can stay and have to stay, the close relatives – stay. A few more Bhajans, some devotional songs later, the real singing and dancing starts with Bacha taking the lead. Bacha is always a Muslim. The only other Muslim in this musical troupe comprising of Pandits-Hindus, is the Rabaab player.
The dancing and singing goes on till 5 in the moring and always ends with songs for gods.
Hikat Mikat on the night of Maenzraath, Night of Henna.
Hikat, the Kashmiri folk dance in which two young girls hold each other’s hand in a cross and try to swirl the other girl round in circles. First slowly and then as the beat of the music gets faster and as the laws of physics come into effect, a momentum, their feet come closer and body weight moves to the back , an orbit, now their toes almost touch, for a brief moment, laws of nature completely take over, no need to move, and in that perfect brief moment the two girls swirl around together in pure joy.
I was in Jammu recently attending the wedding of a dear cousin sister.Taking a detour from usual posts about Kashmir and my visit to Kashmir, I will be doing some posts on Kashmiri pandit wedding ceremony. Here’s the first one…
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Local Goldsmith in Jammu said that this particular design, the rather traditional design for Dejhoor, is not in vogue anymore and few craftsmen can re-create it.
My grandmother gave this Dejhoor to her daughter on the day of her Devegoan and she in turn gave it to her daughter on the morning of her Devegoan.
Devegoan ceremony is usually held a day before the actual wedding ceremony – i.e. Lagan, fire ceremony – and is meant to be an invite for the gods. On this day, the bride-to-be is given Dejhoor for ears by her mother . Dejhoor, cast in gold, is always hexagonal (Shatkon) shaped with a dot (Chunne) in the center. It is believed to be a yantra denoting Shiv and Shakti. This yantra, Dejhoor, is dangled from piercings in the upper ear cartilage, always the left ear first and then the right, and initailly, on the day of Devgoan, only using a red thread, nairwan.
Next day, after the Lagan ceremony, parent- in-laws of the new bride take her to their house, remove the red thread supporting the Dejhoor and replace it with Aath, gold or ordinary gold/silver colored (Sulma/Tilla) threads. The in-laws also add Athoo – Atah tied in a designer knot or a small piece of golden ornament added – to the lower end of the Dejhoor thus completing the yantra in a very symbolic way. So next day, as part of another ritual, when the bride along with her husband visits her mother’s place, she now sports a compete set of Dejhoor, Athoor and Atah.
This tradition of women wearing Dejhoor and its origin in Kashmir goes way back in time. It has survived centuries.
A 10th century stone sculpture of Kashmiri origin called Birth of Buddha, housed at S.P.S. Museum, Srinagar – in which the mother of Buddha, Mayadevi and her sister Prajapati are shown wearing Dejhoor just in the manner in which it is still worn by Kashmiri Pandit woman to this day.
Found the image of stone sculpture in: Arts and Crafts, Jammu and Kashmir: Land, People, Culture by D. N. Saraf (1987) [Google books]
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Dejhoor, Athoor and Atah remain one of the best ways of identifying a Kashimri Pandit women. It either dangles from their ears or they fold the atah and tie it up in their hair using a simple pin. The basic problem today is that one can’t safely go around walking on roads with gold dangling from your ears.
