‘Hor‘ is an archaic Kashmiri word for pair (hor in “pul-hor“: a pair of traditional kashmiri slippers), while there are no clear answer for the meaning of word dejj. According to some it is the Kashmiri form of a Sanskrit word dwija (twice-born). The belief comes from the fact that the act of wearing Dejhor by a girl is considered same as the thread ceremony of a Brahmin boy. Interestingly, Dejhor is not offered to the girl by the groom, he does not put it in her ears. They are put by paternal aunts. But, is that correct? That Dejj is corrupted form of “Dvija”? No.
“Dejj” is simply the Kashmiri word that means “loose/unsteady/unbound”. It is the female adjective form of “dyol“. In Kashmiri, a mad man, a man with unsteady mind, maybe called “dyol-mut” while a woman may be called “Dejj-mitch”. So, a Dejj-hor in Kashmiri is simply as pair of loose danglers.
“The Panditanis, the Brahman women, never like to wear silver ornaments, but they may prefer brass to pass it as gold.”
Ever New Kashmir by Prof. Devendra Satyarthi (for The Modern Review, February, 1935) [Entire article here]
I read a rather interesting thing in Pandit Anand Koul’s ‘Kashmiri Pandits’ (1929). At the end of the book, there is section of ‘gifts’ due in a daughter’s marriage. Apparently, there was some kind of a official scale set for it. And among other things, and an elaborate ‘gifting’ system, we read that on the higher end a first class bride was expected to bring in 150 tolas of Gold while on the lower end a grade seven would bring in 5 tolas.
Prior to 1898, Indian currency was tied to silver, later tied by British to Gold. In 1929: Gold was trading at around $20 per gram. And Rupee was at .3620 (1 Dollar = 22.53 Rupees). So, 1.749571875 Kgs (150 Tolas) back then meant about 34990 Dollars or about 788324.7 Indian Rupees [ lower end, 5 tolas comes to about 26278.56]. Today, based on gold, thats like 4194038 Lakh Rupees on higher end and 139801 on lower end. [Pretty much the same scale today!]
Now, just for the fun of it, I had a little ‘tolas of Gold’ talk with some of my uncles. Of course they laughed. Even now 150 tolas sounds quite big. They imagined stuff. What it all meant. Then they recalled. In memories, no one came across as rich. Some maybe better then other. Yet, I teased some more.
In was obvious what had happened. Among Pandit families, thanks to the gifting system, Gold was getting divided over and over. With no new value getting added, it was used as the backup, a reserve. And women were something that consumed this precious gold reserve. And son was the one who increased it.
Then, one of them remembered an interesting practice among Pandits for ‘marriage gold’. ‘Pah Son‘: borrowing (pah: borrowed) gold for daughter-in-law by the husband’s side. So, if in normal scenario some amount of gold was going to come back to the girl, in this case, she was left with none.
Another one pointed out that often brass was used as pretend gold. He said brass was so common that in 1947, during Kabali attack, the tribals actually looted a lot of brassware thinking it was gold.
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.
“Photograph of tinsel workers in Jammu & Kashmir in India, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1890s. This image shows three seated workers with the tools of their trade. The tinsel wires are made of silver, or silver coated with gold leaf, and made into a bar in the shape of a candle, which is then forced through a series of holes on a steel plate to obtain increasingly fine-gauged lengths. Traditionally the wire was then wound onto a reel, as seen in the photograph, attached at the other end to a jantar, another steel plate, which allowed for futher refining of the gauge, and wires no thicker than a hair were obtained this way. A tola (180 grains of metal) usually produced 600 to 1,200 yards of wire.”
via: British Library
The frilly things seen dangling in the above photographs are the Atahoor worn by Kashmiri pandit women in their ears (more often around the time of marriage festivities). These are not usually made of metal wires anymore, instead they are now made of synthetic (Sulma/Tilla) threads. And since there aren’t many Atah wearing Pandit women left in valley anymore, the trade of these shiny things (along with some other shiny things like ‘shiny golden’ Kangri, employed for some ceremonies during marriage rites) has now moved to Jammu.
From British Library. Dated 1895. Photographer Unknown.
Casually explained as: ‘Photograph of two women, posed with wicker baskets on their heads, in the modern-day state of Jammu and Kashmir, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1890s. Jammu and Kashmir in a Himalayan region in north-western India famous for its lovely mountain scenery and lakes. Kashmiris work mainly on the land, producing crops and tending animals. Kashmir is also famous for its woollen textiles and the people produce fine shawls and carpets still using traditional methods going back centuries.’
Besides the fold in lower portion of their Pheran, the thing that identifies these women as Pandit is the thing that can still be used to identify old Pandit ladies living in various Indian cities, the thing dangling from their ears, Dejhoor.
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Update: From British Library, another view of the same scene. The photographers
Found this incredible rare old photograph of Kashmiri pandit woman in a travelogue ‘Topee and turban, or, Here and there in India’ (1921) by Newell, H. A. (Herbert Andrews, b. 1869 ). The photograph by R.E. Shorter was used as the frontispiece for this book..
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Bedecked by jewels quaint of form
In pherans robed, whose soft folds show
Tints dyed by rays of sunset warm
Flame, crimson, orange, rose aglow!
– lines from poem ‘Panditanis’ by Muriel A.E. Brown
(Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir, 1921)
The beads come from Ladakh. They are actually supposed to be much more grainy…like rice grain.
As time goes by, they start to resemble green rotten teeth. Or my memories are just mixed up.
At one time, these Bead Necklace were quite popular among old Kashmiri Pandit women.
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.
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.
