Cut out this bit about Ghulam Rasool Santosh (Srinagar, 1929 – Delhi, 1997) from docu “Contemporary Indian Painting” (1985) by K. Bikram Singh. [Full film here]. famous for paintings replete with tantric motifs. Trained under N.S. Bendre.
G. R. appended his Hindu wife’s name ‘Santosh’ to his after marriage. Daughter married a Hindu and son a Sikh. Lived in Delhi.
-0-
Add caption
My favorite G. R. Santosh anecdote that I first heard at Hari Parbat from an uncle:
When pandits started building a ‘modern-updated’ temple on Parbat, G. R. Santosh was a much saddened man. He had spent quite some time studying the hill looking for tantric motifs in its rocks, offering an entire aesthetic theory based on what he saw in the hill. Now there was a wall coming around the main syen’der-ed rock. He pleaded, he cried, told them to stop and not mess with the yantra. The work continued. A new temple came up around a rock caught in between marbled walls. A work that still continues.
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.
-0-
Fragment from a painted scroll: Zorawar Singh’s army marching through the mountains
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.
-0-
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]
This time he called me ‘Ashok’. Still, he still remembers the names of his long gone brothers and sisters. And when I started this blog, I thought I maybe able to discuss some my discoveries with him. I may not be able to have any intelligible conversations with my Grandfather anymore but there are minor consolations.
This time in his room I found an interesting locally published ‘Hindu’ calender.
Most of the images were ‘tantric’ art in line of G.R. Santosh. And an odd image out in the calender I found was that of ‘The Shepherd’:
A painting by Miss G. Hadenfeldt from ‘The Charm of Kashmir’ (1920) by V.C. Scott O’connor (Vincent Clarence Scott, 1869-1945). More paintings by the artist here, posted to this blog back in 2010.
Years were 1897-98. Vivekananda wanted to set up as Math in Srinagar. He needed some land. Like most visitors, he stayed on houseboats, traveled on boats. Camped at sweet European camping spots. Met the royalties. But land was refused by the British Regent Adelbert Talbot. With his foreign friends, he celebrated American Independence day floating on Jhelum, holding on to a locally made crude American flag. He even wrote a poem about the day: Bethink thee how the world did wait, And search for thee, through time and clime. A few years later, died on the same day of July. In Kashmir, he visited Mughal gardens – Shalimar, Nishat… and ancient temples – Bijbehar and Mattan. He climbed hills- Shankaracharya and Hari Parbat, and trekked his way to mountain abode of god Amarnath. Here he told shell shocked Sadhus to not treat Muslims, and others, as infidels. Suffered what his doctor called a ‘massive heart attack’. Survived and claimed: ‘Now I have seen Shiva too’. In valley, he worshiped four-year-old daughter of his Mohammedan boatman as goddess Uma. He told Pandits that it is fine to send their children to a missionary school. At Khir Bhawani, he wondered why Goddess of this land didn’t protect herself from the Muslims. Claimed Mother Goddess answered, ‘It’s alright! I protect you, not the other way around.’ Here he picked up a Muslim devotee, a man he cured of migraine by a roll of a hand over the head. Here he made a mistake and found himself in middle of an ancient game of metaphysical star war. This man used to be a devotee of a local Muslim Fakir. The Fakir on losing a soul, cursed the man in orange robe, ‘Before you leave this valley, you shall taste your own blood. You shall remember, you too have a body. You shall vomit blood. Mark my words!’ And the words soon turned true. The story goes: Just before leaving the valley, Vivekananda vomited blood. It shook his core: ‘I have seen gods, talked to them, understood their mind, and yet something as crude as this can happen to me. I can be cursed. How? Why? What chance do the common folk have? What are we up against?’ His mind tossed and turned. His disciples took notes. Once back in his land, virgin-widow of his dead Guru advised, ‘Even Shankaracharya couldn’t survive these machinations. Even your Guru Ramakrishna was once cursed and vomited blood. Don’t worry. It probably saved your life. Had the blood gone to your head, you would have surely died. It’s probably all the yoga that you do.’ Some disciples wrote: Even gods are susceptible to craft. Rules of craft- words, written, said and thought – are all binding even on Gods.
-0-
* Based on ‘The Life of the Swami Vivekananda’ by Swami Virajananda (Publisher K.C. Ghosh, 1912) [archive.org]
A drawing from 1860s by Austrian artist Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871). Found it in ‘Schwind des Meisters Werke’ (1906) by Otto Albert Weigmann. The drawing is based on the story of “The Magic Horse” that appears in The Arabian Nights/Thousand and one nights. The scene depicts a Prince of Persia rescuing a Princess of Bengal from a King of Kashmir.
The are a couple of variations of the story (as it reached west) but mostly goes something like this: An Indian arrives in Shiraz with a magical mechanical flying horse. The price of Shiraz takes it for a test ride without knowing the landing instruction. He somehow lands in Bengal and brings back a princess with her. The Indian steals the princess and flies away to Kashmir. The king of Kashmir rescues the princess from the Indian by killing him but wants to marry the princess much against her wish. Princess loves prince of Shiraz. Meanwhile, the prince of Shiraz arrives in Kashmir with a plan to take back the princess. His plan works and he flies away on magic horse with the princess.
What is interesting about Schwind’s this particular painting is that in an earlier version of it the reaction of King of Kashmir was muted, he was an amazed spectator. But in the later painting, the one we see here, the Kings and his courtiers are gesticulating in helpless anger. Schwind took the text, in which no mention is made of reaction of King of Kashmir and added a layer of emotion over it.
-0-
‘Aakho Sherer-e-Sheerazo‘ (You have come from city of Shiraz) remains a popular Kashmiri song at weddings. It’s about women singing about an ideal bridegroom who arrives from Shiraz. Probably not related to the tale but an interesting fact.
-0-
Hemjuneh, Princess of Kashmir, be-spelled and held prisoner behind a trap door.
From ‘Tales of the Persian Genii’ (1917) by Francis Jenkins Olcott. Illustration by Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany(1882 – 1955).
The story is told by Mahoud, a jeweller of Delhi, who tries to free her from a merchant of Fez who serves an an evil Enchantress, but is turned into a red toad. Her story is something like this:
A King of Kashmir wants to marry her daughter to the prince of Georgia but the girl does not want to get married at all. Then one day an enchantress in the form of an old woman hands her a handkerchief having a sketch of a handsome man. Enchanted, the princess resolves to marry that man. She seeks that old woman’s help and is flown away to Fez only to realized that the Enchantress has brought her there on request of a local merchant who had heard her beauty. She is now stuck in a foreign land with a bunch of evil types. Luckily for her a good genie, a servant of Soloman, arrives who tries to help her. This genie first admonishes the princess for leaving home of her parents on her own will driven by words of some stranger. He then puts a spell on her to protect her. The spell works in a strange way. If the merchant of Fez looks at the princess, she shall fall asleep till the next full moon. She shall sleep behind a trapdoor that the merchant can only find on the night of full moon and can only be opened by a friend of his. It is in this scenario that the jeweller of Delhi opened the trapdoor for the merchant of Fez but then tried to help the princess.
-0-
Kids chanting “Samamber has a lover in Iran” in front of would-be husband of Samamber, daughter of Qazi of Kashmir. Haider Beg of Persia, a silent admirer of Samamber pays them to do it.
Illustration by Hilda Roberts for “Persian tales written down for the first time in the original Kermani and Bakhtiari, and tr. by D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer. (1919). The story is a Bakhtiari tale presented in the book. In this a story a woman from Kashmir goes to a place in Persia to collect herbs once every year. A man sees her and falls in love with her. The woman does’t like it, challenges him, almost kills the guy and goes back to Kashmir where her father arranges her marriage. The man from Persia arrives in Kashmir and tries to win her even as she is about to be married. After some twists, the woman falls for the Persian man and goes away with him, gets married. Later still in the story, the man asks his wife to leave him and marry his best friend as his best friend has fallen in love with her (a scenario on Hindi cinema was to make countless flicks). She agrees. But at last moment truth is revealed, she is re-married to her original husband and everything turns out fine.
-0-
Princess Farruchnas daughter of Togrul bey, who ruled over Kashmir. Doesn;t want to get married but later falls for Persian prince Farruchshad. From ‘Gulistan: Tales of Ancient Persia’ (1977) by Gotlinde Thylmann Von Keyserlingk, Karl Thylmann. The story is identified by Richard Burton as “Farrukh-Shad, Farrukh-Ruz, and Farrukh-Naz”.
The above ones are from ‘The Durbar’ (1903) by Mortimer Menpes and Dorothy Menpes based on Delhi Durbar of 1903. The below ones are from an earlier publication ‘World pictures; being a record in colour’ (1902).
70 paintings of Kashmir from the book ‘Kashmir described by Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.I.E. Painted by Major E. Molyneux’ (1909). A dozen of these were later re-used in a book called ‘Peeps at Many Lands: Kashmir’ (1911) by Mrs. C. G. Bruce.
The King of Kashmir dispenses justice, late 13th century, (early 15th century). Marco Polo (1254-1324). Here the king of Kashmir watches a beheading by sword. On the right scholars teach and meditate in the hills.
Came across it in “Le Livre des Merveilles de Marco Polo” (Book of Marvels of Marco Polo). Can be found at gallica.bnf.fr
Paintings from ‘An eastern voyage: A journal of the travels of Count Fritz Hochberg through the British empire in the East and Japan (1910) by Hochberg, Friedrich Maximilian, Graf von, (1868-1921) ,Volume: 1 and 2. Year 1908.
