in bits and pieces
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| A Kashmiri Ad from 1969. Came across it in the book ‘Holidaying and Trekking in Kashmir’ (1969) by N. L. Bakaya. The book actually has a bunch of such ads. [The watermark is not a mistake, it is the term most Kashmiris use while googling this blog.] |
During these months of turmoil and anxiety, the missionary work continued as usual. Soon after the annexation of the Punjab, a letter was received by the missionaries at Lodiana, sent by Dr. Baddely, a Christian surgeon at Lahore, urging them to move on to the capital without delay, assuring them that every encouragement might be expected from the Lawrences and Mr. Montgomery and others. Accordingly the Rev. John Newton and the Rev. Charles W. Forman were appointed by the mission to take up the work of establishing the mission in Lahore. Accompanied by Mrs. Newton, they arrived in Lahore on the 21st of November, 1849.
As the Christian community had urged the establishment of the mission, an appeal was made for financial aid, with the approval of the Board of Administration and the Governor General. In response thereto, the sum of Rs. 4,238 were contributed. A suitable house was secured in the city as a temporary residence. In this house an English school was begun on the 19th of December. It began with three pupils, all being Hindu Kashmiris, two of them having been formerly students in the mission school at Lodiana. The number gradually increased until it became necessary to find more capacious quarters. Happily a soldiers’ chapel built by an English gentleman at his own expense had been placed at the disposal of the mission, and being well adapted to the uses of a school the classes were transferred to it. The number of pupils rapidly increased until, at the end of the year, the attendance amounted to eighty. Of these fifty-five were Hindus and twenty-two Muslims, and three Sikhs. Racially the eighty ranked as Punjabis thirty-eight, Kashmiris three, Bengalis seven, Hindustanis twenty-eight, Afghans three and one Baluch.”
~ ‘Our Missions In India: 1834-1824’ (1926) by E. M. Wherry.
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Painting: Danseaurs cachemiri, Schrinagar
Kashmiri Dancers, Srinagar
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| Original Etching in ‘Dessins et Peintures d’Asie exécutés au cours de l’expédition Citroën Centre-Asie’ |
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Chanteur cachemire. Schrinagar
Kashmiri Singer, Srinagar
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Caption in book reads: Danseaur cachemiri, Schrinagar
Kashmiri Dancer, Srinagar.
But the note on the painting reads Kashmiri Dancer, Astor.
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| A page from a government of India publication on Kashmir, 1955 |
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| Portrait of Kashmiri dancer/Bacha Gulzar Ahmed from Budgam. In Noida, Delhi. 2011. |
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| Top Right: Kashmiri at Bandipore Below it: Baba …Das…(Udhasi). Pandit at Sopore |
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| Portrait D’Homme Du Cashmere Portrait of a man of Kashmir Pandit Shreedhar Raina Officer in charge Government Telegraph Office Misagar Gilgit Kashmir |
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| Notice the headgear on the Khirgiz woman drawn by Jacovleff |
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| A Kashmiri woman drawn by drawn by H.R. Pirie in around 1908 |
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| Screenshot from the first Kashmiri feature length film ‘Mainz Raat’, 1964. Set on life in rural Kashmir. |
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| A snippet of Kashmiri Bible in Sharda Script [An Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2. By Thomas Hartwell Horn. 1836] Update [Transcription of the lines by Mrinal Kaul: “yima lookh anigati andar bihith a’yes timav…………dochas (?) hiy kaayaayi andar behan vaalyen emad sapa (?).“ Which I believe would probably mean Matthew 4:16: The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.] |
[Also to his credit goes: The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration, &c …. (in the Cashmírí language). Published by the Punjab Christian Knowledge Society. First edition. Amritsar; Printed at the Safir-i-Hind Press, . . . 1884.]
A Dictionary of Kashmiri Language (1916-1932, 4 parts) by G.A. Grierson based on material by Ishwara Kaul. [Online Word Search Engine, Part 1]
The following postcard dated 1907 (Bombay) and captioned ‘A model of Panjab Beauty’ is probably the strangest curio in my collection.
But, it obviously needed some fixing…
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| Krishna Boya Greb, Kashmiri Minstrel, 1911 (seems to be holding a ‘dutar’) |
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| Created by cutting and re-arranging Michelangelo’s ‘Christ on the Cross’ |
“May 8 to 17 [1832, Kabul]- I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Wolff, who came into my room, and told me to listen to the Bible, and be converted to Christianity, which is the best religion in the world. My answer pleased the reverend gentleman very much. He added the following most singular speech : – That in the city of Bokhara he had an interview with Jesus Christ, who informed him that the pleasant valley of Kashmir will be the New Jerusalem after a few years.”
~ Mohan Lal [Kashmiri/Zutshi] in ‘Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan, Turkistan, to Balk, Bokhara, and Herat; and a visit to Great Britain and Germany’ (1846), about his meeting with Rev. Joseph Wolff.
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| A woman, her head covered, like she was on her way to a temple, praying aloud for the welfare of her family, like at a temple, walked past me and entered the chamber that is believed to house the grave of Akbar. The unconventionally plain walled chamber in fact houses the cenotaph of Akbar the Great. Sikandra. U.P. July. 2011. |
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In 1892, just three weeks after his death, Lord Alfred Tennyson, considered one of the greatest British Poet, was posthumously published. The collection of poems ‘The Death of Oenone, Akbar’s Dream, and Other Poems’. Among these, ‘Akbar’s Dream’ is considered his last possible work. The poem was set as a conversation between Akbar and his trusted friend Abu Fazal. In the verses giving us visions of Akbar’s great dream for his empire, its subjects, his fear of his sons and their budding blood thirst, his prophecy of a possible death of his dreams, and a possible salvation through adoption by a bigger dream – in all of it we can read how Tennyson believed British Empire was the only true inheritor and propagator of Akbar’s dream. The work is an interesting mixup of British imperialistic dreams with their oriental longings.
If one forgets that it’s actually a British poem and has a subliminal meaning, an Indian can now easily adopt Akbar’s dream. Or perhaps already has. Isn’t modern India imagined and presented as a part of Akbar’s great dream? That’s not even remotely interesting. What is interesting is that this dream of Akbar presented by Tennyson actually starts with Kashmir.
AN INSCRIPTION BY ABUL FAZL FOR A TEMPLE IN KASHMIR
(Blochmann xxxii.)O GOD in every temple I see people that see thee,
and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee.
Polytheism and Islam feel after thee.
Each religion says, ‘Thou art one, without equal.’
If it be a mosque people murmur the holy prayer, and if it be a Christian Church, people ring the bell from love to Thee.
Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque.
But it is thou whom I search from temple to temple.
Thy elect have no dealings with either heresy or orthodoxy; for neither of them stands behind the screen of thy truth.
Heresy to the heretic, and religion to the orthodox,
But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume seller.
In 1872, Heidegger (Henry) Blochmann published the manuscript of ‘The Ain i Akbari’, and then in 1873 followed it with a translation.
The original with translation and his notes follows:
And so, that great experiment too started with Kashmir.
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A certain old gentleman, Colonel Coburn, who, besides his other activities, started a timber firm and a visitors’ agency, claimed in ten scratchy pages of hysterical Christianity that the Kashmiri Hindus (most of them now forcibly converted to Mohammedanism) were originally Jews who had fled from Palestine after the Crucifixion, and that they had built this temple after the style of that in Jerusalem. Thus he explains to his ‘dearly beloved brothers and brethren in Christ’ the faithlessness and treachery of the modern Kashmiri.
“If,” concludes the old gentleman, “you should find a wounded viper lying on the road, do all you can to care and restore it to life, for he will be grateful to you for it and repay you the debt of gratitude he owes you for what you have done for him, but if you find a Kashmiri in the same condition, get off your horse and kill him outright, for if you do him a good turn and save him, he is sure to be ungrateful and do all the damage he can in return! But all the fingers of one’s hands are not the same length, as a native saying her is, and there are many noble exceptions to the above rules, and a good Kashmiri servant, like a good Scotch or Irish tenant out of their own countries, is about the best one can find.”
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| Martand temple . Burke. 1870. |
On the next page I found this comment from “A Kashmiri Pundit”: I have read with interest the funny remarks of Col. Coburn about these ruins and the origin of the Kashmiri Pundits. After reading those remarks I am disposed to reverse Darwin’s theory and hold that people who live to a great age are likely to pass down into the same animal to whom Darwin has traced the genealogy of mankind.”
A Kashmiri Pundit, forsooth! It reeks of the Bengali lawyer. And I much prefer the statement of an English traveller, a little later: “Very interesting ruins, but saw no Jew at all”
And then, yes, and then there is this: “A very impressive place, interesting owing to my dear heathen forefathers and relatives believing in the sanctity of this spot, which I do not. – P.M. Rudra, Srinagar, 1898.”
I picked lot of things from my grandfather, including a love for books. In death, he offered me some bits about the death rituals of Kashmiri Pandits. He also gave me a fear. Although he read a lot, he remembered little. And in the end he forgot everything. Because I too forget, I write…
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| Daddy and Badi Mummy clearing snow. Winter 1988. Srinagar. |
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| With his youngest daughter-in-law and youngest grandchild. 21, July 2013. Jammu |
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| 5th August. 2013. Shakti Nagar Cremation Ground, Jammu. |
5th day
We go to the cremation ground to collect his bones and ashes. Among the bones is a bone known among Pandits as Porush (Man). It is part of upper vertebral column. The bone holds a special meaning as in its shape it is said to resemble a sleeping man, a symbol of departed body. While placing the body on pyre special care is taken by putting in in right posture to ensure that the Porush remains intact after burning.
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| Cleaning of the spot by sons |
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| The spot as it is left by locals of Jammu – the Hindu Dogras |
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| The spot as it is left by Pandits. Honey, sweets and candy is left (possibly so that ants can do rest of the cleaning) |
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| White radish or Mooli is an absolute essential part of the 5th day ceremony and is a must offering for the departed on this day. |
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| Mahakal Bhairava and his dog (s) at Cremation Ground |
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| Still Day 5. Ghat on Chenab river. Akhnoor. Site for immersing the ashes. In older times, in Kashmir, ashes were sometimes kept buried in a wall of the house till they could be immensed at Gangbal Lake in September. Or, at Shadipur. |
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| Pandit ji is a lot miffed when he finds out one of the daughter-in-laws is also present for the ceremony. It is pointed out to him that she took care of him like a daughter. He says Kashmiri women come from the clan of Nagas, the snakes. Hence that headdress. Hence the separation. Father and uncles remember Pandit ji as a haughty little kid growing up in lanes around Habba Kadal. Of course, his indignations are ignored. He believes in rules of Manu. He believes Kashmiris may be Jews, may be even Russian. He believes. |
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| Prasadh at the end of the ceremony. Walnut. |
Day 10.
The departed is a Preta till it becomes a Pitr on completion of all the rites and joins the realm of previous Pitrs. A process that takes a year. The main rituals last for 13 days. There are talks among Kashmiri Pandits that 13 is becoming too difficult to manage. Working people can’t be home for 13 days, that it should be reduced to 4. But the old guards and priests don’t agree.
Garuda Purana is remembered and recited.
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| Hindu afterlife Punishments given in Garuda Purana. A poster found at a little shop in Jammu. Febuary 2012. Mother tells me punishment for those who waste salt is that they pick you up by your eyelashes. |
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An interesting custom on this day has the sons walking in between rows of relatives lined up on two sides. The relatives are supposed to put money in their pockets discreetly as they walk past. In a way they help them bear the cost of feast for relatives that follows the next day.
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The cook was earlier worried because a relative of his was badly injured in a recent earthquake in his hometown Kistwar. By the end of the day, he is worried because there is news of communal disturbances in his town. By evening the disturbance spreads to Jammu. Mahaul goes Kharaab. In evening I go out to city to get some more Mooli from Mandi but return back half way because there are gangs on bikes roaming around with knives.
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| Evening feast. The Pandit ji also eats meat. |
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| Day 11. Army is out on the streets. The cook doesn’t come. Aunts take charge of cooking. |
The news in local paper is confusing. All it talks about is ‘majority community’ and ‘minority community’. If you don’t know the demographics of the area, you are forced to imagine who killed whom.
When the last ceremony is over and the Pandit ji leaves, a token pebble is thrown at him as he crossed the main gate…probably so that he does not return soon.
In none of these ceremonies is my grandmother involved. She was married to the man for about 64 years.
Day 12.
The entire city is shut. Early morning, I start out on a long walk to airport with father to catch my flight out of a trishanku’ian town.
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January 17, 2014
It’s been six months. Today, we cook fish in dinner, offer it to the dead and feast. Pandits call it the day of ‘till‘.
