snakes Archives - SearchKashmir

January 26, 2017October 12, 2020

saruff

“
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
”

August 26, 2013October 12, 2020

When Tyndale Biscoe started his school, among many problems he had to deal with while trying to correct the character of Kashmiris was a problem of particularly vicious nature. He found most of his students addicted to literature of the dirty kind. He found the problem to be of epidemic proportions. He needed a cure for the disease. The solution he came up had a typical stamp of ingenuity. He talked to Dr. Neve and asked him how much paper can a human body have before it causes any serious damage. After getting the scientific estimate he put his solution into play: Any boy caught with such dirty literature was made to eat it.

Did the Pandit boys, who were probably not even allowed to have Tomato, wonder if paper is Satvik or Tamasic?

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An Ad from The Indian Express dated December 9, 1942

Grande Odalisque (1814) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
The painter added a couple of extra vertebrae, an anatomical inaccuracy,
to make the painting more alluring, more eastern, he made the back of the woman more serpentine.

‘Serpentine Head Gear’
Kashmiri Pandit Woman. 1939. [By Ram Chand Mehta]
A recently heard a Pandit priest claim that all Kashmiri women come from ‘Nagas’ or the Snake race.

The snake woman or Lamia by J. Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling.
It accompanies the story of ‘The snake-woman and the king Ali Mardan’
in ‘Tales of the Punjab : told by the people’ (1917) by Flora Annie Webster Steel (1847-1929). Another version of the story can be found in ‘Folk-Tales of Kashmir’ by Rev. J. Hinton Knowles (Second Edition, 1893. Narrated by Makund Bayu of Srinagar), in which the snake woman claims to be Chinese and Ali Mardan Khan, actually the Mughal governor of Kashmir, builds Shalimar Garden for her. In Kashmiri the name for the snake is given as Shahmar.

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Kadru, is the mother of Nagas, and wife of Kashyap, the mythical creator of Kashmir. In, Adi Parva, we learn that Kadru cursed her offsprings for not doing her bidding. The curse with played out by King (Arjun’s great-grandson) Janamejaya’s famous Snake Sacrifice. The serpent race was saved by intervention by Astika, born of wedlock between Rishi Jaratkaru of Yayaver and Manasa, sister of Vasuki Naga.

[Near Jammu, Mansar Lake is the spot associated with Mansa Devi. One of the early description of the Lake can be found in Vigne’s travelogue from 1842]

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November 27, 2012October 12, 2020

Snake Dancer

Another one of my little cousin sister got married. This one chose a man from Agra. Meinzraat proved to quite an experience. The all Kashmiri troupe sang folk songs interjected with some balle balle at the right moment, and there was much dancing by all the guests. Highlight proved to be the snake dance. This is the first time I actually saw it or rather even came to know about its prevalence in Kashmir.

Gulzar Ahmed from Budgam

The act has him put a ring into a glass and then placing that glass over his forehead, all using only his two feet. Then he dances to the infamous ‘naag dhun‘ while balancing this glass on his forehead and asking all those in attendance to drop money in it.

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March 17, 2012October 12, 2020

Life Cycle of a folklored Kashmiri Snake

Continuing with the snake tales.

An abandoned shop turned parking lot turned temple in Jammu

“Listen. If for the space of one hundred years the sight of no human eye falls on a snake a crest forms on its head, and it becomes a shahmar; if for another hundred years it comes not into the sight of a man, it is changed into an ajdar; and if for three hundred years it has never been looked on by a human being it becomes a viha. A viha can stretch itself to any length, possesses enormous power, and can change its appearance at will ; it is very fond of assuming the form of a woman, in order that it may live with men.”

~ from a version of the story ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ (another version of which features Kurdish govenor of Kashmir, Ali Mardan Khan) in ‘Folk-Tales of Kashmir’ by Rev. J. Hinton Knowles (Second Edition, 1893). The snake woman claims to be Chinese and Ali Mardan Khan builds Shalimar Garden for her. In Kashmiri the name for the snake is given as Shahmar. Shahmar also appears in ‘Hatim’s Tales: Kashmiri Stories and Songs’ (1928), recorded with the assistance of Pandit Govind Kaul by Sir Aurel Stein.

Here’s the interesting part: Shahmar is the lord of snakes in Armenian folklore too. In one of its most popular appearance in a story, it gives a hunter named Purto a magical stone.* That’s not all, Viha in Uralic language means snake-poison as well as hatred. Considering that the The Levantine Viper (Macrovipera lebetina) infamous in Kashmir as Gunas is infamous in Russian belt as Gjurza makes me wonder if all our snakes and their gods and demons came from Urals.

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*Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend by By Mike Dixon-Kennedy.

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December 4, 2011October 12, 2020

Snake ∞

“There is one God ; but he has many names. The whole earth stands upon the serpent Sheshnag ; she has 1000 teeth and 2000 tongues; with every tongue she pronounces every day a new name of God ; and this she has done for centuries on centuries, never repeating a name once pronounced.”

Pandit Shivram of Srinagar to Rev. Joseph Wolff. Found in ‘Narrative of a mission to Bokhara, in the years 1843-1845’.

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Image: A screen-cap from a Hindi film Sheshnaag (1990) taken from a Pakistani print available on Youtube.

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First to be created was the Word.
Word is the road to the Truth.
Listen to the word, then act.
~ Mahmud Gami (1750- 1855)

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July 9, 2010October 12, 2020