A persian song ‘What Plan, O Musulmans’ based on ‘Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi’ of Rumi. This version was collected by Ananda Coomaraswamy from a Kashmiri minstrel named Abdullah Dar in around 1913 and presented in ‘Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir’
The same thought in more popular, still, in sub-continent in words of Bulleh Shah from Panjab.
An extract from Imperial India; an artist’s journals’ (1879) by V. C. Prinsep, who visited Kashmir around 1877.
One evening I went to a wedding. I was not allowed to join in the ceremony, but viewed the proceedings from an upper window. Seven days the tomasha had lasted, and day and night were women howling congratulatory verses to the bridegroom who sat feasting with his intimates the while. On a certain day rings are put into the bride’s ears and nose; on another her hands are marked with henna, and so on. She lived in a house hard by, where the happy man was allowed to see her for a short time each day, being conducted to and fro with mush ceremony and many torches stinking and reeking, as I found to my cost. I have taken down many of the distiches sung on the occasion, and am trying to get them translated, when, if they are worth it, I will add them to my diary. The continued howling of the women becomes very irksome after a time, and although the sight was curious, I was glad to get away after a couple of hours. The bride was nine years old.
The following is a translation of the songs sung at a Kashmirree wedding [by Major Henderson, C.S.I., the political officer in Kashmir]: –
Mother of the Bridegroom to the Bridegroom.
Urge on thy steed in every direction.
I will prepare thy seat in the garden pavilion:
On thy right the Koran, on thy left the necklace.
Thou art worthy to be called Lalla Gopal!
The Lalla Gopal in the verse needed some explanation. A note in the book adds, ‘Lalla Gopal, one of the names of Krishna, who was supposed to have been the type of loveliness. Curious, this, when sung by a Mohammedan!’
Prinsep further explains:
The song is a good picture of the manners of the country, and the way that the Moslem and hindoo customs have acted on each other. Whilst at Sreenugger I have painted two or three nautch girls, and it was through them that I got to this wedding, as they were amongst the singers. now these girls, like most nautch girls in India, were all Moslemehs, yet had they all the caste feeling of Hindoo. Of moral sentiment they were entirely innocent, but they would never permit any one to drink out of their cup or smoke from their hookah, and they always went about these two utensils, for smoke and tea are the two things necessary to a Kashmiree. So in this song a Kashmiree Moslem is made to say “beautiful as Krishna.”
There is another interesting line given in that song:
Singing women to the Bride and Bridegroom.
The parrot of Lahore and the Mainah of Kashmir!
How did you both become mutually acquainted?
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.
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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.
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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]
Someone asked for a translation of the song. Here are the lyrics and an attempt at translation (corrections are welcome).
madano pardeh royas tul be lagay’e dard’hetay gul t’che mo’laag bewafa bilkul be lagay’e dard’hetay gul madano pardeh royas tul
Beloved lift that veil off your face
love ached
I want to offer you a flower
You don’t play
a compete unfaithful
I want to offer you a flower
Beloved lift that veil off your face
walo maya’ne kaal bomburoo
at’chan hind gash ta’ey nooro
sula yamberzal my’oz’tul
be lagay’e dard’hetay gul t’che mo’laag bewafa bilkul
be lagay’e dard’hetay gul
madano pardeh royas tul
Come my black bumblebee
light of my eyes and my sight
A narcissus I picked, earlier
love-ached
I want to offer you a flower
You don’t play
a compete unfaithful
love-ached
I want to offer you a flower
Beloved lift that veil off your face
walo maya’ne lockcharo ve zolvin nov bahaaro ve dama chu maar vyun’chay sul be lagay’e dard’hetay gul madano pardeh royas tul
Come my Childhood
swarming new spring
a sip of wine remains
come
there is still some time
love-ached
I want to offer you a flower
Beloved lift that veil off your face
~ Abdul Ahad Azad (1903-1948)
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Although Abdul Ahad Azad is now mostly remembered for his revolutionary songs tinged with socialism, but as the above composition proves, his hold on romanticism rooted in Kashmiri idioms was just as fine. He should also be remembered for his contribution to documenting the oral poetic works of Kashmir. A translation of Kashmiri Zaban Aur Sairi, his three volume history of Kashmiri literature, is long overdue.
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.
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‘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.
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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.
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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.
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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”.
Jayalal Kaul’s pioneering book ‘Kashmiri Lyrics’ published in 1945 was probably the first proper attempt to document rare poetic works of Kashmiri language in roman script with corresponding English translations. Here’s the digital copy of the first edition. Read and share.
~ Abdul Ahad Azad (1903-1948)
