Kashmiri Lullabies audio recorded by French travellers in 1954. Scrapped from a European archive. Voice of Mohan Lal Aima. Video Edit using footage from Penn Museum. 1950s.
Lal Vakh, audio
A recording of authentic Kashmiri rendering of Lal Vakhs by Pandit Sarvanand Sagar, produced by Vir House, Jammu.
In all there are three files. First two are the vakhs (almost 1 hour in playtime, around 60 Vakhs) and last one is a Kashmiri Bhajan. The whole setup (starting with Shuklambaradharam and ending with stutis and a Bhajan) gives a feel that there must have been a time when just like Gita Path, a night just for listening to Lal Vakh too must have been organized by Pandit families. Besides more popular vakhs of Lal Ded, I heard some for the first time. Like:
Gita Paraan Paraan kuna mudukh
Gita Paraan Paraan kun gai suur
Gita Paraan Paraan Zind kith ruzukh
Gita Paraan Paraan dodh Mansoor
Why didn’t you die listening to Gita
How many turned to ashes listening to Gita
How did you live listening to Gita
Listening to Gita, Mansoor went ablaze
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Update:
Among Kashmiri Muslims the above mentioned lines are attributed to Nooruddin Rishi and in their rendition ‘Gita’ is replaced with ‘Koran’. The reference to Mansoor here is to Persian Sufi Mansur Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – March 26, 922), who was publicly executed, his body cut and then burnt for claiming, ‘Ana al Haq. I am the truth’. The burning of Mansoor’s body is a common motif in old Kashmiri Sufi poetry.
Sindbad Machama by Pushkar Bhan
Pushkar Bhan's immensely popular Machama series was first broadcast on Srinagar Station of All India Radio in 1950s 1960s and went on to have more than 54 installments in coming decades. A selection of the series was published in book format in 1977 and won Pushkar Bhan a Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978.
Till recently, not any of the recordings were available publicly, but then last year Kashmiri Pandit community radio station Radio Sharda based in Jammu, thanks to family of Pushkar Bhan, re-broadcast a story from the Machama series. The story was Sindbad Machama:
Machama has a hearty meal served by his wife Khatij, goes to sleep and then dreams himself a modern day Sindbad out on fantastical sea adventure with his friends Sula Gota and Rehman Dada to seek distant strange islands, a quest that will may him immensely rich but only after running into a lord of Jinns, a baby Jinn named Tua, a strange giant bird named Rakh and two love-struck Jinn hoorie sisters Zangari-Singari, and somewhere along the journey Machama establishes democracy among Jinns.
A recording of the radio show is now available for purchase in Jammu (at the store 'Vir House', Sarwal...best place in town for Kashmiri recordings). I am sharing the radio play here:
[archiveorg SindbadMachama width=640 height=140 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true]
The satirical Kashmiri employed in the play by Pushkar Bhan had me in splits. Pure LMMOF.
Listen and Enjoy. Sindbad Machama Zindabaad! Tau! Tua!
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Something about the cast of the drama by an original cast member. From a comment (touched up here) on Facebook page Moderate Voice of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh where it was shared [link]:
Bansi Raina: Sindbad Machama series was scripted and produced by Pushkar Bhan in 1968-1969 for Radio Kashmir. It became extremely popular, so much so that a mobile magistrate was deployed outside woman college on MA Road because the students from the adjoining SP College used to eve tease girls by calling them, 'Zingari-Singari'. It became a law and order problem. Besides the main characters i.e Machama (played by Pushkar Bhan), Sulla Gota and Rehman Dadda...M.L.Saraf was Zingari, P.L. Handoo was Singari...Bansi Raina (Tuwa's father, the main Jinn) and Shariefudin (Jinn Bacha, Tuwa). The cast had other characters as well which I am unable to recall. Some of the popular dialogues were, 'Walla..maiyani Shoga', 'hatai Zingari wa'ne Singari'.
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Word 'Machama' is a Kashmir dish of yore consisting of rice, vegetables, raisins, coloring matter and sugar.
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9th March 2023
Update
English transcript of Kashmiri Radio play 'Machama' by Pushkar Bhan that first was broadcast in 1960s. Translation by Trilokinath Raina, unpublished manuscript. Shared by Pratush Koul
