Aurangzeb's Kashmir fleet

A defunct houseboat on Dal. 2008.

"About 1665, Shah Jehan died in the palace at Agra, not without suspicions of foul play. Aurangzeb had been suffering from serious sickness, but after his father's death he was sufficiently recovered to proceed to Kashmir, where he recruited his health in the cool air of the mountains. At Kashmir he attempted to form a fleet which should rival the navies of European countries. Two ships were built by the help of an Italian, and were launched on the lake of Kashmir; but Aurangzeb found that it would be difficult to man them efficiently. No amount of teaching would impart the necessary quickness, nerve, and energy to his own subjects; and if he engaged the services of Europeans, they might sail away with his ships, and he might never see them again."


~ 'India and the Frontier States of Afghanistan, Nepal and Burma, with A Supplementary Chapter of Recent Events'  by James Talboys Wheeler and Edgar Saltus (1899).

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Unrelated post:

• Beheading of Dara

Jugnu T'choor

15th May, 2013. Kochi.

Kashmir had Khar, T'char, Wattil and Kan'hapin, it was in Jammu that I first saw a Jugnu. But the only Jugnu story I know comes from Kashmir and has been told once too often to me by mother. Kashmiris have been telling venerative stories of thieves for ages but this one is more recent.

There once was a thief in Kashmir who took his name from Dharmendra's film titled Jugnu (1973). Inspired by the film he took to leaving letters at crime scenes, all of them marked 'Jugnu'. It is said, one night he climbed into a house and not finding anything else worthwhile, served himself dinner, eat and left. Next morning the victims found a letter in the kitchen. It went something like this:

Jugnu aya 
Gad'e Khaya
Bahut Maza aya

Jugnu came
Had fish
Relished

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Ezra Mir's Pamposh

Still no trace of the film...but I managed to find the synopsis and international reviews of the film. One would have thought finding a Cannes nominated (1954) film, that too India's first (Geva) color (processed entirely within the country) would be easy, special in the year when the people are celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema. Yet, no trace.



Said 'L' Humanite:
"A real discovey and revelation! 'Pamposh' is one of the most poetic works, completely impregnated with the most delicate sensitivity! The image are of rare beauty! This film reaches in its simplicity a rare nobility and grandeur...It is a typical  national work, which is not only a picturesque evocation of manners and traditions which are not common to us of a distant and mysterious folk, but also prescribes us the human content of a rare healthiness, a rare grandeur and emotion..."

Pages from 'The world of Ezra Mir' (2005) by N. J. Kamath.

Not so uncanny that the film Indian film in color should have been shot in Kashmir. And the film's Kashmir connection would be the music by Mohanlal Aima.
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