girls, school

Somewhere on the way past Avantipora in Pulwama district.

Kashmiri Swords, Divine Bow and Arrows, Shalimar the Clown

The sword was invented by Jamshed, the first of monarchs and its terror and majesty are greater than those of all other weapons. It is for this reason that when a kingdom has been taken by force of arms, it is said to have been taken by the sword.
As to the different kinds of swords there  are many sorts: Chini, Rusi, Rumi, Firangi, Shahi, Hindi and Kashmiri. Of these the Hindi sword is the finest, and of all Hindi swords, that known as the mawj-idarya, the waves of the sea, is the most lustrous.
The bow was the pre-eminent weapon given by Jibrail to Adam in Paradise. It will never be superseded in this world or the next and in Paradise the blessed will practise archery.When choosing a bow you should try to acquire above all others the mountain bow of Ghazna. It's made of horn and its aim is straight.
The Indian bow - the kaman-i-hindani-is made of cane. Its arrows do not travel very far but at a short distance it inflicts a very bad wound. The head of the arrow used with it is usually barbed and if lodged inside flesh, the shaft is liable to break off. This leaves the head, which is usually poisoned, in the flesh. It is impossible to extract.
The bows of central Asia use horse hide as the bow string. It is poor material. Use instead a bowstring of rhinoceros hide, for it will snap asunder the bow strings of all other bows to which the sound reaches whether these are made of the hide of wild ox, the horse, or even the flanks of a young nilgai.

- Fakhr-i-Mudabbir's Adabal-harb Wa'l -Shaj'a , 13th century Military manual dedicated to Sultan Shams al-din Iltutumish, the first sovereign Muslim ruler of Delhi. Found these lines in William Dalrymple's wonderful little book City of Djinns: A Year In Delhi.

When I read Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown, the idea of Boonyi practicing archery in the quite of a kashmiri village seemed odd. Not any more. The lines from that 13th century Military manual underline the significance of the hung showdown between Shalimar the clown carrying a knife in hand and India metamorphised into Kashmira carrying bow and arrow, lying in wait, in the final pages of the novel.

She drew an arrow from her quiver and and took up her stance. The door of the night-black room was opening, and her stepfather was coming in, knife in hand, neither the knife that had killed her mother nor the knife the knife that killed her father but a third, virginal blade, its silent steel intended just for her. She was ready for him.

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children had a showdown, The Satanic Verses also had a showdown, and these showdowns had an outcome - some one died, someone lost and someone won, but his Shalimar the Clown, significantly, had a hung showdown.

What the Cloud Said

[earlier cross posted at my other blog] 

Jammu
9th June, 2008

Time: Around 7:00 AM

Shot these photographs of rain clouds just moments before the first rain drop hit the ground.

update:
You can enjoy these photographs of clouds in a video too

cd covers

Tula Mula , 2008
Comedy, Bollywood parodies in Kashmiri, devotional songs - Hindu and Muslim, film songs, Kashmiri folk, love songs...

Jacquemont wrong again and men not less handsome

Monsieur Jacquemont does not speak in very flattering terms of the mountain-maidens of this district, but I cannot agree with him. They are women of very graceful and prepossessing appearance, with regular features, and I must do the men the justice to say that they are not less handsome than the women.

There were, amongst my coolies, two young men as beautifully formed,and as graceful in their movements, as any that I have ever seen. It is natural that the lower limbs of the inhabitants of these steep mountains should be very much developed, but it is an error to think that this development gives an herculean appearance; on the contrary, the exercise of journeying over these rugged ways, serves to give a delicate outline and pliant grace to the form.

- The Baron Erich von Schonberg wrote in his Travels in India and Kashmir (1853), London: Hurst & Blackett