Pandit Minstrel and His Song, 1911

Krishna Boya Greb, Kashmiri Minstrel, 1911
(seems to be holding a ‘dutar’)

Although the singing traditions of Kashmir are usually associated with Kashmiri Muslims but around hundred years ago, a visitor to Kashmir could run into a thriving community of Pandit singers too.
Yet, the only documented record of them comes from a few pages in a work titled ‘Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir’ (1913) by Ratan Devi and Ananda Coomaraswamy. 
In 1911, while collecting Kashmiri songs in valley, they found that:
“Kashmiri Pandits are rarely musicians: those who are, claim to sing in many rags and talk boastfully of Kashmir as the original source of the music of Hindustan reckoning Kashmir another country, and not a part of India.
We heard three Pandit singers of some reputation, all old men. As accompaniment to the voice they use a small and rather toneless sitar. One also played on a zither (independently, not as an accompaniment), striking the many strings (tuned with much difficulty), with small wooden hammers held in both hands, making a sweet tinkling music. We were told that this Pandit was accustomed to sing to sick people, and even effect cures, but to our thinking, he sang no better than the others, that is, not very well. The so-called various rags sung by the Pandits are all very much alike, and musically distinctly uninteresting. The only song which seemed to us all worth recording was the following “Invocation to Ganesh” sung by Krishna Boya Greb, Pandit, son of Vasu Dev Boya Greb, to a sitar accompaniment. This very slow, rather hymn-like tune, if imagined to be sung in a rather nasal and drawling voice, will give a good idea of the general type of Pandit songs, expect as regards the words, which are exceptional. The curious actable staccato does not appear in any other Kashmiri song here recorded. 
Invocation to Ganesh
Tsara tsar chhuk parmisharo
Rachhtam pananen padan tal
Gaza-mokha balaptsandra lambo-dara
Venayeko boyinai jai
Hara-mokha darshun dittam ishara
Rachhtam pananen padan tal
Translation [one Pandit Samsara Chand helped with the text, but the translation are all mostly flawed]:
Thou art all that moves or moves not, Supreme Lord!
The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!
Gaja-mukha, Bala-chandra, Lambo-dara,
Vinayaka, I cry Thee ‘Victory’!
In all wise show me They face, O Lord! 
The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!
Some other Pandit songs:
Love Song
As nai visiye myon hiu kas go
yas gau masvale gonde hawao
Zune dabi bhitui dari chhas thas gom
Zonamzi osh ma angan tsav
yar ne deshan volingi tsas gom
yas gau masvale gonde hawao
Do not mock, my friend (f.); had it befallen another like me,
That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!
As I sat on the moonlit balcony, he came to the door;
I learnt that my lover had come to my courtyard,
If I meet not my darling (m.) I shall suffer heart-pangs
That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!
[There are a bunch of other songs given in the book by the only one I could easily recognise was the ‘Spring Song’ for its refrain Yid aye…(Eid has come)]
Yid ay bag fel yosman
Karayo kosmanan krav
Yid ay bag fel yosman
Nirit goham vanan
Yut kya tse chhuyo chavo
Trovit tsulhama mosman
karyo kosmanan krav
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And yes, Pandits still lay claim on giving India Natya Shastra, or at least giving the most authoritative commentary on it through Abhinavagupta.
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Previously: 

How Mahmud Gami’s Words Reached West, 1895

A Muslim Singer-Beggar
From Dutch travelogue ‘De zomer in Kaschmir : De Aarde en haar Volken’
(Summer in Kashmir: ‘The Land and its Peoples) by F. Michel (1907).

It is widely believed that the first person to bring works of Kashmiri poet Mahmud Gami (1750-1855) to western world was Karl Frederick Burkhard when in 1895 he partially published Gami’s retelling of ‘Yusuf Zulekhah’ in a German magazine.

Last night, I came across something that proves that Mahmud Gami’s words may have actually reached west a couple of decades earlier due to incidental travel journaling by a British painter, who also happens to be a blood relative of Virginia Woolf.

In 1877, after sketching the royalty of the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, while on his way back, at Thanna Mandi, a place near Rajouri, in the afternoon of 13th June, V. C. Prinsep (1838-1904) met a traveling Kashmiri bard, a singing fakir, who regaled him with Kashmiri songs for hours while they walked. Preinsep made some notes, and later got two of the songs translated.

In his book ‘Imperial India; an artist’s journals’ (1879), Preinsep writes:

He was a filthy object, the dirtiest of the dirty; but he had the soul of a poet, and as he played his poor four-stringed instrument, he threw his head on one side, and bent over his guitar, much as first-rate performers do at home. He was grateful too, for when I left at 5 a.m., I found him waiting, and he played to me along a couple of miles of road, with his dirty legs keeping time to the twang of his music, and his nose well in the air ; neither would he leave until I gave hookham or permission.
My good friend Major Henderson [C.S.I., who was political officer in Kashmir, and an excellent linguist.] has sent me translations of two of this poet’s songs. One appears to be well known as the love-song of Mohammed Gami, a Kashmir poet.
“Like a flower-bearing plant I have become withered,
 Even I, for thy love, O Bee ;
 I will wail like the nightingale,
 ‘Where shall I seek thee, O Lily ? ‘
 Deal gently with me, come to my feast ;
 I will encircle thee with my arms, O Bee !
 What said I to thee that vexed thy heart with me ?
 By God, I adjure thee, tell me what is in thy heart.
 O dear friend, where didst thou flee from me ?
 Forsaking me, Sundar, O Bee ! “
I should like to have imported my poet as he appeared to me in his rags and filth ; yet is his love-song much like such as are sung in the drawing-rooms of Belgravia. The second song is another love-song, and the name of the poet is not known.
“Go, O bosom friend, bring me my lover, gently, gently.
 In anger he left me, sore and vexed : what offence could I have caused him?
 What is to me adornment of the person, antimony for the eyes, or any other
 embellishment ?
 For wealth and pearls what care I ? or the bells attached to my skirt ?
 O friend, sit with me in the shade of a wide-spreading chenar !
 Let not the calumny of an enemy affect thee. I am helpless.
 For my beauteous and graceful lover a divan and couch I will prepare.
 If he is not pleased with me, for whom shall I prepare them ?
 See what happened to Shuk Sanaa for the sake of the Hindoo maiden !
 He wore the sacred thread, he cherished swine with his own hands ! ” 

As is turns out, the second song is from work called ‘Shekh Sana’, a version of which among others was put to Kashmiri verses by Mahmud Gami.
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Previously:

Ceiling of Pandrethan

Photograph of the Meruvardhanaswami temple at Pandrethan near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken in 1868 by John Burke. Pandrethan, now mostly in ruins, is one of Kashmir’s historic capitals, said by Kalhana in his poetical account of Kashmiri history called Rajatarangini to have been founded by king Pravarsena in the 6th century AD. Its name thus derives from Puranadishthana or ‘old town’. The small stone Shiva temple in the picture dates from the mid-10th century, reputedly erected by a minister named Meru. It was set in a spring-fed tank and its plinth is now submerged. This general view of the temple is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ (1869), in which he wrote, ‘The small village of Pandrethan is situated on the Jhelum, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Srinagar…The Temple is close to the village, and stands in the centre of a tank of water…At the time of my visit, the water was about two feet over the floor of the Temple, and I had to obtain a small boat to enable me and my surveyors to take measurements. The stone ceiling is elaborately carved in bas-relief figures, and it is one of the most perfect pieces of ancient carving that exists in Kashmir…The pyramidal roof is divided into two portions by an ornamental band. The corner pilasters are surmounted by carved capitals, and the pediments of the porches appear to have terminated with a melon-shaped ornament. The ceiling is formed of nine blocks of stone; four resting over the angles of the cornice, reduce the opening to a square, and an upper course of four stones still further reduces the opening, which is covered by a single block decorated with a large lotus.’

The above image and description is easily available at British Library. What I am actually sharing is something inside the temple. The design that could be seen on the ceiling. 
The design on the ceiling was first copied by Alexander Cunningham in around 1848 after a tip-off by Lord John Elphinstone. When Cunningham visited the temple, there was evidence that one time the ornamentation, the designs and the figures of the temple must have been profusely plastered over to cover its naked idol beauty.
Inside, he found figures on the walls plastered as also the ornamentation on ceiling. He gives it as the reason why George Trebeck didn’t notice any figures or any designs on the ceiling when he became the first European to enter the temple in around 1822. 
Alexander Cunningham had the plaster removed and the figures on the ceiling appeared.
Cunningham’s copy of the design
Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture by 
Alexander Cunningham
Journal of Asiatic So
ciety of Bengal (1848)
 “The ceiling is formed of nine blocks, four of which rest over the angles of the cornice, and reduce the opening to a square, which is just one half of the size of the other. The same process is again repeated with an upper course of four stones, by which the opening is still further narrowed to a square of 4 feet ; and lastly, this opening is covered by a single stone decorated with a large expanded lotus, surrounded by a beaded circle. The smaller angles are occupied by naked human figures, something similar to those of the Payach ceiling, but without wings. These figures besides have only one leg and one arm outstretched, which affords more variety than the other treatment at Payach. Each of the larger angles is filled with two figures holding out a garland, which falls in a graceful loop between them. The whole rests upon a cornice supported by brackets, which were so much decayed that I found it impossible to trace their decorations or even their exact shape. The spaces between the brackets were also much injured ; but they appeared to have been filled with some kind of ornamental drapery hanging in curved folds.”
The winged figures noticed by him on the ceiling of Payach:
A much more detailed (lesser know) copy of Pandrethan ceiling prepared by one R.T. Burney was presented by W.G. Cowie in his 1865 paper ‘Notes on some of the Temples of Kashmir, especially those not described by General A. Cunninghan’ (Journal of The Asiatiic Society of Bengal Volume 35, Part 1. 1866)
W.G. Cowie  states: “General Cunningham’s drawing of the ceiling of the temple is not quite complete. From the accompanying very accurate sketch made by Mr. R. T. Burney of the Civil Service, (Plate XVIII.), it will be seen that the angles of the square in which the beaded circle is, are occupied by naked human figures, as well as the angles of the other squares. These innermost figures have both arms outstretched, like those at Payach seeming to hold up the circle. They have drapery about their shoulders, resembling light scarfs. The brackets supporting the cornice were once ornamented, and show marks of great violence having been used to destroy the carving. Each appears to have represented a human head ; for on several of them there still remains on both sides what looks like plaited hair. The pediment pilasters project 5 inches beyond those supporting the trefoiled arches. The corner pilasters of the building are 1 foot 10 1/2 inches thick. I found what I took for mortar in all parts of the building.
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Plaited hair in a Harwan Tile

Traditional Kashmiri plaited hairstyle.
1890s 

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Among Kashmiri Pandits “mas parun” –  plaiting hair of the would be bride on the day of “Devgon“.

chobuk

“How they frighten birds in Kashmir by means of a cracker made of plaited strips of bush ten feet long”
~ ‘Indian Memories: Recollections of Soldiering Sport, Etc.’ (1915) by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, father of Scout Movement.
Action in ‘Shikargah Pather’.
Delhi. April. 2013.

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Travels in Kashmir by Brigid Keenan, 1989

Brigid Keenan originally meant this book to be a booklet on papier mache art of Kashmir, but once she started collecting material, as often happens in case of Kashmir, she got swept away in the flood its colorful history. So, instead she wrote a ‘general’ book about Kashmir. A book that picks the best bits about Kashmir and presents it beautifully.

The book revisits those old literally routes through which the west discovered Kashmir. It does this by presenting the interesting stories of early European visitors, most of them now famous because of their journals, but also some minor one and their little known travel diaries (some of them still not publicly available ). So we read story of George Forster travelling under guise of a Muslim and almost getting caught because in a moment of lapse he takes a leak while standing, like a man devoid of faith. And on other end we have the story of a Kashmiri tailor named Butterfly, maker of finest lingerie for British in India, who accidentally embarrassed his Memsahib clients when he brought out a catalogue carrying neatly sketched details of his comfy products and the names of the elite clients enjoying them.

Besides all this, what really makes this book stand out is that Brigid Keenan gives us the description and location of some heritage sites associated with British in Srinagar. Their playgrounds, their famous camp sites (Chinar Bagh), their church (All Saint’s Church), their graves (Shiekh Bagh) and their colony (Munshi Bagh). And much like the books of early visitors to Kashmir, this book too provides us a vital snapshot about the status of some old monuments and heritage sites of Kashmir. Reading this book we get to know their status as they stood in 1989 – already vanishing.

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Buy Travels in Kashmir: A Popular History of Its People, Places and Crafts

Kashmir in Reverend’s Jesus Dream

Created by cutting and re-arranging  Michelangelo’s ‘Christ on the Cross’

“May 8 to 17 [1832, Kabul]- I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Wolff, who came into my room, and told me to listen to the Bible, and be converted to Christianity, which is the best religion in the world. My answer pleased the reverend gentleman very much. He added the following most singular speech : – That in the city of Bokhara he had an interview with Jesus Christ, who informed him that the pleasant valley of Kashmir will be the New Jerusalem after a few years.”

~ Mohan Lal [Kashmiri/Zutshi] in ‘Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan, Turkistan, to Balk, Bokhara, and Herat; and a visit to Great Britain and Germany’ (1846), about his meeting with Rev. Joseph Wolff.

Kashmir in Akbar’s Dream

A woman, her head covered, like she was on her way to a temple, praying aloud for the welfare of her family, like at a temple, walked past me and entered the chamber that is believed to house the grave of Akbar. The unconventionally plain walled chamber in fact houses the cenotaph of Akbar the Great.
Sikandra. U.P. July. 2011.

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In 1892, just three weeks after his death, Lord Alfred Tennyson, considered one of the greatest British Poet, was posthumously published. The collection of poems ‘The Death of Oenone, Akbar’s Dream, and Other Poems’. Among these, ‘Akbar’s Dream’ is considered his last possible work. The poem was set as a conversation between Akbar and his trusted friend Abu Fazal. In the verses giving us visions of Akbar’s great dream for his empire, its subjects, his fear of his sons and their budding blood thirst, his prophecy of a possible death of his dreams, and a possible salvation through adoption by a bigger dream – in all of it we can read how Tennyson believed British Empire was the only true inheritor and propagator of Akbar’s dream.  The work is an interesting mixup of British imperialistic dreams with their oriental longings.

If one forgets that it’s actually a British poem and has a subliminal meaning, an Indian can now easily adopt Akbar’s dream. Or perhaps already has. Isn’t modern India imagined and presented as a part of Akbar’s great dream? That’s not even remotely interesting. What is interesting is that this dream of Akbar presented by Tennyson actually starts with Kashmir.

AN INSCRIPTION BY ABUL FAZL FOR A TEMPLE IN KASHMIR
(Blochmann xxxii.)

O GOD in every temple I see people that see thee,
and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee.
Polytheism and Islam feel after thee.
Each religion says, ‘Thou art one, without equal.’
If it be a mosque people murmur the holy prayer, and if it be a Christian Church, people ring the bell from love to Thee.
Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque.
But it is thou whom I search from temple to temple.
Thy elect have no dealings with either heresy or orthodoxy; for neither of them stands behind the screen of thy truth.
Heresy to the heretic, and religion to the orthodox,
But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume seller.

In 1872, Heidegger (Henry) Blochmann published the manuscript of ‘The Ain i Akbari’, and then in 1873 followed it with a translation.

In this book, about the origin of these lines, Blochmann writes:

“The ‘Durar ul Manshur’, a modern Tazkirah by Muhammad Askari Husaini of Bilgram, selects the following inscription written by Abul Fazal for a temple in Kashmir as a specimen both of Abul Fazal’s writing and his religious belief. It is certainly vey characteristic, and is easily recognised as Abul Fazal’s composition.”

The original with translation and his notes follows:

And so, that great experiment too started with Kashmir.

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Robert S. Duncanson’s Vale(s) of Kashmir


African-American artist Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872), considered one of the greatest landscape painters of America, inspired by Thomas Moore’s epic poem Lalla Rookh (1817), imagined Kashmir and painted it on canvas.

He was to paint ‘Vale of Kashmir’ a couple of times. Each time, Kashmir looked like a fantastical tropical oasis with huge fountains.

Vale of Kashmir, 1864
found it in ‘The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872’ by Joseph D. Ketner

Vale of Kashmir, 1870

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Kashmir in Satyajit Ray’s Art

To get the feel of the era right for Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), among other things, the art director used authentic antique Kashmiri shawls from private collection. The art director was Bansi Chandragupta. If Satyajit Ray is considered one of the greatest Indian film directors of all time, his regular art director Bansi Chandragupta can be considered one of the best and pioneering art directors in India.

Bansi Chandragupta was born in 1924 in Sailkot. When still a child his family moved to Srinagar where he did his basic education. In 1942, in midst of ‘Quit-India’ movement he moved to Bengal and was introduced to Satyajit Ray as a painter. Along with Ray he was one of the founders of Calcutta film society. In years to come, Bansi Chandragupta went on to be Ray’s ‘Kashmiri’ friend who helped him in creation of almost all his cinematic masterpieces.

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Portrait of a Kashmiri Girl
Bansi Chandragupta
Early 20th century 
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