Vinden och floden (The Wind and the River),1951 by Arne Sucksdorff

sabzaar gulzaar

Vinden och floden (The Wind and the River),1951 by great Swedish filmmaker, Arne Sucksdorff. Based on the life of boat people of Kashmir. Lyrically capturing the songs and images of that life in one of the most beautiful films ever made on Kashmir.

Arne Sucksdorff visited India in 1950, it seems with the objective of documenting the life of its working people. Out of this visit came two films: Village Hindou (Hindu Village) about the lack of water in an Indian village, and Vinden och floden (The Wind and the River), about river life of Kashmir.

The film begins with a quote (missing in the extract above) which summarises the vision of the film, “Når de tunge pramme stages op ad Jelum-floden, sker det under en storslået dialog mellem Allah, Mennesket og Skønheden. (When the heavy barges poled up the Jelum River, she does so in a magnificent dialogue between God, Man and beauty.)”

The music of the film, a blend Kashmir folk and India Classical, is by Ravi Shankar, who was yet to attain international acclaim back then. He was working with AIR at the time and probably artists form AIR station Srinagar were used for creating the sounds.

The film begins with scene of a Hindu ascetic mediating atop a hill in Srinagar. Down below, the city is brimming with scenes of lyrical songs of life. A life sustained by a river that quietly flows through it and weaving a web of ecology in which people seem to be at peace. A peace for which people thank their benevolent gods.

It is a way of life that is now almost over. Jhelum has been cleared of its boat people and their ‘slums’. [a view from 2014, what the river looks like after the ‘cleanup’ of boat people]

Winter 2014

-0-
Extracted from ‘Uma Vida Dividida‘ (2001).

Karewa

Karewa
Feb 2014
view from next to a patrol pump between Avantipur and Srinagar.
Tree are being felled as part of road widening and multi-laning process

Serious Union/Gambhira Sangam

Feb. 2014.
Overlooking the old bridge

Serious Union/Gambhira Sangam= Vitasta + (Vishav + Rembyar, Stein’s Gambhira). Gambhira Sangani of Rajatarangini. Sangam at Kakapora. Between Bijbehara and Avantipur.

Something about the bridge from updated Rājataraṅgiṇī:

“It may be noted that this crossing has a certain strategic impotence. On occasion of a rising in 1930 in parts of Jammu territory, sympathizers in the Kasmir valley took care to burn the wooden bridge by which the modern motor road from Srinagar to Banhal pass crosses here the river. It has been since replaced by an iron one duly guarded.” ~ Luther Obrock (ed.) Marc Aurel Stein – Illustrated Rājataraṅgiṇī (2013)







Migrant da Dabba, Delhi, 1992

A scene from early 90s. “On a makeshift fire, Kashmiri migrants run a kitchen in Delhi to support themselves.” Since there in not single work in early 90s on this specific tribe, these pieces come from multiple sources. This one is from the book, “The Kashmir Tangle : Issues and Options” (1992) by Rajesh Kadian.

The story of Delhi Migrants that I remember from this era involves an unnamed Pandit who became a bus conductor in Noida. The man, a misfit in the big bad city, was murdered, it was said by fellow conductors over petty professional rivalry. I waited, but no one wrote his story.

-0-

Kanakavatsa, the Bihari Monk in Kashmir

14th century Thangka painting via: British Museum 

Kanakavatsa, the legendary figure from Buddhism, one among the sixteen Arahat of Indian origin from Buddha’s time, is believed to have been born in Bihar and lived with his 500 Arahats on the “Saffon Hill” in Kashmir under the patronage of the local King. In the the iconography of Kanakavatsa, a barbarian King is often shown kneeling before him worshipping. In the above image, an “an Indian adorant offers coral” while the ethnicity of Kanakavatsa by his color.

-0-

Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
RSS