…but they are crafty

– A Snake Charmer in the New Bazaar, Srinagar, Kashmir, 1892
from Illustrated London News. [found it here at Columbia.edu]
[Update: It was the work of J. E. Goodall]

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‘[They] are good-looking…but they are crafty’.

wrote Buddhist pilgrim from China, Huen Tsang who arrived in Kashmir in A.D. 631 as a state guest and stayed for two years. The exact words,”light and frivolous, and of a weak, pusillanimous disposition. The people are handsome in appearance, but they are given to cunning. ‘They love learning and are well-instructed.”

Kashmir in 1920s

Some more vintage photographs from ‘Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade: a Description of the Beauties of the Country, the Life, Habits and Humour of its Inhabitants, and an Account of the Gradual but Steady Rebuilding of a Once Down-trodden People’ by Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe (1922).

A Winter scene by Pandit Vishwanath.
Back waters of Dal

Floating Gardens of Dal.
Diving from the old school.
Dussehra sequence from Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar The Clown wasn’t mere magic realism.
Tiny dots are the pilgrims.

Kashmiri in 1922

Some more old photographs of Kashmir from ‘Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade: a Description of the Beauties of the Country, the Life, Habits and Humour of its Inhabitants, and an Account of the Gradual but Steady Rebuilding of a Once Down-trodden People’ by Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe (1922).

Pounding Rice: The mortars are block of wood hollowed out: the pestles are heavy pieces of timber which makes this daily round in women’s work very arduous.It is the women’s duty to convey water for domestic use. The constant practice of balancing the pots on their heads gives them an erect and graceful poise.

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Pandit Marriage, 1922

The bridegroom, aged 14, stands in the centre, priests are sitting in front. Pictures of various gods and goddesses lie on the ground.

Photograph by Pandit Vishwanath.

There’s a good chance that the photo depicts the thread ceremony of Pandits or Yagnopavit. It’s the sahibaan, the tent, in the background that I found interesting.

Found it in: ‘Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade: a Description of the Beauties of the Country, the Life, Habits and Humour of its Inhabitants, and an Account of the Gradual but Steady Rebuilding of a Once Down-trodden People’  by Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe (1922).

Pandit Woman by Pandit Vishwanath, 1922

Kashmir women do not have a working dress. This one has been squatting on a filthy bank cleaning her greasy pots with mud whilst wearing all her gold and silver and precious stones. She has no trinket box at home nor any place to store anything, so besides wearing all her clothes and valuables she has both pockets full, and tucked into her sash a handkerchief, knife, comb and snuff-box, and in the fold of her sleeves snuff and sugar in screws of paper, a needle and cotton and various other things.

The writer must have caught hold of her and given her a good shake and out must have tumbled all her possessions. A needle, a knife, a snuff-box. From the description, I have heard stories about snuff boxes; practice of cleaning pots with mud continued well into the 90s.  And then slowly mud was replaced by Nirma.

Photo by Pandit Vishwanath, a student of Biscoe and the first Kashmiri photographer.Found it in the book ‘Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade: a Description of the Beauties of the Country, the Life, Habits and Humour of its Inhabitants, and an Account of the Gradual but Steady Rebuilding of a Once Down-trodden People’ (1922) by Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe.

The thing that really interested me in the photograph is her footware. Must be the famous Pulhor [ recent photo] woven from leaves of Iris ( Krishm in Kashmiri ).

(I suspected it) Turns out  she is wearing Krav or wooden sandals.
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Panditanis


With graceful steps, erect and slow
Adown the stone-built, broken stair
The panditanis daily go
And on their head help high they bear

Bright vessels, which they stoop fill
Beneath the bridge’s wooden pier:
In pools of clouded amber still
Which gurgle deep and glowing here.

Their movements of unconscious grace
Glint in the Jhelum’s flowing stream
Where rich hues shimmering interlace
And in the glancing ripples gleam,

Then with their slender rounded arms
They poise the shining lotas high,
Ot bashful, with half feigned alarms
Draw close their veils with gesture shy.

Bedecked by jewels quaint of form
In pherans robed, whose soft folds show
Tints dyed by rays of sunset warm
Flame, crimson, orange, rose aglow!

With you gay tulips they compare
Which on these grass-grown house-tops blow:
What types for artist’s brush more fair
Does all Srinagar’s city know?

~ Muriel A.E. Brown
Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir (1921)
Muriel Agnes Eleanora Talbot Brown was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Adelbert Cecil Talbot, Resident, Kashmir 1896- 1900. And first wife of Percy Brown, art historian famous for his work on History of Indian Architecture ( Buddhist and Hindu, 1942 ).

 Another one of her poems. 

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Photographs of Kashmir, 1921

Here are some old photographs of Kashmir from the book ‘Topee and turban, or, Here and there in India’  (1921) by Newell, H. A. (Herbert Andrews, b. 1869). Photographs are by a Sialkot based photographer named R.E. Shorter.

Photograph of the Chenar Bagh on the Dal Canal at Srinagar
Third Bridge on Jehlum – Fateh Kadal. Can see Hari Parbat in the background.

Fishing in Dal
Kralyar Bank
View of Nanga Parbat from Rupla Nallah
Panjitarni on route to Amarnath
Shalimar Bagh

Old Photograph of Pandit Woman, 1921

Found this incredible rare old photograph of Kashmiri pandit woman in a travelogue ‘Topee and turban, or, Here and there in India’  (1921) by Newell, H. A. (Herbert Andrews, b. 1869 ). The photograph by R.E. Shorter was used as the frontispiece for this book.. 

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Bedecked by jewels quaint of form
In pherans robed, whose soft folds show
Tints dyed by rays of sunset warm
Flame, crimson, orange, rose aglow!

– lines from poem ‘Panditanis’ by Muriel A.E. Brown
(Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir, 1921)

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I have previously posted old photographs of Kashmiri Pandit women Here and Here

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Update [Thanks to Avi Raina]

The tight bracelet around the neck was known as ‘Tulsi’ and long teethy necklace was known as ‘Chapkali’.

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Teenk’pour

Gulmarg

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Picked up: “Tankipora or Teenk’pour  near old Secretariat in Srinagar. A place where you could get coin currency in exchange of  cash. And it had been like that, a place to get smaller change, for generations. The place gets its name from ‘Teenk'” or ‘Tanki’ of  the kind issued by Emperor Akbar. Tanki were the copper coin  issued by Akbar from his Ahmadabad, Agra, Kabul, and Lahore mints. System: 10 Tanki (each one weighing 4.15 gram )  = 1 Tanka (230.45 gram)

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He got his first salary – Rs 10. But sadly for him they gave him a ten rupees note. He was absolutely embarrassed. ‘How can I hand just this single note to mother? It seems nothing. She would be dejected.’  So he hit upon an idea. He went to Teenk’pour and changed the ten rupee note for 10 paisa coins. Then he went back home and handed over a full jangling bag of coins to his mother. ‘Son, they pay you so much salary!  May you prosper more! May you be an afsar soon! Good bless! Urzu! Urzu!’ Mother was happy.

Illustrated Kashmir, 1870

Found these in ‘Letters from India and Kashmir’ by J. Duguid, 1870. [The illustrations are by MR. H. R. ROBERTSON, and engraved by MR. W. J. PALM KB, principally from the writer’s Sketches.]

View from Shankarachary . Can’t take camera up the hill these days.

If you take the road to Srinagar, a somewhat similar scene will greet you welcome.
Another familiar scene from Gulmarg. Godawalla and his Goda.
Familiar sound. Panic of Murgies.
Shawl-Wallas
Sheer Chai time.
Woman
Manasbal
On Sind river. Believed at once time to be the longest bridge ever in Kashmir having twelve arches.
Suspension bridge at Uri.
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