THREE ICONIC KASHMIRI POETESSES IMMORTALISED BY THEIR WORK AND MEMORIALS

 

THREE ICONIC KASHMIRI POETESSES IMMORTALISED BY THEIR WORK AND MEMORIALS

BY WARVET

 

I     Habba Khatoon

    In henna I have dyed my hands, When will he come?

          I die, While he roams distant lands, my heart is numb!

          O, where is now the Day’s delight?

          I’ve waited long.

          The golden wine cups of the night,

          To him belong!

                    ( Habba Khatoon, - The Nightingale of Kashmir, Born – 1544 Died 1609)

 

Three adolescent village girls clad in salwaar kameez came strolling towards us in the rarefied Gurez twilight. I wondered whether we should greet them; after all we were in one of the remotest part of Indian Kashmir going towards the famed spring that gushes out as a mighty torrent at the base of the signature ‘Habba khatoon’ peak  watching over Dawar – the HQ of Gurez or Kishen Ganga valley. Twenty years back I had spent 4 months in the shadow of Habba Khatoon as a young Captain. ‘Aslam Valekum’ one of the girls greeted us in her stride and solved the Dilemma for me. ‘Valekum Aslam’ I replied ‘Is Habba Khatoon there’? ‘Yes, very much!’ They answed giggling with abandon. I and Surinder walked briskly ahead and down the steps to reach the pure mineral water spring that had reduced with onset of winter. We stooped and drank the sweet water with cups of our hands to our fill. As we walked back to our room, I thought of ‘Zoon’ (Moon) the wandering queen separated from her love and husband – Sultan Yusuf Shah Chak – The last of the native kings to rule Kashmir. She travelled lenghth and breadth of Kashmir, composing and singing her melancholy songs and getting immortalised as ‘Habba Khatoon’ or ‘Lovely Lady’ who remains a household name and a beacon of Kashmiri poetry.

                 Myself and Habba Khatoon in a frame

Zoon was from saffron town of Pampore and an exceptionally beautiful and intelligent girl who was married to a peasant. She had a penchant for poetry and was somewhat misfit amongst the peasentry in the 16^th century Kashmir. The king fell madly in love with her at first sight and following her divorce, she was married to him. Their blissful life was shattered when after defeating the invading Mughal armies twice, he was invited by Jalaludin Akbar, the ‘Great’ Mughal to Agra for negotiations. The Sultan trusted Akbar to uphold diplomatic traditions and disregarded Joon’s emotional entreaties brought out by foreboding premonitions and went to Agra. The ‘Great Mughal’ imprisoned the Sultan and banished him to Bengal. He never returned and died eventually at Patna, alone and forgotten. The devastated Zoon then wandered as a poet/mystic and adorned Kashmiri language with its earliest songs of love and longing.

 

II      Rupa Bhavani

  ‘Chashme Shahi’ or ‘Royal Spring’ is a Must Go place in Srinagar. However few know that original name of the spring and the garden that was commissioned by emperor Shah Jehan for his favourite son Dara Shikoh was ‘Chashme Sahibi’. It was in honour of the mystic saint ‘Rupa Bhavani’,from a Kashmiri pundit family whose family title was ‘Sahib’ hence ‘Chashme Sahibi’! With time, the name got corrupted to ' Chashma Shahi'. Rupa was the one who had discovered the spring.

Chashma Shahi

The ‘Vakhs’ or verses of Rupa like the one below are immortalised in shaivite and sufi traditions of Kashmir –

“ The sword of meditation slung by my side,

I mount the horse of twin breaths,

The Oriole’s song, like a Veena, fills the air,

Conches sound, all arund

Cybals ring, the river of practice springs forth,

This is how I worship Shiva!”

 

III   Lal Ded

    The next location that reminds us of one of the greatest women poets of Kashmir is a man made building. It’s the mammoth ‘Lal Ded Hospital’ near Rajbagh on the left bank of Jhelum in Srinagar city.

Ded means Grandmother in Kashmiri. Her real name was Lalleshwari (1320 to 1392) and she was born in Pandrethan, the original Srinagar, where I live now.  She renounced her husband and family and composed mystic and spiritual poetry.  The patron saint of Kashmir, Sheikh Noor-ud-din Wali who was the founder of the unique ‘Rishi Order’  of saints in Kashmir, that is the back bone of syncretic Kashmir or Kashmiriyat was influenced by Lalleshwari. It is believed that as a baby, he refused to suckle his mother and was breastfed by Lalleshwari.

Lalleshwari and her mystic musings are very much alive within Kashmiris today. Her songs like ‘Hukus Bukus’ (https://youtu.be/pA9UPOSh3Ws?si=GpHvSV1ipAoHT308) are huge hits in their pop avatars even today. Her wisdom is clearly visible in following vakh or verse –

“I might scatter the southern clouds,

Drain the sea, or cure someone hopelessly ill.

But to change the mind of a fool,

Is beyond me”.