Kashmiri Poetry
Its Past and Present
History of Kashmir is a poignant tale of poverty, hardship and
humiliation. But in the vast desert of its political subjugation servitude, and
economic suffering, here and there, one finds in its history rich oasis of
benevolent rule, social and economic prosperity where rich culture, art and
springs of communal amity, religious tolerance quench the thirst and soothe the
hearts of Kashmiris.
Kashmiri, though spoken by more than forty lakhs of people has never been a
medium of communication among the common people; while Sanskrit, Persian and
English have, in turn, been the official languages or the languages of the
educated sections. Till the end of the 18th century whatever poetry was
produced, was the work of the illiterate men and country bards or women like
Lalleshwari and Habba Khatoon.
Lal Ded (URL)
Ignoring the folklore, we can historically locate the first poets of Kashmir
in the 14th century. Among them Lalleshwari or Lai Ded is the most significant
poetess. After the benign and peaceful rule of Avantivarman in Kashmir. there
followed the long period of political unrest and uncertainty which was
responsible for the degeneration of religion and morals of the people. They
followed the complicated rites and dogmas and naturally the simple religion of
Islam had a great impact on the people of Kashmir. They did not keep themselves
aloof and remain entrenched in stronghold of religious separateness. They mixed
with the Muslims. This close contact between them and their influence on each
other brought about the evolution of mystics and, to some extent, a sort of
synthesis of the two religions in certain sects. Lalleshwari belongs to this
genre of mystics who sang many truths that are common to many Hindus and
Muslims. No doubt, her religious philosophy is fundamentally based on Yoga and
Shaivism which she expressed in precise, apt and sweet Kashmiri dialect.
According to her, devotion to God requires purity of heart and concentration of
mind which she expressed in beautiful verse. She says:
"The mind's steed runs over the skies
Within a wink it travels lakhs of leagues.
A truly intelligent man can bridle the cavorting steed.
And guide his chariot aright on the wheels of Prana ".
(tr. from Kashmiri)
She considers idolatory as useless and urges us to take to yogic practice:
"Idol and temple of stone
So temple above and idol below are one;
Which will they worship
O stupid one
Bring about the union of mind and soul".
(tr. from Kashmiri)
Contemporary of Lai Ded was Sheikh Nur-ud-Din Wali, the great mystic, who too
like her was revered by both Hindus and Muslims of Kashmir.: expressed his moral
teachings in concise and sweet verses, which form valuable gems of Kashmiri
literature. He, like Lal Ded, exhorted his followers to perform good actions for
therein lies the salvation of man. One of his verses translated into English is:
"The dog is barking in the compound,
O Brothers! Give ear and listen to what he says;
As one sowed, so did he reap
Then Nund, sow, sow, sow".
Religious schisms were raising their heads in his time and Nund Rishi, as he
was lovingly called, warned people against these hypocritical saints in the
following verse (translated from Kashmiri):
"The rosary is like a snake;
Thou bendest it on seeing the disciples;
Thou hast eaten six platefuls, one like another
If thou art a priest, then who are robbers?"
After the death of the two mystics, Lai Ded and Nund Rishi, the Muse in
Kashmir fell into a deep sleep for about two hundred years and with the birth of
Habba Khatoon it woke up again fluttering and singing, not the mystical
experience but the lilting tunes of true romance. Poets imagine romance and
write about it but Habba Khatoon lives romance and sings about it. Up to her time poets were expected to sing the love of God but she
sang of human love. She sang lyrics which can be regarded as great gems in
Kashmiri literature and therein her genius exults. The Kashmiri poetry had been
surcharged with mysticism and divinity but she bought fresh air into it when she
sang of mundane earthly love. She does not treat love, as a "transcendental
passion or as a mystic mingling of sense and spirit nor is she engrossed in
universal, abstract and ideal love". She sings of her personal substantive
love. She also lends herself to the emotions of the joylessness of life. Her own
failure in marriage and then her own love story, proved a significant factor in
her emotional experience and in her poetry only `plaintive numbers flow' and
these echo her own grief. In one of her famous poems she says:
"Stole thou my heart and forsook me at last
Pray come, my lovely Love, O come!
Come friend let us to collecting cress,
Mystery of fate none can unravel.
Sly, senseless people slander and defame me
Pray, come, my lovely Love, O come!
Hurt he hath me with his love's hatchet
Then sent none to ask and enquire after.
Pray, come, my lovely Love, O come".
(tr. from Kashmiri)
No poems, barring those of Habba Khatoon or Arnimal, which sing of a woman's
passion or love from the feminine standpoint, are found in Kashmiri literature.
Kashmiri ladies, therefore, find in her poems an eloquent exposition of the
woman's point of view. Her desperate wails make them share her despair.
Therefore, miserable women, downtrodden by callous men and persecuted by the
mother-in-law, feel consoled and their sorrowful feelings get purged by singing
her verses in their lonely moments. Her individual and personal desire is the
desire of every woman. Thus Habba Khatoon laments:
"Pining and melting I am like snow in summer
Though blooming blossom of jasmine I am;
Thine the garden and thou enjoy it
Oh, why dost thou despise me!"
Habba Khatoon (URL) (TV
Movie)
A century later another lady, named Arnimal, moved the hearts of the Kashmiri
people. She was forsaken by her husband. His desertion aroused the muse in her.
Her songs are sweet and full of rich imagery and pathos. Thus she wails:
My face was like a jasmine in July
Now it is like yellow withered rose.
Ah! when will he come to me
And I gaze at his lovely face".
Kashmiri poetry of the modern period starts with the beginning of 19th
century. In the early stages Kashmiri was dominated by Persian influences, as it
was the court language and the medium of polite literature. Kashmiri poets
meticulously followed the models set by Persian poets: From 1819 to 1890 was the
period when Kashmir produced poetry both rich and prolific. The devotional type
of poetry had laid firm Foundations in Kashmir. Pandit Parmanand, is the great
exponent of Ida devotional songs). He expressed his devotion for Lord Krishna in
sweet and direct diction. His poems, though simple, are of deep metaphysical
import. Shams Fakir, born in 1943, was a mystic and a highly religious man. He
spent all his life of 63 years in the worship of God and expressed his Sufi-type
of teaching in simple, sweet and direct poems. He followed Nund Rishi and
believed in the purity of heart and the denial of the joys of life. He believed
in leading a simple life. Wahab Khar was also a Sufi of his type, who also
quoted and expressed his simple teachings in simple Kashmiri language. One of
the earliest poets who follows Persian pattern Mohammad Gami. He wrote romances
like Yusuf Zulaikha, Laila Majnu and Shirin Khusru, etc. His descriptions are
trite and graphic. What distinguishes his poetry is the true quality of passion:
"Softly come, flowers shall I shower
Listen to my wails,
I search for you in the woods;
In the garden of love I seek you.
Where you fly, there I follow you.
My whimsical one, I adore you.
Your tresses are tumbled down on your shoulders
Like branches of Sumbal stooping low and low
You know my heart's desire
My heart and body are restless!"
Maqbul Shah Kralwari, at the same time, wrote a poetic romance Gulrez. Its
theme is Persian but the scenes are typically Kashmiri. The miserable condition
of squalor and fear in which a farmer lived has been well described by him in
his famous satire Gruisnama, written in a frank, straightforward and sympathetic
sarcasm. He says:
"Thrushings verily have been ordained by Heaven for the peasant;
Pull out the shoe and strike him on the head".
Again, he describes peasants running forth to welcome a state official,
Sazwal, with false warmth:
"If the Sazwal comes across them they run to greet him
They would knock away his fatigue with closed fists
Shampoo his limbs and offer him seat upon their heads".
He is famous for his lyrical poetry too wherein he gives beautiful
description of Nature.
The lyric stream of Kashmiri verse runs deeper in Rasul Mir. His poems
possess all the essential elements that go to make a true lyric-intense passion,
exquisite verbal melody and spontaneity of utterance. They have such careless
ease and abandon, such indefinable and bewitching sweetness about them that they
send a strange yet delightful thrill in us. Thus sings the poet (tr. from
Kashmiri):
"Love, thy serpentine curls have enchanted me
O, cast a glance of thy languid eyes, my drunken love.
How I admire thy cypress stature and thy form resplendent like the moon!
O, my loved one, thou art possessed of smile, form resplendent like the
moon".
He is considered as the father of Kashmiri ghazal, running in a well-knit
form and pattern.
The renaissance in modern Kashmiri literature begins in the early twenties of
this century with Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor's poetry. who was given eminence by
Tagore, who called him "the Wordsworth of Kashmiri poetry". He, as a
village Patwari, came into close contact with poor down-trodden rustic people of
the villages, who lived in squalor and misery. Their condition shocked and shook
him to the very marrow and he voiced their inner feelings and exhorted them to
rise and strive for their own emancipation. There was feudalism prevailing in
Kashmir as elsewhere in the country, which was full of vices. Feudal lords have
always been interested in profit-hunting and exploiting the poor classes.
Mahjoor did not flee from the socio-political world into an enchanted realm of
his own mind jealously closed against the intrusion of social and political
affairs. His poems are full of patriotism. He says:
"Mahjoor, our own motherland is a flowery garden,
Most lovely!
Best we must love our dear land
Our land is a lovely garden"
(tr. From Kashmiri)
"He even blows the trumpet of revolution
If thou wouldst rouse this habitat of roses,
Leave toying with kettle-drums.
Let there be thunder-storm and tempest, aye an earthquake".
He is a votary of Hindu-Muslim unity and in the hearts of Kashmiri people are
enshrined the high principles of brotherhood, tolerance and communal amity.
According to him:
"Hindus will keep the helm and Muslims ply the oars;
Let them together row ashore the boat of this country".
Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor
(URL)
Mahjoor was not a mystic or a recluse but a lover of Life and Nature. In his
early life he was not interested in politics. In his famous poem Gulshan Vattan
Chu honey (Our Land is a Lovely Garden) he sings of the beauty of Nature:
"To gardens, mountains and hills
Ravines, woods and banks
Colourful flowers with colour fills
Our land is a lovely garden!
Flowers are in full bloom
In gardens, woods and glens;
Bulbul gazing gets gay soon;
Our land is a lovely garden!"
He has written in simple popular language poems of immense lyrical sweetness.
In his well-known poem Lokchar (Youth) he melodiously sings:
"A cedar tree is a wood in my youth
On a river's bank delighting in lush verdure;
Cut it not down, O cruel woodcutter!
O my youth, my spring time!
Like a song-bird of the garden is my youth!
Singing sweetly, sitting on a flowering bough.
O chief hunter, do not take aim at it;
O my youth, my spring time"
Mahjoor was followed by Abdul Ahad Azad who too like him took to
revolutionary ideas. But Mahjoor was a nationalist while Azad desired and longed
for a socialist pattern of society, based on equality among men.
The end of feudal regime in Kashmir and the consequent political changes
brought about a cataclysmic awakening and an urge to reject the traditional
values in Kashmiris. The younger generation was no longer deferential to old
moral principles and there was naturally a breakdown in the traditional values
in all fields of social activities. Men like Zinda Koul, better known as
"Master ji", looked inwards and to the things of the spirit. He found
that knowledge and freedom which had given us material progress had removed
harmony, confidence and serenity from our hearts. The modern mind was tormented
by scepticism and anguish. He shunned the political enthusiasm of the time and
was not swept off his feet by the socialistic ideas and dreams. The only key to
happiness, according to him, is love and he does not preach any dogmatic
philosophy or state any mystical certainties. Pure poetry aspires to a condition
of prayer and Zinda Koul's famous poem is full of such poetry. Like Francis
Thompson he feels that God always thought of his well-being and though he fears
Him and avoids him God is for ever waiting for man to turn to Him. Says Zinda
Koul:
"Have strayed, tottered and fallen,
How dare I face Him again? But you'll find it unavailing-
This lame excuse to fly Him.
For even if you turn,
He will pursue for ever;
This bond is from the dawn of life
Not a passing childish fancy".
Majbooriyaa (Compulsion) and Natairee (Unpreparedness) are sublime poems
which express the belief in the supermacy of the spirit over reason.
Pandit Zinda Koul (1884-1965) (URL)
The great ferment began in 1931 when Sheikh Moh'd Abdullah launched an
agitation against the autocracy and with the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan in
1947, it came to its full flowering. A new fervour gripped the new generation of
poets when the people's government was formed after the collapse of the
feudalistic rule, action and poetry became a vehicle of propaganda for social
and political justice. A group of poets emerged who regarded socialistic realism
as an all-pervasive literary value. They became the people's articulate voice
against the aristocratic exploitation, corruption and imperialist designs on the
valley of Kashmir. They experimented with new forms and new themes. The leader
of this progressive group, as it came to be known, was Dina Nath Nadim. He was
influenced by the English poets like Shelley and Byron, the Marxist thought and
Russian and Chinese revolutions. Dina Nath Nadim who was also awarded Soviet
Land Nehru Award by the U.S.S.R. in 1971 for his revolutionary poetry, was the
most significant poet ofthe new generation. The influence of Mayakovsky Gorky
can clearly be seen in h is poetry. His poetry is intimately connected with the
political upheavals in Kashmir. In Vathi Baagachi Kukli (Arise, 0 Oriole of the
Garden) he sang ofthe dawn of freedom movement in Kashmir. In Asi Kashirav tul
nov rut kadam (We Kashmiris took the right new step) he hailed the land to the
tillers' step. He mostly wrote with a political bias; in his Bu Gyavana Az (I
will not sing today) he sings of the new freedom movement:
"I will not sing today
Of roses and of bulbuls
Of irises and hyacinths
I will not sing
Those drunken and ravishing
Dulcet and sleepy eyed songs
No more such songs for me!"
In his poems he makes impeccable use of words and original imagery drawn from
everyday life. This has made his poems very popular. Dal Hanzani Hund satsun
(The song of the boatwoman) is a clear example of such poems:
"I've brought them fresh from the take
Come buy, come buy, come buy!
Small brinjal and round big gourds-
Come buy! come buy! come buy!
Fresh radish gleaming in the shade of the weed
Marsh turnip blushing like a belle-
O my boat is like the flowering dawn!
Come buy! come buy! come buy!"
Nadim also has written an opera Imber Bumerzal which is most famous for its
music and richness of thought and has won for him laurels.
He influenced many poets. Abdul Rehman Rahi is significant among them. Rahi
also is a poet of revolution and wrote some propagandist poems. He introduced
into Kashmiri poetry two things. one was the monologue and another the use of
symbolist technique. In Gata Gash (Darkness Light) the Jagirdhar and the peasant
speak alternately. He invokes an atmosphere through significant details and
images, as:
"I saw a maiden fair in grief
With bent back and tears flowing
I drew closer in that garden
Lo! it was the narcissus heavy with dew".
Another great poet of modern time in Kashmir is Mirza Arif. He does not
belong to this group of socialist poets and has poetry which has its own
distinct characteristics and originality. He is by education and temperament a
scientist and keenly observes life with a certain detachment. He, too, has
reflected on the different facts of social and political life in Kashmir and he
writes about exploitation, hypocrisy and falsehood. He takes the lid off the
cesspool of social evil. He writes:
"One chance leap shows jackal in lion's skin
Seemingly elephants, they lack the strength of a hair.
Create they thus the world of dissembling
What appear the iron walls, are but spider's webs,
The wealthy called him scum;
The political juggler called him king;
The poor have seen the changing faces of the knaves".
Or
"Fallen on the crossroads, the drunken man,
To whom intoxication will bring sense (moral)
Is better far than the sage with innocent face,
Hidden in whose marrow lies the Satan".
Among other new poets in Kashmir may be mentioned Amin Kamil, Noor Moh'd
Roshan, Ghulam Nabi Firaq and Moti Lal Saqi. All these poets are iconoclastic
and would like to break the idols of old traditions. They also describe the
social evils with full force. Thus sings Amin Kamil:
"Within their parlours darkness
Illuminations splendour without.
Valued much is yellow gold, love but ignored!
Tearing curtains tunes will run out,
Time has laid the trap,
For life is not a stagnant pond".
Noor Moh'd Roshan's intellectual ideas are superb and he expresses them
sweetly as:
"Stunned Satan sadly was roaming in the heavens
"Why you left the earth" asked the Almighty of him.
"I have come to hide myself, for shocked am I to see", he pleaded
"Man is proficient in all my villainy and wickedness;
No work is now left for me down below"
The Cultural Academy of Jammu & Kashmir and the Radio Kashmir are
encouraging and actively and directly helping the budding poets and we find
since Independence in 1947, a palpable resurgence in the field of art and
literature.
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