The Questions of Continuity and Fault lines
Ancient, Medieval and Modern Kashmir; Insights and Problems in P. K. Nehru’s Satisar to Kashmir.
Pandits are homeless in more senses than one. What is especially ignored is chosen homelessness or self exile to barren landscapes where the richness of imagination and culture one owned is disowned. Exploring one’s history, myths and literature constitute vital means to live and refuse annihilation. P.K.Nehru has done such an exploration in Satisar to Kashmir and invites Pandits to their lost selves.
The author seems to take partly historical works rather uncritically as works of history. We know Nilmat Purana is not primarily a work of history in the sense we now understand the term. And even Rajatarangini too makes us pause and requires us sift poetry from history in various places. Just an example: In Rajatarangini, Lolar, now a small part of Kupwara district, is said to be the place where 840000 buildings were constructed.
There is a wealth of scholarship in the first chapter that reviews existing scenario in studies on ancient archaeology and culture of Kashmir. It traces “Kashmiryat” to what has been seen by more critically minded historians as mythical “Nilmat culture” which he imaginatively reconstructs. He argues that Bhattas belong to the progeny of those early ancestors who had colonized the Valley during the early Rigvedic period. Dozens of relevant quotations besides the author’s questions about some persistent narratives make a case for demythologized history look stronger though the key problem of using myths as source and too heavy a dependence on extremely problematic work – from a purely historical perspective – Nilmat Purana leave us more aesthetically than cognitively satisfied.
Scattered here and there are many insights illustrating the breadth of engagement with a wealth of material painstakingly sifted and interpreted. We are introduced to the beginning of the last age or kali yuga that our mytho-historical works had projected. We are led to believe about flourishing culture with unexplained gap extending over a millennium. The difficulty is that, as pointed out by more critical scholarship on ancient Kashmir, we don’t have any convincing archaeological evidences of any urban culture in Kashmir till very late – Buddhist period – in Kashmir. We can’t uncritically take any grand narratives that have been part of the folklore of vast areas surrounding Kashmir and transpose them into Kashmir’s historical past. Myths are abused in degenerate times that are ours and we need to be conscious. It is rather tricky to make proper use of myths in historiography. If Nehru goes to the other extreme in embracing all these references in too literal terms, secular historians who have almost no use for a vast wealth of religious/psychological/spiritual data preserved in folk narratives, other orally or otherwise transmitted texts and that somehow seem too real not to shape attitudes and behaviours even today for vast majority of people.
The present work should be seen in light of the identity issue faced by a new generation of Pandit community. Accordingly it is seeking to summon all its resources from myth to scriptures to folklore to archaeology to construct a narrative that appears credible. However, any such attempt should not be seen in light of very strict academic standards but needs to be appreciated in light of huge challenges with which such attempts seek to cope up. These attempts kick start a debate and they aren’t to be euologized or dismissed for serving or failing to serve certain ideological construction. Communities live by and through myths and other folk beliefs. Cut and dried demythologized history that is dominant way of historiography today misses an important dimension of what is in stake.
If we agree to read this book as credible history, we find interesting readings/allusions here and there such as about Pouch (headdress of Kashmiri Pandit women) invoking or appropriating Naga motifs and a strongly feminist reading of Krishna’s statement about Kashmir as the land of Parviti to legitimize women’s rule 5000 years. Insightful though quite fragmentary treatment of Trika vis-a-vis Zen is suggestive. Sufism is praised but hints are dropped – problematically – to separate it from Islam which is dubbed as the religion of “invading zealots.”
The book succeeds in avoiding a host of sentimental platitudes and accusations regarding the role of religious other that we are accustomed to hear. He acknowledges the rot in Pandit community consciousness started “right from their return into the Valley during Badshah rule when elders of the time had socially segregated themselves into Karkuns employees and Goars Gurus/priests even though to begin with all of them were Saraswati Brahmins. Karkuns developed air of superiority over goars.” The author also recognizes the rot in politics and decadence of cultural practices during the times preceding entry of Islam (in fact as early as 10th century when great Saivist scholars were writing their great works). It thus succeeds in appreciating the play of dialectical historical forces in great changes that were precipitated by the advent of Islam.
However it has its own share of certain views that have been the staple diet of certain brand of historiography that has been increasingly questioned with the advent of many new approaches. It sees, for instance, in post-Islam Kashmir, only erosion in traditional Hindu culture and doesn’t notice its essential adaptation and presence in Post Sheikh-al-Alam Reshi Kashmir. It asserts that the approach of agamas is pragmatic rather than esoteric as if the two terms can be thus sharply contrasted . It reiterates now largely discredited reading of early Buddhism as nihilistic and highly nuanced and complex Vedantic doctrine of maya as illusion pure and simple. It wrongly equates Ishwara with Godhead instead of personal God. It pushes Plato to the 6th century B .C. It is simply not correct to assert that “the ancient treasury was razed to the ground, faded into oblivion and remained ever since.” This ancient treasury continues to live, albeit transformed, in later Reshi culture, in Sufi poets, In Islamic metaphysics and Kashmiri art and architecture. And certain religious and cultural formations do suffer death in history and that shouldn’t be lamented. Religion in its esoteric or metaphysical core survives vicissitudes of religions, philosophies and cultures. Kashmir has been a unit and continues to be so. In this age, it was destined or history dictated that another idiom be used to express perennial spiritual dimension of culture. Culture remains the same; it doesn’t evolve. Civilizations evolve. If some Muslims conquerors haven’t been good to Pandits, Brahmins haven’t been even half so good to Buddhists. Why confound political and cultural questions? I searched for more academic engagement with the question of allegations against Butshikan. The author asserts that every trace of Pandit heritage has been wiped out though he has been in Kashmir that till today is studded with this heritage.
While this books makes Pandits proud it should make Muslims proud as well who are reminded of a great heritage they are sitting on. Sheikh Nuruddin Reshi had no qualms n connecting to the Reshis of the past and showing how Islam’s own greatest figures aren’t heir rivals but belong to the same kingdom of Spirit.
It is more an exploration to document certain aspects of culture than an academic history and it largely succeeds in its purpose illustrating richness, depth, nuances, profound symbolism and esoteric significance of various religio-mystical practices and motifs. Brilliant engagement with archeological and other evidences notwithstanding, the treatment of philosophical heritage is not either consistently rigorous or academically accurate though one can discern insights and appreciate his grasp of key elements of the discourses.
The study is missing in certain references though one must appreciate the efforts of his son who though himself not trained in historiography or study of culture, has worked hard to supply many of them. It is to this son that we owe a work that would otherwise have been lost like so many similar ones as new generation gets increasingly disconnected or alienated and loses is language, culture and thus its very soul.
The great question is how to reconnect to their own roots and, at least at imaginative or spiritual level, end this exile. The present work Satisar to Kashmir as an attempt to reconnect is impressive in its range and extensive reviewing of many areas of scholarship. It is an attempt to write history though it succeeds partially in the project. Its lucidity is impressive. Analytical rigour within its narrow focus can also be appreciated. What appears, on sum, is that this attempt is at times too imaginative to be credible or pass the tests of objective history. However little can be done when it concerns a hoary period about which no first hand account is there. Nilmat Purana and Rajatarangini are projected as if entirely dependable sources of history thus missing the play of myths and poetry in them. Assuming his sources to be reliable to an extent that can be granted by rigourous academic standards, it is an impressive work for which Kashmiris should be thankful to the author. However it doesn’t take ample care to consult other sources where available as during the medieval period and indulges in certain stock generalizations. It appears that it is a Pandit reconstruction of history, giving scanty attention to Buddhists and seems quite narrow and even distorting when it comes to the Muslim period. The historian partly recedes into the background in last pages focusing on contemporary Kashmir that rehearses what happens to be politically “correct” narrative. His work will stay as a contribution to culture that, however, may be missed if it is framed in political or ideological terms. We need to see Kashmir as a seamless whole and integral unit that shows no big fault lines if properly understood. Let us read Ashraf Wani’s slim volume Prehistory of Kashmir to appreciate how proper academic history is written and as a corrective to certain skewed lines drawn by P. K. Nehru.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/the-questions-of-continuity-and-fault-lines/280930.html
Pandits are homeless in more senses than one. What is especially ignored is chosen homelessness or self exile to barren landscapes where the richness of imagination and culture one owned is disowned. Exploring one’s history, myths and literature constitute vital means to live and refuse annihilation. P.K.Nehru has done such an exploration in Satisar to Kashmir and invites Pandits to their lost selves.The author seems to take partly historical works rather uncritically as works of history. We know Nilmat Purana is not primarily a work of history in the sense we now understand the term. And even Rajatarangini too makes us pause and requires us sift poetry from history in various places. Just an example: In Rajatarangini, Lolar, now a small part of Kupwara district, is said to be the place where 840000 buildings were constructed.
There is a wealth of scholarship in the first chapter that reviews existing scenario in studies on ancient archaeology and culture of Kashmir. It traces “Kashmiryat” to what has been seen by more critically minded historians as mythical “Nilmat culture” which he imaginatively reconstructs. He argues that Bhattas belong to the progeny of those early ancestors who had colonized the Valley during the early Rigvedic period. Dozens of relevant quotations besides the author’s questions about some persistent narratives make a case for demythologized history look stronger though the key problem of using myths as source and too heavy a dependence on extremely problematic work – from a purely historical perspective – Nilmat Purana leave us more aesthetically than cognitively satisfied.
Scattered here and there are many insights illustrating the breadth of engagement with a wealth of material painstakingly sifted and interpreted. We are introduced to the beginning of the last age or kali yuga that our mytho-historical works had projected. We are led to believe about flourishing culture with unexplained gap extending over a millennium. The difficulty is that, as pointed out by more critical scholarship on ancient Kashmir, we don’t have any convincing archaeological evidences of any urban culture in Kashmir till very late – Buddhist period – in Kashmir. We can’t uncritically take any grand narratives that have been part of the folklore of vast areas surrounding Kashmir and transpose them into Kashmir’s historical past. Myths are abused in degenerate times that are ours and we need to be conscious. It is rather tricky to make proper use of myths in historiography. If Nehru goes to the other extreme in embracing all these references in too literal terms, secular historians who have almost no use for a vast wealth of religious/psychological/spiritual data preserved in folk narratives, other orally or otherwise transmitted texts and that somehow seem too real not to shape attitudes and behaviours even today for vast majority of people.
The present work should be seen in light of the identity issue faced by a new generation of Pandit community. Accordingly it is seeking to summon all its resources from myth to scriptures to folklore to archaeology to construct a narrative that appears credible. However, any such attempt should not be seen in light of very strict academic standards but needs to be appreciated in light of huge challenges with which such attempts seek to cope up. These attempts kick start a debate and they aren’t to be euologized or dismissed for serving or failing to serve certain ideological construction. Communities live by and through myths and other folk beliefs. Cut and dried demythologized history that is dominant way of historiography today misses an important dimension of what is in stake.
If we agree to read this book as credible history, we find interesting readings/allusions here and there such as about Pouch (headdress of Kashmiri Pandit women) invoking or appropriating Naga motifs and a strongly feminist reading of Krishna’s statement about Kashmir as the land of Parviti to legitimize women’s rule 5000 years. Insightful though quite fragmentary treatment of Trika vis-a-vis Zen is suggestive. Sufism is praised but hints are dropped – problematically – to separate it from Islam which is dubbed as the religion of “invading zealots.”
The book succeeds in avoiding a host of sentimental platitudes and accusations regarding the role of religious other that we are accustomed to hear. He acknowledges the rot in Pandit community consciousness started “right from their return into the Valley during Badshah rule when elders of the time had socially segregated themselves into Karkuns employees and Goars Gurus/priests even though to begin with all of them were Saraswati Brahmins. Karkuns developed air of superiority over goars.” The author also recognizes the rot in politics and decadence of cultural practices during the times preceding entry of Islam (in fact as early as 10th century when great Saivist scholars were writing their great works). It thus succeeds in appreciating the play of dialectical historical forces in great changes that were precipitated by the advent of Islam.
However it has its own share of certain views that have been the staple diet of certain brand of historiography that has been increasingly questioned with the advent of many new approaches. It sees, for instance, in post-Islam Kashmir, only erosion in traditional Hindu culture and doesn’t notice its essential adaptation and presence in Post Sheikh-al-Alam Reshi Kashmir. It asserts that the approach of agamas is pragmatic rather than esoteric as if the two terms can be thus sharply contrasted . It reiterates now largely discredited reading of early Buddhism as nihilistic and highly nuanced and complex Vedantic doctrine of maya as illusion pure and simple. It wrongly equates Ishwara with Godhead instead of personal God. It pushes Plato to the 6th century B .C. It is simply not correct to assert that “the ancient treasury was razed to the ground, faded into oblivion and remained ever since.” This ancient treasury continues to live, albeit transformed, in later Reshi culture, in Sufi poets, In Islamic metaphysics and Kashmiri art and architecture. And certain religious and cultural formations do suffer death in history and that shouldn’t be lamented. Religion in its esoteric or metaphysical core survives vicissitudes of religions, philosophies and cultures. Kashmir has been a unit and continues to be so. In this age, it was destined or history dictated that another idiom be used to express perennial spiritual dimension of culture. Culture remains the same; it doesn’t evolve. Civilizations evolve. If some Muslims conquerors haven’t been good to Pandits, Brahmins haven’t been even half so good to Buddhists. Why confound political and cultural questions? I searched for more academic engagement with the question of allegations against Butshikan. The author asserts that every trace of Pandit heritage has been wiped out though he has been in Kashmir that till today is studded with this heritage.
While this books makes Pandits proud it should make Muslims proud as well who are reminded of a great heritage they are sitting on. Sheikh Nuruddin Reshi had no qualms n connecting to the Reshis of the past and showing how Islam’s own greatest figures aren’t heir rivals but belong to the same kingdom of Spirit.
It is more an exploration to document certain aspects of culture than an academic history and it largely succeeds in its purpose illustrating richness, depth, nuances, profound symbolism and esoteric significance of various religio-mystical practices and motifs. Brilliant engagement with archeological and other evidences notwithstanding, the treatment of philosophical heritage is not either consistently rigorous or academically accurate though one can discern insights and appreciate his grasp of key elements of the discourses.
The study is missing in certain references though one must appreciate the efforts of his son who though himself not trained in historiography or study of culture, has worked hard to supply many of them. It is to this son that we owe a work that would otherwise have been lost like so many similar ones as new generation gets increasingly disconnected or alienated and loses is language, culture and thus its very soul.
The great question is how to reconnect to their own roots and, at least at imaginative or spiritual level, end this exile. The present work Satisar to Kashmir as an attempt to reconnect is impressive in its range and extensive reviewing of many areas of scholarship. It is an attempt to write history though it succeeds partially in the project. Its lucidity is impressive. Analytical rigour within its narrow focus can also be appreciated. What appears, on sum, is that this attempt is at times too imaginative to be credible or pass the tests of objective history. However little can be done when it concerns a hoary period about which no first hand account is there. Nilmat Purana and Rajatarangini are projected as if entirely dependable sources of history thus missing the play of myths and poetry in them. Assuming his sources to be reliable to an extent that can be granted by rigourous academic standards, it is an impressive work for which Kashmiris should be thankful to the author. However it doesn’t take ample care to consult other sources where available as during the medieval period and indulges in certain stock generalizations. It appears that it is a Pandit reconstruction of history, giving scanty attention to Buddhists and seems quite narrow and even distorting when it comes to the Muslim period. The historian partly recedes into the background in last pages focusing on contemporary Kashmir that rehearses what happens to be politically “correct” narrative. His work will stay as a contribution to culture that, however, may be missed if it is framed in political or ideological terms. We need to see Kashmir as a seamless whole and integral unit that shows no big fault lines if properly understood. Let us read Ashraf Wani’s slim volume Prehistory of Kashmir to appreciate how proper academic history is written and as a corrective to certain skewed lines drawn by P. K. Nehru.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/the-questions-of-continuity-and-fault-lines/280930.html
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