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June 26 to July 2 : Weekly News Magazine
messenger BOOK REVIEW 23

The red-gold leaves from the Chinars surrounding the house carpeted
the path leading up to the door, where a sprightly Mir stood waiting to
welcome us. It was a crisp October day, and a perfect time for
storytelling.
Over steaming cups of salty Kashmiri tea, Mir began by telling us the
story about his own origin as a storyteller. As with most origin stories
from Kashmir, this too had a divine foundation. When Mir was a child,
he was visited in a dream by a holy man, who asked him to tell stories.
Mir protested, saying that he was illiterate and did not know any stories
that he could tell. The holy man asked him to try, and as soon as he
opened his mouth to protest yet again, stories poured forth from him.
When Mir woke up, he could recall not just the dream, but also the
stories. Through the course of his life, the unlettered Mir has
painstakingly collected and committed an impressive number of stories
to memory. Some were taught to him by his father-in-law, others he
gathered from listening to recitations of books by professional book-
readers at people’s homes, and still others were read out to him by his
own children, and more recently, his grandchildren. Since he sings the
stories rather than simply narrating them, Mir performs a story only
once it has been transformed into Kashmiri verse. His most popular
narrations are versified Kashmiri tales such as Himal Nagaray, Bomber
Yamberzal, and Akhnandun.
Accompanied by his sons on the rabaab (string instrument),
tumbakhnari (earthen pot), and harmonium, Mir performed for us the
classic Kashmiri story, Himal Nagaray. As soon as the performance
began, men, women, and children appeared out of nowhere and
crowded around the small room, in the doorways, even by the windows,
listening with rapt attention to this familiar tale. There was raucous
laughter and cheers as Mir sang about the haughty and shrewish wife
of the poor Pandit, who leaves home to escape her taunts, and returns
with a sack to present to his wife in which he has placed a snake. The
snake takes the shape of the beautiful boy, Nagaray, who falls in love
Storytellers of with the princess Himal. Mir’s singing led us through the vicissitudes of
their love, ending in their death, and ultimately, in this particular version,
Kashmir with their resurrection. The storytelling medium is necessarily open-
ended and offers the possibility of multiple outcomes depending on the
Stories are the lifeblood of Kashmiri socio-cultural and political life. Every context. It does not elide conflict and difference; instead, it provides a
rivulet, spring, tree, mountain, meadow, shrine, village, king, personal forum where they can be discussed and negotiated. Like many Kashmiri
name, and of course more momentous events such as Kashmir’s origin, stories, Himal Nagaray is powerful precisely because it crosses so many
or its transition to Islam, have stories attached to them, often in multiple, boundaries, such as of class and religious affiliation, and between life
competing versions. In autumn, as the majestic Chinars take on a and death, nature and humanity, and the sacred and the temporal. It thus
reddish-golden hue and there is a perceptible chill in the air, stories allows listeners to envision Kashmir as a land where such traversals,
mingle with people as they congregate around the harvest, and and the resultant coexistence, were - and might still be - possible.
caretakers and pirs from shrines wander the countryside collecting rice, This in part explains why the culture of storytelling came under attack in
lentils, and apples in exchange for a variety of tales about the mystics the wake of the insurgency. Mir shuddered as he described the days
and kings of yore. The stories are then retold by the elderly men and when he could no longer perform for fear of being assaulted. And the
women of households as children gather around blankets and kangris on violence to stories and storytellers is not just physical; Kashmiri
frigid winter nights. Anyone who grew up in Kashmir or with Kashmiri traditions such as Bhand Pether (street theater) and Ladishah
grandparents remembers these stories with deep nostalgia. My own (minstrels) continue to be criticized for promoting myths and
paternal grandfather in particular told many a story about the gambols of superstitions among the gullible masses, as a class of intellectuals,
the devs and other holy beings in the springs, mountains, and meadows particularly in the media, calls for a more factual understanding of
of the beautiful Valley, thus transforming it into a sacred landscape. Kashmir’s history and politics. Mir dismisses this claim, and is now at the
European orientalists who devoted years to researching and collating forefront of reviving the storytelling tradition and teaching it to others so
Kashmir’s Sanskrit texts at the turn of the twentieth century were that it can survive for future generations of Kashmiris.
amazed to discover a vibrant tradition of storytelling in the vernacular Motilal Kemmu, a Kashmiri playwright who has been deeply involved
Kashmiri that paralleled Kashmir’s rich, multilingual textual traditions. with the Bhand Pether tradition,and has directed several theatrical
The orientalist Aurel Stein and the linguist George Grierson went so far versions of Himal Nagaray, similarly believes that it is only by recounting
as to spend weeks with a professional storyteller, Hatim Tilowon stories which have been doing the rounds in Kashmir for centuries that
(pictured right), recording his stories, translating them into English, and Kashmiris can continue to memorialize a past that is fast slipping away. If
later publishing them in a collection entitled Hatim’s Tales. Stein and not, the stories of cooperation, conciliation, and alliances across
Grierson continually expressed their surprise at the sheer number of religious and political divides are in danger of being forever erased by
stories Hatim could recite, and the range of topics that they covered, stories of conflict, violence, and discord. After all, the springs where
including vivid descriptions of village life, the love story of Yusuf Himal and Nagaray met and were reunited in the story, and which were
Zuleikha, the adventures of Mahmud of Ghazni with a fisherman, and the visited by Kashmiris to commemorate this legend until the area was
turmoil created in Kashmir as a result of Sir Douglas Forsyth’s mission to taken over as an army camp, have almost dried up. Stories have been a
Yarkhand in 1873-4. While researching Kashmir’s historical tradition, I powerful means of communication in Kashmir for a reason. They have
realized that storytellers and the stories they told served a significant allowed the largely unlettered common people to participate in defining
purpose by connecting Kashmiris to their own past and the history of their land, and negotiate to the extent that it is possible, their own place
their land. And today, in a society ravaged by conflict, stories are the only within it. It is not surprising that boundaries are often resisted and
way for people to hold on to memories of a past that no longer exists and navigated in these stories as the poor and oppressed take on the rich
may never return. Thus, when I heard about the possibility of meeting a and powerful, and as humans challenge death itself, because the
professional Kashmiri storyteller on one of my research visits to Kashmir, stories are part of a larger narrative tradition that asserted Kashmir’s
I pounced on the opportunity. Muhammad Ismail Mir, an octogenarian right to define itself within the framework of much mightier empires.
who had spent the better part of his life narrating tales of various kinds for Deeply embedded in Kashmir’s landscape and displaying a powerful
a living, resided in Mujgond, a village 30 kilometers from Srinagar. We geographical sense, these stories, and the tradition of which they are a
had no trouble locating his modest dwelling because everyone in the part, inhibit the past from being overtaken by the present, and prevent
village knew the storyteller and pointed us in the direction of his home.
Kashmir from forgetting itself.