by Khawar Khan Achakzai
Kashmir’s literary tradition reflects linguistic pluralism, contested language origins, bicultural Sanskrit-Persian influences, and a distinct indigenous synthesis shaped by mystic poets and historical multilingual contact.
Kashmir has a long history of cultural and linguistic pluralism, deeply reflected in its rich literary traditions as well as in its complex and eventful past.
From a linguistic perspective, Kashmir presents a unique case of sustained language contact. It is bordered by Sina (a Dardic language) to the north, Tibeto-Burman languages such as Balti and Ladakhi to the east, Pahari and Punjabi dialects to the west, and Dogri, along with other Pahari varieties, to the south. Alongside these regional languages, many non-native languages have historically functioned as markers of prestige and elite culture. Sanskrit and Persian initially fulfilled this role, followed later by Urdu, and more recently by English and Hindi. Each of these languages contributed additional layers to Kashmir’s already diverse linguistic and literary landscape.
The literary tradition of Kashmir can be approached from two distinct perspectives. It may be seen as a part of the broader literary traditions of the subcontinent. From this comparative standpoint, one may see elements of a larger cultural continuum in the Kashmiri poetic and literary canon. On the other hand, it may be seen as a cultural tradition in itself, a non-comparative point of view, where it emerges as a unique and self-contained body of writing. This perspective distinguishes it by a pronounced sense of Kashmiriness in its thematic and stylistic aspects.
Layered Contexts
While employing the second approach, the development of Kashmiri literature should be examined in close relation to the socio-cultural, historical and linguistic contexts of Kashmir. This approach deserves precedence because of the distinct linguistic characteristics of Kashmiri and an essentially bicultural context in which the Kashmiri language and its literature have evolved.
To start, with regard to the linguistic affiliation of the Kashmiri language as a whole, the central debate hinges on whether the Aryan branch of the Indo-European family developed into three groups (Indo-Aryan, Dardic, and Iranian) or into only two groups (Indo-Aryan and Iranian).
Grierson supports the former view, while scholars such as Bloch, Georg Morgenstierne, and Turner argue for the latter. Chatterji partially agrees with Grierson but does not fully endorse his conclusions. According to Grierson, the Dardic (or Piśāca) languages “are neither of Indian nor of Iranian origin, but belong to a third branch of the Aryan stock, which separated from the parent stem after the emergence of the Indian languages but before the Iranian languages had developed all their distinctive features.”
Scholars who support the two-branch model maintain that Indo-Aryan is divided into two major groups: the Indian (or plains) group and the Dardic (or mountain) group. The Indian group includes languages such as Hindi and Punjabi, while the Dardic group comprises Kashmiri, Shina, and related languages. Traditionally, three subgroups are identified within the Dardic group: the Kafiri group, the Khowar group, and the Dard group.
A Complex Status
Kashmiri occupies a particularly complex position within this classification system, which accounts for the longstanding controversy surrounding its affiliation. The language shares certain linguistic features with the Dardic languages and others with the Indo-Aryan languages. It is for this reason that Grierson characterises Kashmiri as a “mixed language” with two substrata.
Chatterji agrees with Grierson in identifying Kashmiri as a mixed language but does not accept that this necessarily places it within the Dardic group. He argues instead that several north-western Indo-Aryan languages, such as Lahnda and Sindhi, also display strong Dardic influences.
From this perspective, Kashmiri may be understood as a north-western dialect of Indo-Aryan with deep and sustained Dardic influence. Consequently, Chatterji maintains that the question of Kashmiris’ precise linguistic affiliation “still remains an open one.”
Apart from the question of its affiliation, one more peculiar characteristic of Kashmiri literature is the context of bi-culturality in which it developed. This bi-culturality resulted in the development of two distinct and uniquely overlapping processes within it – Sanskritisation and Persianisation.
While Sanskritisation reflected Indian linguistic and literary traditions, Persianisation reflected a non-Indian, essentially West Asian impact on grammar, lexicon, and literary themes. These two themes provided Kashmiri two different stylistic and lexical registers through which literary expression could be shaped.
However, there was an equally powerful and enduring process thriving in the evolution of the body of Kashmiri literary development: the process of fusion or nativisation. This process absorbed elements from Persian and Sanskrit literature and re-articulated them within a local indigenous framework. This resulted in a literary corpus that is not merely derivative but distinctly local in its sensibility and expression.
Beginnings
The development of Kashmiri literature can be divided into various phases, with the 13th century generally regarded as the beginning of it and 1300 to 1500 CE marking the first phase of this process. According to SK Chatterji, it was the treatise on an esoteric Tantric sect entitled Mahanaya Prakasha (Illumination of highest attainment) that was the first work that closely approximated the Kashmiri language. Its author, Sitkantha, deliberately chose to write in sarvahicara desi bhasa (language of commoners) instead of the language of the learned.
While Grierson considers the text a work of the 15th century, numerous other scholars concur that it is a work from at most the 13th century. These divergences of opinion underscore the broader uncertainties surrounding the literary history of Kashmiri.
Another important specimen of Kashmiri literature is Avtara Bhatta’s Banasura Katha (The story of Banasura), which was composed around 1446 CE. The text, with its poetic qualities, provides valuable linguistic evidence for the development of Kashmiri as a literary language. The only known manuscript of this work was obtained by Bühler and is presently preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
Mystical Oral Phase
The first specimens of authentic Kashmiri poetry were produced by a woman mystic, Lallesvari, born around 1335 and largely known as Lall Ded. According to SL Kaul, Lall occupies a position far greater than that of a poet alone; she is in “the succession of saints in Kashmir schooled in particular methods of meditation and concentration and forming a loose sort of order of their own and have regarded her as their patron”.
The scholars of Sufism discern in her the elements of Sahajistic philosophy, while Pandit scholars emphasise the Saivite content of her vaks (verses). Within the bicultural intellectual world, she continues to be an integral part of Kashmiri literature. She is as central to its literary imagination as Shakespeare is to English, Hafiz is to Persian, and Tulsidas is to Hindi.
At the time, Kashmiri was often dismissed by elite historians and literati as Apabhramaa: non-literary, inferior, and largely inconsequential. She appealed to the poor and downtrodden peasants in the language they could understand and, along with mystical themes, took up issues of class, caste and social equality, challenging entrenched hierarchies and questioning ritualistic orthodoxy.
The number of Vakh’s attributed to her have never been more than 160. Grierson and Barnett have included 109 Vakhs in their well-known work, while in a recent work by JL Kaul, there are 138 Vakhs.
Another saint-poet who is considered a patron of Kashmiri poetry is Sheikh Nur-ud-Din. Two principal types of compositions are generally attributed to Nur-ud-Din: Shruk and bath bandi. Shruk is didactic in content and exhortative in tone, often reflecting the transitoriness of life and its pleasure, bath bandi by contrast, has a lyrical moral composition which is meant to be sung.
The moral lessons of Nur-ud-Din have been collected in Rishinama and Nurnama, and they occupy a singular position in Kashmiri literary history. His shrukh are uncompromising in their critique of greed, hypocrisy, and social injustice, while his bath-bandi displays a lyrical gentleness that lends itself naturally to song and communal memory; both continue to define the moral imagination of Kashmir.
Utha Som (Som Pandit), well-versed in Persian, Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pushtu languages, was another important poet of Budshah’s time and author of Zaina Tsareth (Zaina Charit) in Kashmiri. In this, as Shreevar says, he has narrated episodes of Budshah’s life in Kashmiri verse. The book was presented to the king.
Among the minor poets of this period were some of the disciples of Nur-ud-Din. Baba Nasr-ud-din, called Sultan-i-Swokhan (Master Poet), made his master’s personality the main theme of his compositions. Other poets of this era are Sahab Kaul, Mirza Akmal Din Beg Khan Badakshi, Shang Bibi, etc.
Mirza Akmal Din belonged to a family of immigrants from Badakshan and held a responsible position in the Mughal administration. His two poetic collections in Persian are Makhbar-ul-Asraar and Bahar-ul-Irfaan, a masnavi explaining the significance of arafaat, the vigil on the eve of Id.
Juma Bibi, a disciple of Badakshi, was a confectioner’s wife in Navhatta in Srinagar who wrote both mystical and love lyrics. She is remembered mostly for her marsiyya on the death of her master.
Shaam Bibi, a woman disciple of Nund Rishi, composed an elegy in memory of her master Baba Nasr in the fifteenth century. Written concurrently with the early development of the genre, this composition is regarded by many scholars as the earliest Kashmiri elegy dedicated to a specific individual.
Literary formations up to this period represent the incipient phase in the evolution of the Kashmiri elegy, locally known as waan, a form that had not yet acquired a fixed structure or formal conventions. The first elegies written in Kashmiri to commemorate Husyan’s martyrdom also date from the same period in works composed between the 15th and 16th centuries. These include marsiya written by two poets from the Musavi family, Qasim bin Yusuf Din Shah and his nephew Hakim Din Shah, in and around 1409-1446 CE during the Shahmiri Sultanate.
This is the first part of the four-part series on the evolution of modern Kashmiri poetry.
(The author is a Kashmir-based cardiologist and writer. His areas of interest include Kashmiri history, philosophy, and literature, with a particular focus on cultural memory and interpretation. Ideas are personal.)
