Habba Khatoon
Philomela
of Medieval Kashmir
by Prof. K. N. Dhar
 The
cultural heritage of Kashmir is as rich as it is varied. This mental child
of 'Kashyapa' has been the recipient of fondest love and bountiful benevolence
from Nature and has consequently enthralled the whole world by its superb
physical charm from times immemorial. To crown all, this physical grandeur
has been very usefully groomed by Kashmiris in weaving the rainbow. Coloured
texture of mental and spiritual attainments. In many respects they have
been pioneers in evolving a cult of philosophy in tune with their environment
and called it as 'Shaivism'. A galaxy of rhetoricians have taken pains
in prescribing norms and standards for making the literature in general
and poetry in particular more acceptable and representative. To say squarely,
not a single branch of literature has been left out by these savants without
their impress and alchemic touch.
Habba Khatoon
Not only this,
Kashmir has been the testing-ground of three universal religions of the
world-Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. The traits of all these religions have
fused into the attitude of a Kashmiri like milk and candy; and it is no
surprise that though bearing Hindu or Muslim or even Buddhist names, a
Kashmiti even to-day in actual practice is a living embodiment of Buddhist
compassion, Hindu tolerance and Muslim zest for life. Therefore with such
a Catholic background, secularism to a Kashiniri is not a political expedient
but an article of faith ingrained in his blood from the hoary times to
the present day. 'Kalhana' in his monumental History of Kashmir 'River
of Kings' has not mentioned even one Communal trouble between the Buddhists
and the Hindus when a voracious race was in progress between their respective
adherents to make theire own tenets popular and thus steal march over other
faiths. In contrast to this, Buddhist Kings have donated large sums for
the erection of Hindu temples and shrines and vice versa. Religious battles
have always been fought here on paper, in a more rational way, or through
dialogues which never left bad taste in the mouths. During the Islamic
period Sultan Zain-ul-ab-Din Badshah in an admirable way and forsooth like
a Kashmiri to his marrow renovated demolished Hindu places of worship and
even started 'Langars' at Places of pilgrimages for feeding the hungry
and the devout. 'ShriVara' in his 'ZainaTarangini' has mentioned such 'Satr'
or Langars, one of which was located at the foot of Mahadeva mountain.
In this way,
when in the 14th-15th century an alien culture knocked at the mountain-doors
of Kashmir for being shown in, the values cherished by Kashmiris all along
had already prepared a hospitable ground for its happy welcome. The puritanic
prosletyzing tenacity of Islam in the absence of any mentionable reaction
on the part of Kashmiris compellingly changed to more logical and rational
methods. In this political and religious upheaval, long-cherished secular
outlook of the faith of the people would have received a jolt, but at this
juncture literature came to our succour.
At the confluence
of
Hindu and Muslim cultures 'Laileshwari' or 'Lalla- Deda' stands like a
collossus beckoning people to eschew differences of colour, creed or faith
and yoke themselves to attain Identity with Him-- the All-pervasive Transcendental
Force called God as such, Therein all are equal, the worldly appellations
drop down like slough from a snake. The pursuit of mundane is an exercise
in futility; Therefore the goal should be beyond mundane-materiality; It
is no use counting mile-posts of material gains or losses and getting lost
in its maze; the eye should be on the destination-- the real and permanent.
For reasons
obvious, the social fibre of the Kashmiris was also undergoing transformation
at that time and the present could not have been in any way palatable to
the denizens of Kashmir at large; so like an awake artist 'Lalla' dismissed
the present as trash and ushered in spirituality in its all shades 'Being'
was replaced by 'to be'. By borrowing sweetness from the 'unknown' 'Lalla'
virtually transformed the frustration or people into the hope to live with
ever -appetising gusto. 'Lalla' could not help striking a happy compromise
between Kashmiri shaivism and Islamic sufism. It was in tune with the times.
To quote Dr. Sufi 'Even long before the formal conversion to Islam, Islamic
sufism had already entered tho valley." Cultural conquest is always a pre-requisite
to any other kind of conquest. A Kashmiri by nature tolerant and catholic
kept his windows open for inhaling the fresh air of sufism. He even assimilated
and owned much of it what was good and rejuvenvating.
But, by the
time Habba Khatoon's inebriating imagination began to find words, this
climate of spirituality and mental drill had become suffocating and even
stale in the context of fast changing economic conditions and human values;
emphasis on individnal instead of on the society had become the accepted
norm of public relations and thinking. The extrovert attitude yielded place
to introspection. So, the poet in these changed environs harnessed his
imaginative faculty to interpret his or her own feelings; Hence, Habba
at the very outset of her poetic career rebelled against the prevalent
standards of poetry-writing. Textbook idealism is not found in the dictionary
of her pulsating emotions. She did not also try to bridge the distance
between the ideal and the real. Her substantial contribution in this domain
is to interpret her life as it was and not what it should be. Total absence
of didactic content in her poetry (what ever is available to us) lends
support to our belief, that she always believed in translating her feelings
without any redundant appendages of ideal, faithfully and with sincerity
of purpose. Her poetry consequently is a happy blend of sweetness and pathos.
She has preferred to live in the present, past was beyond her reach and
future out of her comprehension.
Kashmiri nation
at that time was groaning under internal exploitation and external aggression.
The last indigenous ruler of Kashmir Yusaf Shah Chak personified in himself
levity and depravation in every sense of the word. "His own Subjects being
fed up with his way-ward conduct had to invite the mughals to get rid of
such an incapable and debauche ruler," Writes Dr. Sufi in his 'Kasheer'.
His regal writ could not run outside his palace where passion and carnality
were reigning supreme. This trait of inviting aliens to redress their troubles
is not new to Kashmiri character at all. Kalhana has alluded to this many
times when the natives falling foul with their rulers invited the neighboring
Kings of Lohara (Lorin) and Parantosa (Poonch) to sit on the throne of
Kashmir. The great queen 'Dida' herself belonged to Lorin and installed
her brother Jayasimha as the king of Kashmir just before her death. So,
the Mughals who had vulturous eyes on Kashmir already, but their incursions
bad been thwarted by Kashmiri twice before, exploited such a situation
to their fill. This was a welcome addition to their diplomatic bag of conquests.
Yusuf Shah at last awoke to find his own people arrayed against him. The
Mughals arrested him and forced him to live a life of solitary confinement
at a remote village in Bihar outside Kashmir, where he ate his heart away
in sole distress and breathed his last. It has been contended by some overzealous
Kashmiris lately that uprising of Yusuf Shah against the Mughals symbolized
the urge of Kashmiris to fight external domination. Unfortunately, the
contemporary historical evidence of this period does not, in any way, confirm
this view, however laudable it may seem to be.
Moreover, the
famine of 1576 A.D. due to the untimely snowfall multiplied the miseries
of the people. The devastating effects of this unprecedented famine persisted
for full three years and Kashmiris passed their days on starvation level
more or less. To this injury insult in the shape of 'Shia-Sunni' troubles
was added. Sectarianism became pronounced and it let loose all the evils
which nurture and sustain it. In such a disappoioting state of affairs,
the poet naturally has to close his eyes against all that is happening
around and in self-deceit revels in the fanciful panorama of his heart.
Habba could not afford to be an exception to this Universal truth. Hence
her love-poems do breathe an atmosphere of total self-absorption being
blind and deaf to the environmental vissicitudes. These may well be labelled
as throbbing vibrations of self-immersion but not self forgetfulness. Her
ego is always pronounced in each line of her verse.
Unfortunately
for us we are actually at sea about the life of this Nightingale of Kashmir.
No authoritative contemporary record has been unearthed so far to test
the veracity of the popular tradition which associates Habba with Yusuf
Shah Chak. Moreover, we have no hesitation in doubting the credence of
the contemporary records as the History writing even to-day is not free
from strings of pressures and pulls. During the rule of the English the
events of 1857 have been mentioned as Mutiny, and those very events under
the Indian rule have been treated as war of Independence; A dispassionate
account of historical events devoid of personal projections is rare even
to-day when every man proclaims that he is free and has been given every
opportunity for independent thinking and expression of opinion thereof.
In those hoary days, when history was compiled at the behest of the king,
perhaps in proportion to the munificence the ruler lavished on such mercenaries,
distortion of historical facts has always come in handy for the rating
clique and its sycophants. In the same way, there is a thin line between
aggression and liberation; In such a dilemma the verdict of people should
have been the guiding principle for us all, but wherefrom it is to be made
available?
Moreover, the
evidence of the historical data which is still in manuscript form and has
not undergone the acid test of public opinion cannot be relied upon. In
Kashmir even to-day people who enjoy leisure and have aptitude are given
to record their own experiences in which casual references to rulers have
also been made in Sanskrit, Persian or Urdu; but for reasons obvious these
cannot be termed as histories as such. Perhaps every Kashmiri house-hold
having mentionable literary background of any order can boast of such perional
record. By no stretch of imagination these can be treated as historical
evidence worth quoting. Therefore, the chronicles written to order or as
a product of personal caprice have no place in literary or purely historical
criticism, Kalhana has not mentioned the great Shaiva philosopher Abhinavagupta
even once. Does it follow from it that Abhinavagupta was not a historical
personality at all?
In the face
of such scanty historical material at our disposal, we have perforee to
fall back upon the popular tradition which in unequivocal and unambiguous
terms has all long associated Habba with Yusuf Shah. In the reconstruction
of histories of literature the tradition has played no mean part. This
kind of unbroken evidence casnot be dismissed as cheap and unreliable altogether.
The tradition passes from generation to generation by word of mouth. If
in literary criticism this had not been taken cognizance of, then the religious
lore of entire humanity would pass on as forged; Actually the case is reverse
of it. Tradition has all along held the vedas, the Bible and the Koran
as the most respected and the most genuine of all the available literature
that has come down to us by the word of mouth. Tradition embraces in its
ambit the force of public opinion which cannot be disregarded at any cost.
Public opinion in its turn breeds sentimental attachment, and this sort
of living testimony is far superior to other media of evidence. Perhaps
this irresistible public opinion forced the later Persian chroniclers to
make a mention of Habba though two centuries or more after her death. The
reasons for maintaining Sphinx-like silence regarding 'Habba' by the contemporary
chronilcers may be attributed to the aversion Sunni scholars bad for the
wayward behaviour of a sunni girl in consenting to become a 'Keep" to Shia
Yusuf Shah. The Shias on the contrary did not like to tarnish the image
of the shia king Yusuf by making a mention of his licentious disposition
towards Habba. The Hindu Historian could not afford to offend these both
sects hence sat on the fence. Therefore, instead of adopting an iconoclastic
attitude a critic should own a positive outlook and respect the tradition
and the sentiments of people from which he cannot alienate himself. Later
skt chroniclers i.e JonaRaja or Shrivara have not mentioned 'Lalla' at
all though being her contemporaries, yet the popular tradition has had
her day in as much as 'Lalla' lives before our mental eyes even to-day.
Historicity in ordinary and unsophisticated parlance connotes systematisation
of facts, values, tradition and outlook. Therefore, the role of tradition
can in no way be under estimated.
When the dust
of such controvercy had settled down, Birbal Kachru and Hassan Khohyami,
the first chroniclers in this field, thought it fit to mention her by name.
Both these historians have given an account of 'Habba' though in a slip-shod
manner; but piecing the incidents together we can build her personality
without any fear of contradiction or historical irrelevance. According
to them "Habba" was the scion of a well-to-do peasant family living at
Chandrahara, a village near the famous Saffron fields of Pampur. She had
been married to Aziz Lone one of her collaterals. The proverbial animosity
between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law dampened the marital
relations between Habba and her spouse. She was forced to live with her
parents. 'Habba' at such a tender and impressionably age could not recover
from the rebuff she received at the very threshold of her conjugal life.
Her despondency flowed out in the form of poetry pulsating with unartificial
fusion of sound and sense. He fame reached the amorous ears of Yusuf Shah,
who admitted her to his harem as a 'Keep', and did not allow her the status
of a queen. Both the chroniclers are punctillious about using the phrase
"sharing the same bed," about her.
Further, Mohammed
Din 'Fauq' and Abdul Ahad Azad have provided us with her actual name 'Zoon',
as faultless as the moon. Mahjoor has also accepted this name without a
murmur. 'Habba Khatoon' presumably a more respectable mode of address than
'Zoon' must have been bestowed upon her when she joined the harem of Yusuf
Sbab in keeping with the royal ettiquette. There should be no surprise,
or eybrows need not be raised when a Kashmiri lady is supposed to have
two names. In olden days, Kashmiri girls after their wedlock earned a new
name in their inlaw's house. This custom has persisted with Kashmiri Pandits
even now.
A section of
popular belief ascribes her home to Gurez where a contiguous mountain and
a spring are named after her.
Internal evidence
as culled from her verses confirms the first view:-
<verses>
"My parental
home is situated at the tableland of Chandra Hara."
Her another
name can be inferred from this:-
<verses>
"I am bemoaning
my lot in Plaintive cries, the Moon (Kashmiri Zoon) has been devoured by
an eclipse."
Shri Amin Kamil's
well-edited booklet containing only twenty songs is the only authentic
source material available to us for commenting upon Habba- Khatoon's poetry;
however, in addition to these, Kashmiris ascribe many more poems to her
and these have been printed. As long as an anthology of all her available
songs is not compiled and given the seal of an authoritative edition, we
have to confine our comments to these twenty songs only. Interpolations
will be there, more essentially so, her extraordinary popularity has been
a bane for the original texts composed by her. The more popular a poet,
the more danger is there of interpolations creeping into his compositions
and after the mischief has been done it seems very dificult to distinguish
gold from dross, and often dross passes on for gold.
'Habba' is
very proud of her lineage:-
<verses>
"My parents
brought me up with fondest possible care; A host of maid- servants was
at my beck and call. I could not fore-see that the dreams nourished by
me would be shattered to the ground. No body's youth with childlike innocence
should go unrewarded like that of mine."
'Habba' testifies
to her being very well-read:-
<verses>
"My parents
sent me to a distant school for receiving tuition. The teacher there beat
me with a tender stick mercilessly and ignited a fire within me; No body's
youth with child- like innocence should go unrewarded like that of mine."
She did not
ignore the religious education also:-
<verses>
"I committed
thirty 'Siparas' of the Holy Quran to memory in a single sitting, faithfully
adhering to the diacritical intonations; yet the valentine punctuated with
love could not be read with such facile speed. What will you gain by my
passing away."
She has woven
the scene of her marriage in these words:
<verses>
"My parents
blessed me as a fortunate daughter, and beckoned to me that the in law's
were waiting in the compound for taking me away. My silver- studded palanquin
had golden ear-rings hangingdown on all sides. Alas ! innocent youth of
any body, with child-like innocence should not go unrewarded as that of
mine."
But all this
pomp and splendour could not pacify the wrath of her mother-in-law :-
<verses>
"The mother-in
law grabbed me by my hair, which stung me more than the pangs of death.
I fell asleep on the supporting plank of the spinning wheel, and in this
way, the circular wheel got damaged. I cannot reconcile myself with the
atrocities of the inlaws, O! my parents, please come to my rescue."
Habba unfolds
her love for her husband like this:-
<verses>
"I have been
waiting for long with extreme patience for you - O! my love (or Aziz) do
not be cross with your moon (zoon)! I have adorned myself lusciously from
top to toe; so enjoy my youth as lively and inviting as a pomegranate flower."
But Aziz did
not relent and Habba bad to experience the pangs of forced widowbood:-
<verses>
"I am on pin-pricks
for want of an avid response to my love; my bubbling youth is on its ebb.
My awake parents, do read in to the hint I have dropped."
The stings
of separation from her husband in her prime-youth can better be imagined
than described. Perhaps her beiog on the brink of human patience can justify
her consenting to give company to Yusuf Shah Chak. She could not wait for
legal or other formalities involved in sharing his bed. This might seem
not very laudable, yet it is true of every maiden who is a slave to her
senses and whose warmth of love has all along remained unrequitted, moreso,
it is all the more pronounced in the case of a lady who would like to wreak
venegance on tbe callous society not reciprocating her sentiments, no matter
if she loses ber identity in this bargain.
For the span
of years in which Habba lived, no cogent authority is available. Mohd Din 'Fauq' and in his foot- steps Abdul Ahad Azad have given her life span
from 1641 to 1552 A.D. on the authority of 'Tarikh Baharistan Shahi.' But
on close examination Shri Amin Kamil refutes this and says that these dates
are nowhere found in this chronicle. However, her association with Yusuf
Shah can give us a clue as to the years in which she was still alive. The
reign of Yusuf Shah has been determined as 1579-1585 A.D.; so we can safely
assume that during these years at least Habba was living. Akbar annexed
Kashmir in 1585 A.D. imprisoned Yusuf Shah and externed him to Bihar; so,
when her paramour Yusuf tell on bad stars, Habba must have eaten her heart
away in disgust and dismay. This was the second rebuff she received at
the bands of the Destiny, and this impulsive Lady unresponsive in love,
unaccepted by the society still did not own defeat. She created an exuberant
world of her own, punctuated it with her emotions resonant with the dirge
of what she had got and what she lost. She lived in her thoughts, so to
say.
Such a state
of mind is a fertile ground for the induction of Romanticism. Habba deliberately
ignoring the less pleasant side of her life indulged in dreamy habit of
mind. Romanticism is the acme of poet's independence of feelings; under
its spell he refuses to be bound by conventional restraints. A romantic
poet has either the nerve to rebel nor the will to compromise with his
environment. Unmindful of what is happening around him, he delves deep
into the inner most recesses of his heart and without fear or malice pours
out his felings as they ooze forth. Such a poet is incapable of clothing
his emotions with artificial adorations. Romanticism may thus he called
the highest water-mark of poet's individual thinking.
Habba may be
called the harbinger of such kind of poetry in Kashmiri. She is the originator
of popular love-lyrics in Kashmiri literature. However, her love is earthly;
she could not rise above it; Her passionate love has its source in the
enjoyment or senses and not their denial in any case. She does not feel
fed-up with sensual pleasures, but at times would like to revert to these
with ever-increasing appetite. She cannot reconcile herself with the sour-truth
of being a widow who has perforce to abjure sensuality. She would not like
to show herself off as a pious lady either, under the cover of so-called
piety myriad sins do thrive when a woman is not mentally ready to own a
salutary course of life for herself. Her poetry, therefore, is a candid
expression of her feelings which has immenseley contributed to her popularity.
She does not like to play hide and seek. Her appeal is straight and unsophisticated.
Habba's forte
is love-in-separation. She has not sung even a single verse eulogizing
the munificence of Yusuf Shah when she was in her company. In the words
of Kalidasa 'Separation chastenes love,' Hence, Habba like a born-poet
selected 'separation' for her treatment of love. Her verses throughout
waft an air of restlessness and not contentment; Calm Composure and resignation
to be in turmoil to fate are absent in her poetry. She seems sit cross-legged,
She believes in winning love by bodily excellence alone:-
<verses>
"I will apply
on my body of spotless silvery sheen, the greasy whiteness of milky creams;
I am imnmensely enamoured of thee; I will anoint myself with scented sandal-water.
MY love! I will relish to be your slave."
Even though
Habba has repeatedly and even lustily made a call to flesh only, yet her
songs reverberate an aroma of lasting flavour; though these songs may sound
as sensual to a moralist, yet 'Habba' has made no secret of her sensuous
attitude to life. She has all along wanted to drink deep at the fountain
of life without any saintly pretensions. Therein her moral-courage shines
the best. Her voracious hunger in this respect seems unsatiated. To her
present holds the mirror to what she lost and what she had gained. Her
songs are a lament in every sense of the term. She is firm-footed in her
convictions and does not vacillate. This is perhaps the most glaring trait
of her poetry. She has no concern for morality or ethics in the sense that
she would not elect to be a preacher: She revels in being always loud.
She revels in being immersed in her imagination only, yet her ego is always
loud. She is not shy of parading her beauty and is rather conscious of
it also. Even though she has paid a heavy price for it, still she has no
regrets in this behalf.
Habba's refrain
is love wedded to pathos; consequently she has kept the windows of her
mind shut and her heart is only wide-awake in emitting and receiving images
from her fancied dreams. The pathetic content of her poetery is all the
more aggravated by the elusive nature of her ideal which has consequently
earned for her the epithet 'Nightingale' of Kashmir most squarely. She
does not subscribe to the view that "It is better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all." In the absence of any appropriate and
meaningful response to her simmering emotions, she has opted for self-
suffering, telling beads of her tear-drops. Be it Heemal, Arnimaal or Habba
Khatoon, it is the Kashmiri woman bemoaning her lot in pathetic plaintives,
the common subject with all these, the victims of the conspiracy of circumstances.
Habba Khatoon essentially is a typical example of such a woman who cannot
make any kind of compromise with life. In this predicament she could have
turned a rebel, but, she instead of it, becomes a martyr by consent. This
is exactly the most salient feature of Kashmiri womanhood. Towards the
closing years of her life, Habba does express her remorse for not compromising
with the life as it is, but fashioning it according to her imagination;
none the less in the same breath she admits that missed opportunities need
not be recalled. She does indicate the 'Achilles Heel' of her personality-to
rule only and not to get ruled:-
<verses>
"I, Habba Khatoon,
is definitely sorry for not adapting myself submissively to the moonish
caprices or my lover. I do recaptulate those missed opportunities, but
it is now too late to atone for these; therefore, You, my lover! should
not be cross with me."
A sense of
guilt seems to haunt this love-lorn lady, but at the same time her self-willed
nature dismisses this weight on her heart by taking refuge under the excuse
that race is already run. This subdued expression of penitence does portray
her loud thinking in unguarded moments, but like a wakeful artist, she
cancels it in the second breath. She does not flop, as the idiom goes.
Habba's songs
are musical in essence and pathetic in spirit. She has also been acclaimed
as a melody-queen of Kashmiri poetry. Her popularity is also due to the
fact that her songs are not only a replica of Kashmiri sentiments but also
a potent vehicle of Kashmiri music. Her originality in this sphere is undisputed.
Even though she has appropriated a sizable chunk of Persian words and Persian
similes, yet she has refrained from owning Persian code on metres. She
has in their place introduced home-spun Kashmiri melodies pertaining to
rhyme and rhythm in her quartrains.
Therefore,
her songs self-contained in each quartrain can be more profitably compared
with the 'Vaks' of Lalleshwari or 'Shruks' of Nund-Reshi from the style-point
of view only. These cannot be classed under 'Gazal' or 'Nazam' of Persian
metries, despite the fact that Habba has a tendency to repeat refrains.
Therefore,
it is not without reason that 'Mahjoor'- the doyen of Kashmiri romantic
poets, has dealt a dig at one of his celebrated predecessors- Rasul Mir
in this pregnent verse, for not paying well-deserved compliment to Habba Khatoon:-
<verses>
"Rasul Mir
of Shahabad has profusely alluded to the moon of Qandhar; Why has he been
averse to the moon (Zoon, Kashmiri) of Chandrahar?"
Source: Glimpses
of Kashmir
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