The
Nilamatpuranam and Kashmir
by M. M. Karmayogi J. L.
K. Jalali
WE have to thank Prof. Ram Lal Kanjilal (my
professor in the Shri Pratap College) and Prof.
Jagaddhar Zadoo for their joint labour in
compiling the present edition of Nilamatapuranam,
which was published as far back as 1924. When I
used to see my Bengali Professor transcribing the
Sanskrit text in Bengali script, so valued by the
Bengalis, I was amused. Whenever he would copy out
a Sanskrit book or document, he would transcribe
it in Bengali. I could not then understand why he
did so. Later after 40 years I could satisfy my
curiosity, when I came in contact with the late
renowned scholar, Prof. Suniti Kumar
Chattopadhyaya (or Chatterji) ; who would tell me
that he used to recite Bhagvadgita in Sanskrit
written in the Bengali script. Prof. Kanjilal and
Prof. Zadoo's compilation is admirable although
there are inexplicable lacunae in it, which could
have been filled in, had a little more labour been
put in or effort made to carefully go through the
different portions of the Puranam. Though the
Editors have themselves referred to such lacunae
not all and most important, I as reader and
student of the Puranam feel that the Research
Department of the Jammu and Kashmir State should
have taken it up again and made further search for
MSS of the Puranam, which I believe may still be
available and have not been known to the
department by a non-Kashmiri, least of all by the
foreign scholars, without knowing and studying the
life, habits, customs, manners, rituals, etc.
apart from a thorough knowledge of the land of
NAGAS, called Kashmir. To write on metre employed,
to infer how men and women lived, who the
inhabitants in the past were, does not give the
true content of Nilamatpuranam. It is a
storehouse, which has to be swept of all
excresenees and then made into a running story of
historical value of Kashmiri's past of several
thousand years, a past in which for more than a
milliard it was a Saras (inland sea) bounded by
high mountains and inhabited by people living on
its shores and on the mountain slopes whom we know
as Nagas, ruled over by a king called Nila with
his Headquarters at NILAKUNDA (Vernag) fifty miles
to the east of Srinagar of today.
Before I proceed further,
I consider it proper and an act of gratitude to
refer to Dr. Buhler who was responsible for
delving the Puranam, out of practical neglect. In
the edition of the Puranam, compiled by the two
learned professors and followed by others, it
appears that what Dr. Buhler has written about the
Puranam has been taken for granted and no deeper
research has been made. Nilamata is the basic
history of Kashmir and the Kashmiris, and it was
Dr. Buhler who was responsible for introducing the
Paradise on Earth to the scholars and through them
to the people of Germany, UK and the world. In
Kashmir , occasionally as far as I remember, a
learned Brahman for the matter of that, my own
family priest, would mention the rites and rituals
enjoined on the Kashmiris in the Puranam. I was
too young. I could not easily follow what he would
say, but my revered mother, Devamali, who though
lot conversant with the 3 R'S would avidly try to
digest whatever she heard and, repeat to her
children during the evening hours after the day's
chores had been finished and we were preparing for
the warm bed of wintry night a night really
reminiscent of the eight of the Pishachas who had
been destroyed by the severe frost and snow after
they were fought out of the Valley with the help
of Vedic Aryans, invited by NILA at the behest of
his father Kashyapa, from the plains of Bharat.
Along with this she would
recite verses from Sanskrit and Persian too, and
other stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata,
especially the stories of Harischandra, Nala and
Damayanti, Sati Savitri Ahalya, and others. This
was responsible for my earnest desire to study
what the foreigners called "Myths" and
even today a great archaeologist would welcome me
"to cherish my myths", perhaps thinking
under an obsession that by post dating those
"Myths" he could succeed in shaking my
faith, or those of other citizens of India in the
well established and well pronounced antiquity of
my Shastras and scriptures far beyond the 4000
years B. C. creation of the Christian world.
Nilamatpuranam from its
very composition does not appear to be a work of
the Rishi begun and completed at one long sitting.
It has been on the anvil for fears and the strokes
of the hammer have not been uniform. So looseness,
introducing of general theories, beliefs, stories
and mythically imaginational rhapsodies, have
found this valuable tome of important information.
This has been responsible for some confusion as
well. If the Puranam were taken up and held in the
hand and then shaken off all the superfluities, it
would give an interesting story of Kashmir, its
formation, its original inhabitants, intruders and
their outlaw, and consequential inhabiting of the
previous race of people called Kashmiris whose
ancestors have been the NAGAS, it has clearly to
be borne in mind that the author is one well
versed in Sanskrit, saturated with Naga words,
terms, idioms, expressions, and has a tradition of
centuries, of ages, behind him in making this
composition. Even the term NAGA itself need not be
taken as a Sanskrit but as a Naga word adopted by
the Sanskritists. One can never be sure whether
the language employed originally has remained
intact during the course of centuries to the time
the composition has been actually recorded in
black and white. These are the considerations
which the present day reader has to keep in mind
before he comes to a particular conclusion in a
particular matter.
We have to be thankful to
Dr. Buhler for his labour of love, and I bow to
these German scholars first, and then to English
and French savants who have made my Kashmir known
throughout the world. After all foreign scholars,
whatever their country, environments,
surroundings, bring-up and outlook have been, born
and bread up in an atmosphere different from that
of mine, whenever they have come and had an urge
to visit India and then my Kashmir, I and my
People were not known to them, and they started
comparing my land to Switzerland not Switzerland
to Kashmir, or comparing me to a Jew and not a Jew
to me a Kashmiri, for they had seen Switzerland
and the Jews first. This 'liking' was not confined
to land and the people only, but to the hoary
scriptures, and other literary works and
compositions and introduce Hoiner's Iliad or
Odyssey to me rather than my Ramayana and
Mahabharata to the people of Rome and Greece. It
was but natural. And what our Indian authors,
scholars and researchers learnt and then produced
was nothing but investitured in the thinking of
those 'Foreign Greats' because India was a
dependency of Great Britain, and whatever the
British Masters wanted the slaves to learn and
practise was presented to them in the then "modernised"
garb. And the wonder is that whenever I would
study an Indian "modern" author, I had
to learn what lie had copied from a foreign
scholar or a foreign periodical, until Tilak,
Aurobindo, Gandhi, Tagore, Malaviya, Jawaharlal,
Das, Bose, Savarkar, Parmanand and others taught
me I-ness and My-ness first to well understand
You-ness and He-ness. It does not mean, no, never,
that there is nothing worth learning from foreign
scholars and researchers, authors and writers,
saints and mystics or their ancient scriptures,
philosophies and other thoughtful literature.
Dr. Buhler was not a
Kashmiri. He and Dr. M. A. Stein did their best to
learn and know about Kashmir through the medium of
Kashmiris knowing Sanskrit (and Persian too in
some cases). But this did not qualify them to be
called Kashmiris for the purpose of fully
understanding Kashmir as a Kashmiri would. All the
same they have done a wonderful and unforgettable
service to the Kashmiris for which they are and
will be always remembered with a deep sense of
gratefulness. Kalhana has mentioned in his
memorable Rajatarangini the Nilamatpuranam in
these words: "That land is Protected by Nila,
the lord of all the Nagas, whose regal parasol is
formed bv the circular pond (of the Nilakunda)
with the Vitasta's newly rising stream as its
stick". And these two compositions of
intrinsic worth and invaluable information form
the base of Kashmir History, its Kings, and
dynasties, its people, high and low, their customs
and manners, their rites and rituals, their
traditions and faiths, their economic condition
and administrational structures, and so on.
Kashmir was geographically an isolated realm
accessible to the few interested either as
invaders or as visitors (more political than
sight-seers), intent upon knowing the people and
their faith and everything concerning them as for
as possible, and required for statal purposes. The
Nilamata has information in regard to the origin
of Kashmir, its aboriginal, their beliefs, their
node of living, their general behaviour,
occupation and the like. It will be a interesting
to find in its hoary pages what the general trend
and tone of descriptions is. The most dominant is
Manes-worship, then comes worship of gods and
goddesses. While dealing with and talking of
ancestors (pitris) the author describes how
shraddhas have to be performed, what offerings to
make not without dakshina, (cash and kind) to
priests performing the shraddhas. Even in
shraddhas the ceremonies are prefaced with worship
(puja) of specified deities & gods and
goddesses a thing which throughout the Hindu (brahman)
world continues even unto this day and will
continue for ever. But there is a demarcation
between shraddha functions, and other functions
like weddings, birthdays, Mekhlas (Yajnopavita)
etc. If any shraddha ceremony falls on any of
these functions, it is not performed; and nothing
connected with shraddha is allowed to be done on
that day. This is very important. Even though we
never forget our manes and manes-worship, such
festivals and functions of worldliness are not
intermixed with shraddhas of one's pitris
(ancestors). The festivity rules out shraddhas.
In the Nilamatpurana as
edited by the two professors mentioned above,
verses 804 to 808 describe what should be done in
the form of Japa, Homa, shraddhas, austerity,
charity etc. on Vaishakha Shukla 2nd and 3rd (dvitiya
& tritiya) or lunar 2nd and 3rd of the month
of Baisakh April and then slokas 817 to 821 give
in detail what is to be done on the Purnima (15th
lunar day of Vaishakha (April) in the form of
worshipping Brahmans with sesame, of Homa
(sacrificial offering) with sesame, shraddha,
lights in temples with sesame and sesame is be
given to 5 or 7 Brahmanas with honey to eat, and
so on.
In between the two sets
of slokas there appear slokas 809 to 816 which
describe what should be done to celebrate the
Birthday or Jayanti of Mahatma Buddha, which
includes acting, dancing, but which is evidently a
contradiction to the observance of tila shraddha,
tila eating, tila sacrifice, etc. This
contradiction without any doubt leads to the
inference that the slokas 808 to 817 are an
interpolation in the Puranam inserted to fall in
line with the accepted belief in the incarnation (avatra-ship)
of Buddha in the rest of India, made by some later
interpolator, which has been responsible for the
fixation of the date of 7th Century A.D. for the
Puranam by Dr. Buhler, and this dating has been
accepted by the joint editors of the Puranam, and
now by other authors and scholars and writers who
have dealt with or written upon this Purana. This
is an interpolation and can in no case be taken as
the evidence for establishing the date of
composition of the NILMATA. On the other hand,
there is sufficient evidence in the Purana itself
which establishes beyond doubt that this Puranam
must have been written several centuries before
Christ, and the Nirvana of Buddha. And in support
of that are the various rites and rituals, which
are still observed at this time in the twentieth
century.
As mentioned in the
Puranam, there are very important landmarks which
confirm that it is of a very old time and not of
the 7th century as arbitrarily fixed by Dr. Buhler
and followed by easygoing writers. For instance
the Purnima of Shravana month (August) nowadays we
celebrate as the day of Lord Shiva, and
non-Kashmiri Hindus call it RAKHRI. It is the
Purnima when the pilgrims to the Holy Cave at
Swami Amarnath Ji have darshan of the Holy Lingam,
led as they are by the Holy CHHARI every year
there. The Chhari is not mentioned, nor the
pilgrimage. What is mentioned in the Puranam is
that at the junction of Vitasta and Sindhu rivers
(which is now called Prayag at Shadipora) people
should take a bath and then worship the god of
gods "Sharangin" (the archer Vishnu).
And how that should be done is described in slokas
853 to 856. It will be marked that it is the Naga
custom that is followed viz. that of playing with
girls in water. Why Sharingin is mentioned is as
far as one can see attributable to the nature of
the amorous play after the archer though said to
be Lord Vishnu, but correctly speaking the Archer
Cupid or Kamadeva is worshipped. And this playing
with girls is to be done "Visheshena".
This custom must have, been far older, even before
Buddha was born, and his name and teachings and
later philosophical invasion of Kashmir took
place. In Kashmir, Shaivism was also preceded by
Shaktism, and if we say that Kashmir is more the
land of Shakti than Shiva, we are but within our
proper bounds; because even now wherever you go
you find the shrines of Devi (Shakti) spread over,
these worshipped and maintained more than the
temples of Shiva. If Vishnu is not worshipped here
in Kashmir, it is because of the same Shakti Puja
which the Vedic Aryan Rishi, the author of
Nilamatapuranam harmonised with the introduction
of 'SATI and SATI SAR' .... because one does not
know what the Nagas called this inland sea in
their tongue and making her responsible for the
desiccation of this watery abode of Shakti, the
Lake or inland Sea.
Again, the custom of
celebrating the festival of Chaitra Purnima ard
the day after, with dance, women, liquor, and Ira
flowers indicative of cupidity; things which are
of Naga origin and belong to Naga time, and have
been faithfully recorded by the Rishi of Nilamata
with his Aryan touch. When we come across the
festival of celebration of the fall of First Snow,
it is a very very old custom, and people are asked
to celebrate it with songs, dances, liquor, and
what is remarkable is that "shyama devi"
is to be honoured or worshipped, which I would
interpret as young, beautiful girls whom Shastras
would call Shyama, decked in new clothes and
adornments, and enjoy the festival with friends,
servants, relations, and eat special dishes on
snow covered with heavy cloth (I think it refers
to the heavy woollen flooring like Lois). This
markedly is to be celebrated with <verse> on
this fall of snow. This is definitely a Naga
custom of very olden times which has come down to
us intact, though with the centuries of Buddhism
that invaded in between this custom had lost its
fervour, and it was only after the ouster of
Buddhism that it regained some of its original
charm. We keep it alive by "nav shin kharun"
and asking the person tricked to entertain the
"tricker" (the use of these two terms
may be pardoned) on the occasion. This custom
could not have been mentioned in the 6th or 7th
century when Kashmir was under the influence of
Buddhism and it was a time when there was a
struggle between the past and the present, and
forces to usher in Lalitaditya and his halcyon
days, day of glory for Kashmir, were to make
themselves felt all rounds.
In short, when we go
through the Puranam and the rituals and customs
mentioned very carefully, it becomes clear that
the Puranam has an older, much older, chronology
than ascribed to it. It is true there are some
customs and rites which are not mentioned in the
Puranam, those were not then observed, and have
come into vogue later. It will be seen that the
author of the Puranam does not mention the hill
Gopadri, which was known so during the reign of
king Gopaditya ( 369 B. C. ). So, the composition
must have been made before that date. This Gopadri
became known as Shankaracharya after the visit in
the 8th century A. D. of Adi Shankaracharya Ji to
Kashmir, when both Gopadri hill and the
Jyeshtheshwar temple on it were given the new name
in his honour. For fear of length, I content
myself, and I hope my readers will also remain
content with what has been recorded above, which
undoubtedly establishes that the Nilamatapuranam
is of a date much earlier than Buddha, and that
the mention of Buddha Jayanti is a later
interpolation which does not fit in with what is
written about Dvitiya or Tritiya and the Purnima
of Vaishakha... KALOHAM (I AM TIME).
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