Unmeelan
Glimpses of Kashmiri Pandit Cultural
Heritage
Introductory Address
by Dr. S. S. Toshkhani
Respected Shri J. N. Kaul, Dr
Lokesh Chandra and distinguished guests,
It is, indeed, a great privilege to
welcome you all on behalf of the N S Kashmir Research Institute to this first
ever exhibition on Kashmiri Pandit cultural heritage titled Unmeelan.
The word 'Unmeelan' means 'opening the eyes', and this exhibition is literally
an invitation to opening of eyes if only to have a glimpse of the heritage of
the Kashmiri Pandits, a people who have contributed, most significantly, to
Indian culture, philosophy, literature, art and aesthetics - quite out of
proportion to their small numbers. That these people stand uprooted today from
their native soil and are fighting a grim battle for their survival as a
distinct social and cultural entity, is perhaps the greatest tragedy in the
history of post- independence India. There is every danger that these ancient
people may be wiped out of existence together with five thousand years of their
culture and traditions, their literature and lore. And, if such a catastrophe
does take place, posterity shall have much to regret.
It is most unfortunate that a state of
amnesia is clouding the minds of people about the role that the Kashmiri Pandits
played in shaping the country's cultural and civilisational history. It is they
who evolved some of the seminal ideas and concepts that stimulated intellectual
and creative activity in ancient India. Is it to be forgotten that Mahayana has
been their greatest gift to Buddhism, a doctrine that penetrated into and swept
across entire Central Asia, South Asia and the far eastern countries through the
efforts of Kashmiri missionaries? One such missionary, Shyam Bhatt devised a
script for the Tibetan language and gave it its first grammar. Does not Kashmir
Shaivism represent one of the greatest heights that Indian philosophical thought
has attained? In fact, contrary to the general impression that they remained cut
off due to geographical isolation, the Pandits of Kashmir crossed their mountain
barriers to unite north and south India through Shaivite thought. In the same
manner, Shaktivad and the Tantric philosophy evolved in Kashmir linked the land
of Vitasta with Kerala in the south and Bengal in the east. Surely, the best in
Sanskrit literary tradition bears an indelible stamp of the genius of Kashmiri
Pandits. It was Kalhana who started the tradition of historiography in India
with his immortal work, the Rajtarangini, displaying a keen sense of history and
sharp critical talent. Kshemendra, one of the sharpest critics of men and
matters, was the first Sanskrit writer to have made satire as his main mode of
expression. Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara is one of the world's most wonderful
collection of tales comprehending a wide range of myth and mystery, fun and
frolic, love and lust, ambition and adventure, cowardice and chivalry.
And what remains of Sanskrit aesthetical
writing if Kashmir's contribution to it is taken out? The inquiry into the
nature of aesthetic experience by such master minds from Kashmir as Bhamah,
Udbhatta, Vamana, Rudratta, Kuntaka, Anandavardhana, Mammatta, and the greatest
of them all Abhinavagupta soared. in the words of Krishna Chaitanya, "into
philosophy risen from the world of poetry to a poetic world-view".
In the field of Indian music, one of the
most important treatises ever written is Sharangadeva's Sangeet Ratnakara - the
work which formulates the basis of Karnataka music and has few other works in
the world to compare with it.
In the history of Indian art, Kashmir
occupies a very important place, drawing to it all the power and beauty of the
Gandharan and Gupta art, and at the same time evolving a distinct metaphor and
style of its own. The Kashmir school of art had a deep impact on the adjoining
Himalayan regions and was one of the principal formative forces of Lamaistic
art. In the 9th to 11th century Kashmiri artists were producing exquisite
bronzes and painting murals in Alchi (Ladakh), Western Tibet and Spiti (Himachal
Pradesh). The grandeur of Martand and Avantipur temples testifies to the heights
of glory which Kashmiri sculpture and architectural art had attained.
Can there be anything more tragic than the
fact that the inheritors of this great cultural legacy, the descendents of the
ancient people of the Nilamata Purana who gave Kashmir its own creation myth,
are today facing a sinister threat of cultural extinction. Shaken by such a
horrifying prospect, a group of concerned members of the Kashmiri Pandit
community set up the N S Kashmiri Research Institute in Delhi on January 19,
1997 to launch a concerted drive to preserve, protect and project the heritage
and culture of the Kashmiri Pandits. It has been named after Prof. Nityanand
Shastri, one of Kashmir's most outstanding Sanskrit scholars who was a
contemporary and friend of great European Indologists like Sir Aurel Stein,
Prof. J. Ph. Vogel, George Greirson and Winternitz.
The Institute has chalked out a well
thought-out agenda and programme for achieving its objectives which have been
endorsed by the intellectual of the community. This exhibition is an effort in
that direction, but it is only a curtain raiser, being the first in a series of
thematic exhibitions which the Institute proposes to organise in the near
future. On display are rare miniature paintings of the Kashmir school, Sharada
and Persian manuscripts, documents and books relating to Kashmiri Pandit
intellectual attainments and scholarship. Also on view are Kashmiri Pandit
costumes, artifacts and objects of ritualistic importance besides old
photographs showing social and religious customs of the Pandits.
'Unmeelan' is an attempt to capture the
real cultural face of Kashmir, battered and bruised, though it is today. A face
that has for long been kept away from view. I along with my colleagues in the
NSKRI hope that you will find the exhibition visually satisfying and
intellectually stimulating despite the many shortcomings that it obviously has.
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