Quotable Quotes
"Kashmiri Pandits are
linked with history full of the misty past, infinitely remote, whose
traditions run back to gods and the divine origin of things."
The Kashmiri Pandit
"He has survived the
most runhless, barbarous and savage rule which he was subjected to in the
past. Given the same destructive and fatal circumstances to live and work
under, can there be found a people, other than the Kashmiri, who could endure
this inhuman rule for six odd centuries and survive it? The sons of
Avantivarma and Lalitaditya, and the progeny of the blessed Rishis struggled
hard, and that in a peculiar way, against the brutal activity of the
religiously fanatic administrators. It was neck or nothing with them in order
to save their own religion. Hundreds were put to sword, thousands were flung
into the rivers and lakes or killed in their homes. Is it not then the
tenacity, the adaptability and elasticity of the Kashmiri that has helped him
to survive atrocffles and has it not again been foolishly termed cowardice.
Free from bigotry, the Pandit deals impartially with all the other
communities. He is essentially a man of peace."
- Anand Koul
"There (Kashmir)
the godess Saraswati herself is seen in the form of a swan on a lake situated
on the summit of the Bheda hill which is sanctified by Ganga source."
- Rajatarangini
"The traditional
Sanskrit learning has given to Brahaman community of Kashmir, small as it has
been always, a distinguished place in the history of Sanskrit literature since
early times."
- Aurel Stein
"The labours I
devoted between 1888 to 1900 to the critical edition, translation and
commentary of Kalhana's Rajatarangini, the only true historical text of
Sanskrit literature, afforded me ample opportunities of gaining close contact
with Sanskrit savants of Kashmir, the land where traditional learning of Hindu
India had flourished in old times greatly and survived until recent
years."
- Aurel Stein
Let us wake to the
Prophecy
"Old Kashmir festivals
mentioned in the Nilmata, you will understand how difficult it must be for an
European scholar to learn about these rites, also how great the risk is now a
days of such old festivals and other cermonies being lost for good under the
sad changes which are taking place in Kashmir".
- Aurel Stein
"It has always been
a great pleasure to deal with a Pandit. This is due not only to his great
learning and keen intellect but also to his general education and refined
manners, which always make you feel that you are face to face with a real
gentleman."
- Sten Konow
[Dr. Sten Konow Ph.D,
University of Oslo, Sweden, was a world renowned linguist and worked as Chief
Epigraphist, Govt. of India during 1908.]
"On the whole it is
probably impossible to find anything whatever in Kashmiri without the
assistance of a local Pandit."
- David B. Spooner
[Dr. David Brainerd
Spooner was an eminent archaeologist and Sanskrit scholar from Harvard
University, USA and worked as Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Frontier
Circle, India during 1908.]
"It seems certain
that, though Kashmir was in bygone times, a stronghold of Buddhism, yet the
cult of the populace was Brahminical. There were Buddhist monastries as well
as Brahman temples everywhere. The people had a religious past having deep
rooted conviction and notions of religion based on ancient traditions and
sacred mandates. Even if present finds ruined temples the fact remains that
their lofty arches and massive blocks of masonary were quarried and erected
bit by bit by people who expended their best on buildings which were to be set
aside for nothing but noble purpose of worship.
"It has often been
noticed that the decay of religion marks the decay of the country and the
Kashmiris owing to persistent cataclysm of bigoted invaders lost their
religious moorings and consequently lost their place in the race of human
prosperity. The ebullition of atrocities of the Mohammedan rulers, their fury
and orgies of outrages, wrecked the foundation of peace and humanity. They
persecuted the Hindus and forced them to embrace Islam. They pillaged,
plundered and destroyed their temples with ruthless and relentless vigour born
of bigotry and fanaticism converting them into ziarats and mosques."
-- Anand Kaul
Penolympics
There was no Guiness Book
of Records then. Had there been something like that, the names of these
Pandits would surely have found place in it for their astonishing feats of
penmanship. They are Pandit Ratnakanth Razdan, Pandit Mukund Ram Shastri and
Pandit Sahaz Bhatt. For once their quantitative output pushed the qualitative
aspect of their work to the backseat.
- Pandit Ratnakantha
Razdan
Popularly known as Ratta
Razdan, he would repeat in a single day what his teacher would teach him in
a fortnight. Writing down six hundred Sanskrit shlokas every day was a
routine with him. So fast did he write that he once wrote down the entire
Bhagwad Gita during the time his companions were busying themselves with a
meal.
- Pandit Mukund Ram
Shastri
This outstanding scholar
translated 1,50,000 verses of a Buddhist text -- "Kangur Tangur"
from Tibetan into Sanskrit at a stretch. A mind boggling feat, indeed!
- Pandit Sahaz Bhat
A physican by profession,
he prepared a descriptive catalogue of 6000 Sanskrit manuscripts on
different subjects which were lying in the Maharaja's Raghunath Temple
Library, Jammu, working with Stein and Govind Kaul and writing brief notes
on each.
(Inputs S.N.
Pandita)
"As a stick and
another stick come together in an ocean and depart afterwards, the beings
meet and depart. I shall never forget those wonderful days in Kashmir when I
studied along with you the poems and dramas in Sanskrit in the shade of row
of trees in the garden near by the pond beautified by fully opened lotuses.
When shall I come back to the holy land Bharata by the force of my luck,
when shall I see Kashmir, the girdle of the Himalayas, the abode of Devi
Sharada in Kashmir (Srinagar), your auspicious face in that city? This
thinking I have hope every day. What to write more. It is to be arranged by
the Creator."
- J. Ph. Vogel
"Now one year has
elapsed. Hereafter the city Srinagar appears to my eyes as Sri in a form. I
eagerly await the moment when I behold Kashmir and its great scholars and
become blessed again."
- J. Ph. Vogel [Excerpts
of letters from Prof. J. Ph. Vogel, University of Leiden, Holland to Pt. NS:
1917]
"In addition it
is a return to the past. My old clerk Ram Chand Bali, now well up the
state's official ladder, arranged for me to get through all my tasks. I
visited again after 50 years the Raghunath temple library. The six thousand
Sanskrit manuscripts had been catalogued by me with the help of Pandit
Govind Koul and another excellent scholar friend Sahaz Bhatta in what seems
now like previous birth. It had been a dreary task but it saved the
collection from being lost. I had a very attentive reception, had to talk
Sanskrit again for an hour or so, thus purifying my tongue by use of the
Sacred Language after all my peregrination in the barbarian north and west.
It was a quaint experience to find myself in the end garlanded in the
traditional Kashmiri Hindu fashion for the first time in my life."
- Aurel Stein [Excerpts
of Aurel Stein's letter dated 18.12.40 from Jammu to Mrs. Henery Allen
(Madam), a close friend in Vienna, Austria.]
"The freedom of
the spirit makes India the last civilization that is still existing. If this
civilized spirit has to be preserved then I think all of us should leave no
stone unturned in making Kashmir as a corner stone of the Indian
Culture."
- Nirmal Verma,
Eminent Hindi writer
Predicament of the
Pandits
Though Kashmiri Pandits
are a small community, we have been forced by the events of history to look
outwards and seek new frontiers. But the last 8 years have witnessed
ourforced exodus leading to diaspora and dispersal of huge dimensions. The
one thing that can yet keep us together is the historical sense of our
glorious cultural heritage. NSKRI and similar institutions can play a
pivotal role in creating that sense of history and in the preservation and
promotion of our culture. Three things that can bind us are: our language,
our unique identity and the desire to seek our roots, and all these have to
emanate from a sense of pride and a feeling of self esteem which have been
snatched from the community over the last six centuries, more so during the
last five decades. We have to rediscover that pride and set forth on march
to a political and cultural resurgence.
- Dr. K. L. Chowdhury
Medical Specialist, Jammu
"In the night
ride across the Wular lake a small storm made me worry for the safety of my
manuscript (Rajatarangini). It seemed as if the goddess of wisdom - Sharada,
represented by waters of Kashmir, was unwilling to let me abduct the
manuscript. This is what happened 1200 years ago to the Chinese pilgrim
Hiuen-Tsang, who had to leave his Sanskrit manuscript in the angry Indus
River."
- Aurel Stein
"But perhaps the
greatest advantage I derived from Kashmirian Pandit association with my
labours was the chance it gave me to study in close contact those
peculiarities of traditional Indian thought, belief and conduct which
separate Hindu Civilization so deeply both from the West and the East and
which no amount of book knowledge could ever fully reveal to a maleecha.
- Aurel Stein
The Three
Traditions
In Sanskrit there are
three major traditions of manuscript editions. One is the Central Indian
tradition, represented by the Devanagri script, supported, more or less, by
Bengali manuscripts. Then there is the South Indian tradition, and then the
third tradition is shared by Kashmir and, strangely enough, by Kerala. And,
for example, when I was workinging on the text of Katha Saritsagara of
Someadeva, the printed version and the Kashmiri version in the Sharada
script (when I speak Kashmiri version I speak of the Sharada script), the
Sharada version was at least seventy to eighty percent different than the
Devanagri version. Because in Kashmir things have just frozen in times, let
us say the thirteenth-ffteenth century, the texts in Kashmir really deserve
to be published as such, except a few rare works like Ashtadhyayi in which
there is no change in Kashmiri version and Devanagri version.
- Dr. Lokesh Chandra
The Saptarishi
Samvatsara
Time is eternal. It is
the rhythm of divine pulsation. However, it is only linear or chronological
time in which life unfolds itself on this universe. So when we talk of the
Saptarishi Samvatsara followed by Kashmiri Pandits we have to travel back in
time to the people of Satisar, the ancestors of the present day Kashmiri
Pandits.
Why is the name of the
Saphrishis associated with this era? Legend goes that some 5074 years ago
Saphrishis, the seven great sages of the Hindus, came to Sharika Parvat, the
abode of goddess Sharika at the auspicious movement when the first ray of
sun fell on Chakreshwara, and paid obeisance to her. The place where they
are said to have assembled is still called Sata Peshy. It is a rock where
devotees of the goddess go to ask for a boon and meditate upon Mahakali to
attain siddhi. Astrologers made this auspicious moment the sorting
point for their calculation of the Nova Varsha Pratipada.
- Dr. C. L. Raina
"Kashmir Shaivism
teaches that monistic thought can be practised by anyone, man or woman,
without the restriction of caste, creed or colour. Kashmir Shaivism,
therefore, is a universal
system, pure, real and substantial in every respect".
- Swami Lakshman Joo
The Shaiva philosophy
does not conceive of the Supreme as a logomachist but as an Artist. Just as
an artist cannot contain his delight within himself. but pours it out into a
song, a picture or a poem, even so the Supreme Artist pours out the
delightful wonder of this splendour into manifestation of creation?
- Jasdev Singh
Kashmir Shaivism is
not based on rational thinking and augmentation alone. The basic source of
its finer principles has been direct revelation of the exactly correct truth
regarding the nature and the character of the real self of a person and the
essence of the world around him. Such a realization was the result of the
practice of a superior kind of Shivayoga of the Trika system known as the
Shambhavi Mudra. A Yogin practising the mudra recognized himself to be none
else than Shiva Himself.
- Dr. B.N. Pandit
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