The final version of the story ended in our last issue
Naagrai khatsao aadam chaalee
Bael poore nun drav trovness ghah
Zaat heveth go tass Heemalee
Maehav gots baalee cheon deedaar
Shams Faqir
Tell tale signs
A better way to put that is: The final version of this story to the best of my knowledge ends here; for there are no final versions, only lack of knowledge and the fatigue of imagination.
A fertile imagination is needed not only to create stories but also to read them. Let’s pick up some threads from this tale and examine them more closely.
This tale has been passing down the generations in Kashmir without dying or fading out. Even after the spread of Islam in Kashmir, the love story of Heemal, the daughter of a Kshatriya (warrior caste) king, and Naagrai, the king of serpents and the son of Soda Ram Brahmin, continued to be transmitted from grandmothers to grandchildren. Why?
In the middle of the 20th century, there was an attempt to “rid” the Koshur culture of such “Hindu” stories. To this day, many Muslim scholars and common folk argue that most Kashmiri folklore is Hindu and Muslims need not pay much attention to it. How much merit there is in this argument; I leave for you to discuss and debate.
One key factor is culture. Myths are produced due to the churning of culture by history. They can be skimmed off by a religion, but that does nothing to transform their origins. Koshur mythology has been produced by people living in Kashmir through their interaction with one another and their environment. How much should the fact whether they were snake-worshippers, Buddhists, Hindus (followers of one of the Brahmanic traditions), Muslims or Sikhs at that time or subsequently matter?
At the same time, many other scholars have sought to reinterpret the story by portraying it as a struggle between the Aryan newcomers (in the form of Heemal, and her father’s subjects, including Soda Ram) and the snake-worshipping aborigines of Kashmir (in the form of Naagrai, his wives and retinue). They have explained that the reason Muslims in Kashmir continue to pass down the tale to their children is because it contains the bare bones of the original story of their exploitation and segregation by the Brahmin Aryan invaders. Thus, the tale of a serpent race living in holes underground with jealous women and mercurial men is turned on its head as a callous description of the vanquished aborigines of Kashmir by their Aryan conquerors.
However, if the tale were only a depiction of the struggle between two races, then would it mirror countless such love stories from other cultures across the world?
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For the simple truth is that there are similar stories in every culture and geographic location of the world and you must have heard of some of them. As an interesting aside, have you ever wondered why the girl’s name comes first in such fables as Shireen–Farhad, Soni–Mahiwal, Heer–Ranjha, Laila–Majnoon and, of course Heemal–Naagrai, but the boy’s name comes first in Romeo–Juliet?
Why does every major culture in the world have such legendary love stories? What is their need? What do they represent? What is their meaning?
Also Read: PART II: ‘WATER HOLDS WATER TOGETHER’
Human life is a preoccupation with two struggles. The first struggle is against nature, the environment, or the physical universe. The second strife is against our fellow human beings—more specifically, the society, laws and institutions we have created.
Human beings have been blessed—or cursed, depending on your point of view—with certain basic needs. Respect in one’s own eyes and in the eyes of fellow human beings is perhaps our most distinct and distinguishing need. We also have an overwhelming need for justice, which is balance—meezan in the Muslim parlance—or, as my mother would put it, excess of everything is bad. Even at the level of the subconscious, we aim for balance in our life and the world.
Against the natural world, human beings historically sought to achieve this balance through the tools of “progress” and “development”—new technologies to make our life easier vis-à-vis the forces of nature. These days, when we have almost subdued nature and made it bend around our will like light bends due to gravity, we are also trying to maintain the balance by attempting to “protect nature” and “save the environment”.
Against our fellow human beings, it has always been more difficult to achieve balance, because as soon as someone reaches a position where they may be able to restore balance in the society or its institutions, power corrupts them and, instead of restoring the scales, they try to profit from the imbalance. However, in their heart of hearts, even the most powerful and the irretrievably corrupt among us have an undying need to achieve the balance.
We are amply aware of the fact that nature tries to restore balance in human society by distributing beauty and intelligence randomly. The poorest household may produce the most intelligent or handsome children. The richest palaces may beget the ugliest and stupidest brood. Money and power cannot buy or otherwise forcibly obtain beauty or intelligence1.
However, the arbitrary allocation of good looks and intellect is nature’s intervention in human society. Is there something human beings do by themselves which tries to restore the balance in the society and its binding institutions? Yes, there is. It is called love.
Love is a revolutionary act which strives to restore meezan in human life.
This is why the folklore of every culture in the world has a love story (or many love stories) at the centre of its main body of work. You will have also noticed that, in most cases, the three elements—beauty, intelligence and love—are intertwined in these folk love stories. Our very own story of Heemal–Naagrai is no different. Its warp and weft is composed of the interplay of beauty, intelligence, love and fate.
All of these stories have certain elements in common, but every one of them also has unique features. The common elements can be examined to understand universalizing themes of human nature and life. The unique features, on the other hand, provide insights into local culture, history and society.
For example, in the story of Laila–Majnoon, the central theme is Majnoon’s ironic madness. One could say Majnoon is an oxy-moron! He is madly in love with Laila, but Laila’s father refuses to marry her to him on account of this madness. The result could only be tragedy. The colour of the skin of the main characters—Laila is as black as the night, hence her name; Majnoon is described as fair and handsome; Warrd, to whom Laila is eventually married, is as pink as a rose (and his name)—is another important theme. Majnoon drifting in the desert is another theme.
similarly, in the story of Heer–Ranjha, Heer falls in love with the way Ranjha plays the sornai. Every night, they swim across the river to meet each other. They are separated by the jealous relatives of Heer, who think her secret meetings with Ranjha are dishonouring their family. They marry Heer to another person named Saida Khera. Heartbroken, Ranjha becomes as ascetic and wanders from village to village, and is eventually reunited with Heer when he reaches her village. But Saida Khera poisons Heer and Ranjha drowns while trying to reach her after hearing the news. The central theme of this story is the love story pitted against the “honour” of the family. The river, and swimming across the river, is also an important theme.
These themes tell us a lot about not only the local geography but also the society and about the things and ideas which matter to them. In the same way, examining the unique features of Heemal–Naagrai can provide us unique insights into Koshur culture and history.
To be continued…
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