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Lal Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir

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Apostles of Transformation
 Apostles of
Transformation
Anthology of Muslim Women Trailblazers in India

Akhtarul Wasey and Juhi Gupta (eds)

Peter Lang
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbiblio grafie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Akhtarul Wasey, 1951- editor. | Gupta, Juhi, editor.
Title: Apostles of transformation : anthology of Muslim women trailblazers
in India / Akhtarul Wasey, Juhi Gupta.
Description: New York : Peter Lang, 2022. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021053787 (print) | LCCN 2021053788 (ebook) | ISBN
9781800796614 (paperback) | ISBN 9781800796621 (ebook) | ISBN
9781800796638 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Muslim women--India--Biography. | Women in Islam--India. |
Feminism--Religious aspects--Islam. | Women--India--Biography. |
Celebrities--India--Biography.
Classification: LCC HQ1170 .A695 2022 (print) | LCC HQ1170 (ebook) | DDC
305.48/697092254 [B]--dc23/eng/20211108
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053787
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053788

Cover design by Brian Melville for Peter Lang.

ISBN 978-1-80079-661-4 (print)

ISBN 978-1-80079-662-1 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-80079-663-8 (ePub)

© Peter Lang Group AG 2022

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,
Oxford, United Kingdom
[email protected], www.peterlang.com

Akhtarul Wasey and Juhi Gupta have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this Work.

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of
the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and
processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

Contents

Foreword  ix

Preface  xi

About the Volume xiii

Faiza Abbasi
Illustrious Women of the Muslim University at Aligarh 1

Shah Alam
Vanguards of Change: Vignettes of Muslim Women Politicians
in India 27

S. Chandani Bi
A Muslim Lady Icon: An Unknown Face 51

Mayuri Chaturvedi
Indian Muslim Women Scientists as Mentors and Role Models 63

Tauseef Fatima
Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul: The Only Muslim Woman in
India’s Constituent Assembly 81

Juhi Gupta
Heralds of Social Change: Women of Abdullah Family Paving
the Way for Future Generations 91
vi Contents

Syeda Hameed
Saliha Abid Husain: The Unsung Literary Colossus 103

V. Bharathi Harishankar
Conversations with the Mother: A Hagiographical
Reconstruction of Athankarai Nachiyar –​Bibi Syed Ali Fathima 115

Sabiha Hussain
Muslim Women Contributors to the Legacy of Urdu
Literature: Ismat Chughtai and Qurratulain Hyder 125

Naima Khatoon
Begum Akhtar: The Queen Enthralling the World with Her
Silken Voice 139

Rasheed Kidwai
Begums of Bhopal: Towards Muslim Women’s Education 147

Shahida Murtaza
Surayya Tayyabji: The Resolute Woman 157

Azra Musavi
Anees Kidwai: A Warrior Chronicling the Lives of Women
During Partition 169

Rekha Pande
Razia Sultan: The First Woman Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate 177

Abida Quansar
Economic and Educational Contribution of Women in
Kashmir with Special Reference to Ateeqa Bano 199
Contents vii

Madhu Rajput
Begum Hamida Habibullah: Soul of Lucknow 211

Ayesha Munira Rasheed

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain: The Educationist and the Writer 221

Bilal Ahmad Wani AND NASEEM AHMAD SHAH

Lala Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir 229

Sherin Shervani
Nurjahan: The Mughal Empress 237

Shivangini Tandon
Articulating Domesticity in Courtly Spaces: Embodiment and
Subjectivity in Gulbadan Bano Begum’s Humayun-​nama 247

Ruchika Varma
Shareefa Hamid Ali: An Icon in the History of India 263

Anam Wasey
Importance of Women Opting Law with an Exemplification of
Justice Fathima Beevi 273

Huma Yaqub
Attia Hosain: Discovering Home and Self in a Distant Land 281

Glossary 295

Notes on Contributors 301

Index305
Bilal Ahmad Wani AND NASEEM AHMAD SHAH

Lal Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir

Introduction

Lala of Kashmir is commonly known as Lal Ded, Lal Didi, Lalleshwari and
Lala the Great. In Sanskrit literature, she is known as Lala Yogeshwari. She
is famous by the name Lal Ded among Muslims and Lalleshwari among
Hindus. She was a saint-​philosopher born in the middle of the fourteenth
century of the Christian era, which was a period of political and religious
turmoil in Kashmir. Her parents lived near Pandrenthen Sempore, which
is about 10 miles away from the capital city of Srinagar. She was mar-
ried at an early age to a Brahmin boy in the village of Pampore. She was
maltreated at her in-​laws’. Her mother-​in-​law always starved her, but she
never raised the finger against her. It is said that once there was going to
be some feast in her home. While fetching water from the river, she was
told by her friends: ‘You must be having lavish dishes at home tonight?’.
Lalleshwari replied: ‘Whether they (in-​laws) slaughtered a big sheep or
a small one, Lalla always has a stone for her dinner’ (a practice with her
mother-​in-​law of putting a stone in her thali and covering it thinly with
rice to make it look like a big heap to others).
Lala left her home and became a yogini. Her guru was Sidha-​Bayu, an
eminent scholar (of Sanskrit literature) of the time. She learned yoga and
meditation under the guru and later on she excelled her guru. She had an
opportunity to meet the Sayeds1 who came from Iraq. She had long dis-
cussions and frequent arguments with them on religion and mysticism.

1 Sayeds are identified as descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and his son-​in-​
law, Ali.
230 bilal ahmad wani and naseem ahmad shah

She fills her teachings with many truths that are common to all religious
philosophies. All religions were to her merely paths leading to the same
goal. She never differentiated between a Hindu and a Muslim. Her vaakhs
(poetry) lay more stress on recognizing one’s own self, which is the true
knowledge of God. She says that the cause of all our troubles is ego, which
must be renounced. One must be moderate in food or drink. Overeating,
she says, will lead us nowhere, while not eating will give rise to conceit.
She has said that if one cannot realize God in this life, how one can realize
Him after death.
Many myths, legends and miracles are woven around her name, which
indicate the reverence in which she was held by Hindus and Muslims alike.
The famous Patron saint-​poet of Kashmir, Nund Rishi of Chrar-​e-​Sharief,
held her in high esteem and reverence. Her vaakhs are commonly sung in
Kashmir by all communities and have passed from generation to generation.
She endured all hardships patiently and was an embodiment of self-​denial,
patience and self-​discipline. From the beginning, she showed an inclination
away from the mundane, and the cruel treatment of her in-​laws further pro-
pelled her to enter the life of renunciation, when she found her guru in Sidh
Srikanth. Lalleshwari was a Shaivite mistress yogini and she worshipped the
Divine as Nirankar, formless, limitless, boundless, timeless, non-​conceivable
and non-​existent.

Mysticism of Lal Ded

For her, God is absolute, infinite and omnipresent. She had realized God
in a vacuum, in a nothingness which was inside her. Lalleshwari was a
profound Shaivite philosopher, deep thinker, thought-​provoking cre-
ative saint poet and artist, and a great contributor to the Kashmiri lan-
guage. She tried to seek self-​consciousness by delving deep into her inner-​
self which revealed the ultimate truth to her, and which has reached us
through her profound and inspiring words of wisdom. They delight our
minds with inseparable ecstasy. Lalleshwari continues to survive through
four-​liners known as ‘vaakh’ (from Sanskrit Vakya meaning a sentence),
Lal Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir 231

and these are the medium of her thoughts, experiences and her attain-
ment. These are sung at the beginning of every Raga or ‘Muqam’ of the
local classical music called ‘Sufiana Kalam’ (devotional music/​words of a
mystic). She is equally respected by the Hindus and Muslims of the valley.
The Kashmiri language is full of her sayings. It is claimed that she died
at an advanced age in Bijbehara but she remains alive in her sayings. She
only kept the company of sadhus and Pirs.2 She would go around naked
and claimed that she had yet to encounter a man. She was illiterate but
was wise. In her words known as ‘Lal vakhs,’ she has dealt with everything
from life, yoga, God to dharma.
The period during the mid-​fourteenth century laid the religious and
moral foundations of Kashmir; the people of the valley were subjected to
the influence of Islam. The concept of the medieval reformers or Mystics
evolved out of this close contact between the two religions and their influ-
ence on each other. And it was during this time of religious upheaval that
mystics like Lalleshwari and others provided a new approach to religion
embracing all creeds and castes, appealing to the ‘heart’ rather than the
‘head’. The mission of her life was to guide her countrymen and women
and she did it effectively. Her life and sayings exemplify the tradition of
love and tolerance and helped in moulding the character of her people.
What Lalla emphasized was that every individual required to attain
and arrive at the true state of being. She started with her focus on the at-
tachment to the objects of senses. According to her, an individual is always
imprisoned in the worldly constructs and the self gets attached to these.
The states of pleasure further bind it to a material world. For Lalla what was
needed was a control over the carnal desires. Many of her vaakhs talk about
the five principles of experience of the physical world – s​ olidity, aeriality,
vacuity, liquidity and formativity. According to her, achieving self-​know-
ledge becomes easier once the five organs of perception as well as actions
are brought under control. The first step to it is the withdrawal from ego
consciousness or individual consciousness and embracing the Shiva con-
sciousness or the Universal consciousness. It is with extreme will-​power that

2 Sadhus are Hindu ascetics or monks. Pirs are Muslim Sufi spiritual guides who in-
struct their disciples on the Sufi path.
232 bilal ahmad wani and naseem ahmad shah

a control is achieved on the five senses and with a sustained contemplation

on the self, a path to the Self is found. In order to reach the Supreme abode
and attain divine grace, Lal Ded would often try to get away with the material
bindings. In the following vaakh, she relates the spiritual allusions to a load
of candy that she carries and is despaired at the loosening of the knot. The
load has bent her back and she finds it a too heavy a burden to carry. The
guru reprimands her and instead of being relieved, she becomes more mis-
erable. The control seems to have gone off her and the load heavier. She says:

nabid baras ate gand dyol goum

dih kan hol goum hyaka khyoho
gvara sund wanun ravan tyol pyom
pahali ros khyol goum hyaka kyoho
(The knot of the candy load is loosened, My backbone is bent now, how will I bear
the weight, The saying of my priest pained me. My condition is like the flock of sheep
without a shepherd, How will I carry this load?)
Translation by Ranjit Hoskote

However, in spite of all odds, she kept a vigil at her ultimate destination
and the faith she had was completely unflinching. Lal trained her mind
and body to take on to the Divine path. The spiritual soil laid by her
was very fertile and rich. She just had to take on to it with full practice.
Lalla was, in her verse, both mystical as well as transcendental and her
Mysticism along with her transcendentalism is filled with the terms of
yoga philosophy. Yoga came naturally to her. The aim of yoga as a discip-
line is to emancipate or free an individual soul (purusa) from its bondage
to the material universe (prakriti). This emancipation, however, requires
a mental and bodily discipline that leads to a spiritual transformation.
Along the path comes the understanding which reveals the essential dis-
tinction between the two and facilitates salvation. In the yogic domain,
the human body is seen as a replica of the world. The forces that control
the microcosm function outside also in the macrocosm. The yogi, there-
fore, by certain physical and mental processes can win the supernatural
powers for himself and can have a miraculous control over the universe
ultimately leading to the absorption of his soul into the larger Reality.
Lalla also employed the yogic methods and trained herself to achieve the
higher end. She adopted it, received the word from her guru and focused
Lal Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir 233

on it with all her might. The mystic syllable OM was the point of focus and
in the domain of yoga, the first step is that of concentration. According
to her, Supreme could not be reached by the Yoga discipline alone but
by persistent bodily exercises and the contemplation undertaken by it.
By the repeated practice of the yoga, the wide expansion of the universe
is recognized and this recognition leads to the re-​absorption in Him. In
many of the Lallavaakhs, the concept of void is very predominant.
According to her, when the soul transcends the stage of the void and
becomes absorbed in the Supreme as the unlimited pure consciousness
and nothing else, only the sense of well-​being remains. This is the ultimate
goal of the devotee and the aim of yogic exercises. Upon acquiring the true
knowledge, the actual reality is recognized and the apparent reality disap-
pears in the transcendental void.
Lal initiated herself into the Shaiva yoga domain starting with
Pranayama which related to the control over breath. The control over breath
helped in awakening Kundalini (the latent energy in body). The path to the
Supreme and the union with Him was a difficult terrain to cross and attain.
It was not a simple move from the temporal state of mind to a spiritual state.
To manage and control the senses and the vital nerves was a difficult task
for her. Lalla explains this metaphysical feat in many of her vaakhs. She uses
various metaphors to express her struggle. She says in a vaakh:

zanha nadidal manratith

tsalith vatith kutith kalish
zanaha asa astah rasayan gatith
shivachuy kruth ta tsen vopdesh
(How I wish I were to know how to bring my Nadis into my grip tearing into shreds,
collecting and pulverizing the klesas then would I learn, by and by, how to pound and
prepare the potion/​Shiva is difficult to attain and this is the lesson thou shouldst
bear in mind)
Translation by Ranjit Hoskote

By securing union with the Supreme, she aimed at achieving the escape
from re-​birth. This objective, according to her, could be achieved by
contemplation of the yogic doctrines combined with the yogic exercises
which ultimately lead to the absorption into the Supreme. The meditation
was to be directed at the Supreme and the main exercise was the breath
234 bilal ahmad wani and naseem ahmad shah

control. Release from rebirth was not possible unless a release from de-
sires was achieved. The aspirant must be, therefore, devoid of all the at-
tractions and desires as all the desires are the evil working against Release.
The journey of every mystic involves the exploration of the inner re-
cesses of the being. The initial stages appear fragmented, and it is towards
the end that stability is achieved. The Lallavaakhs clearly reveal the ordeal
that Lalla had to pass through in her life directed towards the Supreme.
Some verses deal with the beginning of her quest as she struggles to train
and channelize her body and mind. Other verses of hers specifically deal
with the experiences and her introspective contemplation. Some other
groups of verses project her outward inclination, and she takes on the
role of a teacher instructing others to free themselves of the worldly at-
tachments. At the beginning of her quest, the worldly life to her appeared
as a river which she needed to sail through in order to reach the desired
end. She found herself adrift in the material world and needed to cross the
river in order to reach the other shore. She relates the self to a boat towed
about on the ocean of life and compares the body to a leaky vessel. Since
the world was a temporary residence for her, it was necessary to reach the
permanent abode and, for it, she needed rigorous training of the mind in
order to sustain her thoughts and the perilous journey. She says in a vaakh:

ami pan sadras navi chas lamaan

kati bozi dai myoun meti dee taar
aamen taken pone zan shaman
zuv chum bramaan garre gatshhaa
(With a thread, am I towing the boat across the ocean Will my Lord hear and take
me across? Like water seeping away from a half-​baked cup My soul wanders longing
for my home.)
Translation by Ranjit Hoskote

She reprimanded her mind as to why did it attach itself to things that are
purely worldly in origin. She castigated herself for mistaking the unreal for
the real. No religion of formalities brought her solace or the promise of union
with the Lord. It was the Shaiva philosophy which laid a huge influence
upon her. Therefore, the Lord was within and outside also, all pervading, all
immanent and transcendent. He was the Self in man and realization of the
Self was her goal. According to the Advaita Shaiva philosophy, the atman
Lal Ded: A Great Mystic Poetess of Kashmir 235

that is the true and the innermost self in every being is a changeless reality
of the nature of a purely experiencing principle. The only way to escape re-
birth was the union of the macrocosmic self with the microcosmic self. No
religion as understood or practised was able to take her to the destination
and finally it was the domain of yogic Shaiva practices as mentioned earlier
also that she took to. Lalla would find herself in a state of despair and grope
in the dark. She longed for a ray of light passing through the dark caves of
human existence. Her vaakhs reveal her sadness and discomfiture.

Conclusion

So, we can conclude that Lala was not only a reformer but a great poetess
and mystic of Kashmir. She played a great role in the development of the
Yogi philosophy of Shaivism. She also had a great impact on the women
folk of the world. Her verses testify that she was immune from the worldly,
religious or caste-​based biases. Her poems are emblematic of a liberal out-
look. ‘Her poems move seamlessly between the metaphysical realm of
the cultivated breath, the opened lotus of consciousness and vatic ecstasy
on the one hand, and the domain of objects, tools, social relationships
and human emotions on the other’ (Hoskote R., 2012, P.40). Lalla’s life
was based upon a vision for peaceful co-​existence, compassion and love
for all. She urged people to improvise their character and strive for at-
taining moral perfection. She brought the scholarly Sanskritized Shaiva
philosophy out from the orthodox clutches into the wide-​open public
domain. She communicated the incommunicable using the idioms,
images and metaphors from the ordinary daily life. This gave her a huge
space and popularity among the masses and through her verses, she lives
today also. She has left behind a legacy that holds relevance in the con-
temporary times also. She doesn’t remain a mystic only but, through her
Mysticism, conveys much deeper and wide meanings and realities of life.
Her vaakhs act as a source of strength for people in their fight against all
the challenges posed by the world. She is not only a woman poet saint but
exists as a symbol of the continuum of poetic sensibility across centuries.
 236 bilal ahmad wani and naseem ahmad shah

Her poems carry all themes ranging from religious to social and in her
journey towards the Supreme, she was able to leave messages for all gener-
ations to come. Her verses, therefore, still radiate the light that brightens
the hearts and souls.

References

Bhat, Jawahar Lal., ed. & trans. Lal-​Ded Revisited, Srinagar, Jammu and
Kashmir: Vision Creative Services, 2014.
Grierson, Sir George. Lalla-​Vakyani or the Wise Sayings of Lala Ded:​A Mystic Poetess
of Ancient Kashmir. New Delhi: Read Books Ltd, 2006.
Hoskote, Ranjit., trans. I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd. Penguin Global, 2012.
<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542603-i-lalla>.
I Lalla. Poems of Lal Ded. New Delhi: Penguin Classic, 2013.
Kotru, N.K. Lal Ded: Her Life & Saying. Kashmir: Utpal Publications, 1989.
Lalleśvarī, Jaishree Kak Odin and Joseph Singer. Mystical verses of Lallā: A Journey of
Self-​Realization. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2007.
Temple, Sir Richard Carnac. The Word of Lalla. Kashmir: Jay Kay Books, 2018.
Toshkhani, Dr S.S., ed. “Lal Ded: The Great Kashmiri Saint-​Poetess”. In Proceedings
of the National Seminar, 2000.

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