Srinagaram Ganapatim Bhajeham

Title (Sanskrit) - Lord Ganapati, who resides in Srinagar, I pray to you.

Blazing leaves of Chinar in Kashmir, Autumn.

The second half of September and the whole month of October turn the valley of Kashmir into a beautiful heaven, which seems to be engulfed in orange fire. These 2 contradictory statements to describe a single phenomena sound absurd at the first encounter, but one understands them in a true sense when s/he experiences it with her/his own eyes. I have never been to my homeland, never seen that phenomenon with my eyes, but impeccably imagined it. That imagination and visual sight, runs in our blood now. 

The months of autumn engulf the whole valley with dead and orange coloured Chinar leaves, which creates the sight of a burning heaven. Walking across the orange Chinar drenched footpath along the banks of Dal, with a soothing breeze from the lake patting your cheeks, says my father, is the most beautiful sight on this planet. 

On one such autumn day of September 18, 1985, my parents got married. Pitaji started from his ancestral house in Rainawari to the newly constructed Matamal of my mother in the city's suburb of Natipora, where the marriage took place. These two had met in 1978 at Government Agriculture College, Wadoora (Sopore), where Pitaji was in his final year and Mataji, a fresher.  Today, I'm left with just 4 pictures of their marriage, with all the old albums left behind and then, burned along with our house in Srinagar. I still consider my parents lucky that during migration they couldn't save the memories of their families, because many, couldn't even save their families. 

My Parents on their wedding day. Circa 1985

September 18, 1985 is perhaps the first date of an important event of my father's life, which he remembers according to the Gregorian calendar (not even his birthdate). Traditionally and conventionally, he and with everyone around him were supposed to remember all the dates according to the prevelant Vedic calendar. My parents were married on the 4th day of the bright lunar fortnight of the month of Bhādrapada or the Shukla Paksha's Chaturthi, Bhādrapada. In lay man's language, we call this date as Ganesh Chaturthi. 

On this very day of Ganesh Chaturthi (Vināyak tsoram in Kashmiri), my parents got married 35 years ago.

Lord Ganesh, the elephant headed deity, whom the Vedas mention as an obstacle remover, is predominantly worshipped in the Marathi speaking areas and it's nearby regions. Kashmir, which has ancient temples dedicated just to 3 deities; Shiva, Shakti and Mahavishnu, surprisingly attests the worship of Ganesha since ancient times, which is very peculiar. Ancient Sanskrit texts like the Nilmat Purān, Kalhana's Rājatarangini and others mention very few instances of other deities being worshipped in the valley. While other Ganesh temples of the valley perished along with others under the Islamic iconoclasm for 700 years, the only such temple still stands firmly, on the banks of Vitasta.

A pre-independence picture of Ganpatyar Temple's backside, as
seen from Vitasta in Srinagar.

 Meet our cute little Ganpat sa'ab of Ganpathyar locality. He lives in an ancient temple which can be traced back to the Vedic times. He, along with the Ashta Bhairavas, guards the city of Srinagar from his central establishment at the Siddhi Vinayak Ganpatyar Temple on the banks of Vitasta. Ganpatyar could probably a corrupted Kashmiri version of "Ganpati Vihāra". In pure Kashmiri accent, the latter would be pronounced as Ganpat Vyahār which, when spoken in a fast tempo, becomes Ganpatyār. The 7th Century Chinese Buddhist monk Huen Tsang attests a great temple dedicated to Ganpati on the banks of Vitasta in Srinagar, near the Buddhist Bruhat Vihāra (Badyar locality). No one knows who constructed the original temple, but it has held a great significance since the ancient times. When the Afghan Durranis occupied Kashmir, they shut down the temple and threw the centuries old idol in the waters of Vitasta, leaving the temple and it's activity in ruins. Subsequently in 1850, when Dogras occupied the region, the temple's reconstruction was ordered along with retrieval of the idol from the river. The day when it was retrieved and reinstalled is celebrated as Ganesh Chaturdashi (Gann tsodāh in Kashmiri, in the months of April-May) in the valley. Exactly a century later, my grandparents got married on the same day in 1950.

An ancient sculpture placed on the
entrance of the temple. Believed to
be from 6th-7th Century AD.

Kalhana, in his 12th century Sanskrit epic Rājatarangini, describes Srinagar as a city with 9.6 million residents, adored with beautiful gardens, magnificient temples, peaceful Buddhist Viharas and 9 skyrocketing golden statues of Gautam Buddha, put up in different parts of the city. All this, is now nowhere to be seen. But, the remnants of the same are not just a historical or cultural legacy for us, but an emotion. How excited my parents get when they mention that for one continuous month after their marriage, they used to go for a parikramā along the Shankaracharya hill, how my father in his childhood used to go on a family picnic to the Kheer Bhawani Temple, the abode of our family goddess Maharagya Bhagwati, or how even during the period of Chillai Kalaan with the temperature dropping to -20°C, my mother's grandfather used to take bath in freezing waters of Vitasta evry morning, pay his obscience at Ganpatyar and then march towards Chakrishvar at Haari Parbat, to invoke the presiding deity of Srinagar, Sharika Bhagwati/Tripurasundari. Memories, Emotions and Love. Otherwise, who knew, that Lord Ganesha of Ganpatyar would be treated as our own family member and be addressed as Ganpat Sa'ab? 

The ancient idol of Mahaganesh at the Ganpatyar temple.
Ganpat Sa'ab.

Glossary:

Matamal - Maternal Home (Mother's side)

tsoram - 4th in Kashmiri

tsodah - 14 in Kashmiri

Chillai Kalaan - 40 days period of extreme cold in valley

Sa'ab/Sahab - A Persian honorific