OF THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR.
Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who are Idolaters and
have a language of their own.{1} They have an astonishing acquaintance
with the devilries of enchantment; insomuch that they make their idols
to speak. They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of weather
and produce darkness, and do a number of things so extraordinary that
no one without seeing them would believe them.{2} Indeed, this country
is the very original source from which Idolatry has spread abroad.{3}
In this direction you can proceed further till you come to the Sea of
India.
The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking them as brunettes,
are very beautiful. The food of the people is flesh, and milk, and
rice. The clime is finely tempered, being neither very hot nor very
cold. There are numbers of towns and villages in the country, but also
forests and desert tracts, and strong passes, so that the people have
no fear of anybody, and keep their independence, with a king of their
own to rule and do justice.{4}
There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion of those parts),
who dwell in seclusion and practise great abstinence in eating and
drinking. They observe strict chastity, and keep from all sins
forbidden in their law, so that they are regarded by their own folk as
very holy persons. They live to a very great age.{5}
There are also a number of idolatrous abbeys and monasteries. [The
people of the province do not kill animals nor spill blood; so if they
want to eat meat they get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the
butcher.{6}] The coral which is carried from our parts of the world has
a better sale there than in any other country.{7}
[Illustration: Ancient Buddhist Temple at Pandrethan in Káshmir.]
Now we will quit this country, and not go any further in the same
direction; for if we did so we should enter India; and that I do not
wish to do at present. For, on our return journey, I mean to tell
you about India: all in regular order. Let us go back therefore to
Badashan, for we cannot otherwise proceed on our journey.
NOTE 1.—I apprehend that in this chapter Marco represents
Buddhism (which is to be understood by his expression _Idolatry_,
not always, but usually) as in a position of greater life and
prosperity than we can believe it to have enjoyed in Káshmir at
the end of the 13th century, and I suppose that his knowledge of
it was derived in great part from tales of the Mongol and Tibetan
Buddhists about its past glories.
I know not if the spelling _Kesciemur_ represents any peculiar
Mongol pronunciation of the name. Plano Carpini, probably the
first modern European to mention this celebrated region, calls it
_Casmir_ (p. 708).
“The Cashmeerians,” says Abu’l Fazl, “have a language of their own,
but their books are written in the Shanskrit tongue, although the
character is sometimes Cashmeerian. They write chiefly upon _Tooz_
[birch-bark], which is the bark of a tree; it easily divides into
leaves, and remains perfect for many years.” (_Ayeen Akbery_, II.
147.) A sketch of Kashmiri Grammar by Mr. Edgeworth will be found
in vol. x. of the _J. A. S. B._, and a fuller one by Major Leech
in vol. xiii. Other contributions on the language are in vol.
xxxv. pt. i. p. 233 (Godwin-Austen); in vol. xxxix. pt. i. p. 95
(Dr. Elmslie); and in _Proceedings_ for 1866, p. 62, _seqq._ (Sir
G. Campbell and Bábú Rájendra Lál Mitra). The language, though in
large measure of Sanskrit origin, has words and forms that cannot
be traced in any other Indian vernacular. (_Campbell_, pp. 67, 68).
The character is a modification of the Panjáb Nagari.
NOTE 2.—The Kashmirian conjurers had made a great impression on
Marco, who had seen them at the Court of the Great Kaan, and he
recurs in a later chapter to their weather sorceries and other
enchantments, when we shall make some remarks. Meanwhile let us
cite a passage from Bernier, already quoted by M. Pauthier. When
crossing the Pír Panjál (the mountain crossed on entering Káshmir
from Lahore) with the camp of Aurangzíb, he met with “an old
Hermit who had dwelt upon the summit of the Pass since the days
of Jehangir, and whose religion nobody knew, although it was said
that he could work miracles, and used at his pleasure to produce
extraordinary thunderstorms, as well as hail, snow, rain, and
wind. There was something wild in his countenance, and in his
long, spreading, and tangled hoary beard. He asked alms fiercely,
allowing the travellers to drink from earthen cups that he had
set out upon a great stone, but signing to them to go quickly by
without stopping. He scolded those who made a noise, ‘for,’ said he
to me (after I had entered his cave and smoothed him down with a
half rupee which I put in his hand with all humility), ‘noise here
raises furious storms. Aurangzíb has done well in taking my advice
and prohibiting it. Shah Jehan always did the like. But Jehangir
once chose to laugh at what I said, and made his drums and trumpets
sound; the consequence was he nearly lost his life.’” (_Bernier_,
Amst. ed. 1699, II. 290.) A successor of this hermit was found on
the same spot by P. Desideri in 1713, and another by Vigne in 1837.
NOTE 3.—Though the earliest entrance of Buddhism into Tibet was
from India Proper, yet Káshmir twice in the history of Tibetan
Buddhism played a most important part. It was in Káshmir that was
gathered, under the patronage of the great King Kanishka, soon
after our era, the Fourth Buddhistic Council, which marks the point
of separation between Northern and Southern Buddhism. Numerous
missionaries went forth from Káshmir to spread the doctrine in
Tibet and in Central Asia. Many of the Pandits who laboured at the
translation of the sacred books into Tibetan were Kashmiris, and
it was even in Káshmir that several of the translations were made.
But these were not the only circumstances that made Káshmir a holy
land to the Northern Buddhists. In the end of the 9th century the
religion was extirpated in Tibet by the Julian of the Lamas, the
great persecutor Langdarma, and when it was restored, a century
later, it was from Káshmir in particular that fresh missionaries
were procured to reinstruct the people in the forgotten Law. (See
_Koeppen_, II. 12–13, 78; _J. As._ sér. VI. tom. vi. 540.)
“The spread of Buddhism to Káshmir is an event of extraordinary
importance in the history of that religion. Thenceforward that
country became a mistress in the Buddhist Doctrine and the
headquarters of a particular school.... The influence of Káshmir
was very marked, especially in the spread of Buddhism beyond India.
From Káshmir it penetrated to Kandahar and Kabul, ... and thence
over Bactria. Tibetan Buddhism also had its essential origin from
Káshmir; ... so great is the importance of this region in the
History of Buddhism.” (_Vassilyev, Der Buddhismus_, I. 44.)
In the account which the Mahawanso gives of the consecration of
the great Tope at Ruanwelli, by Dutthagamini, King of Ceylon (B.C.
157), 280,000 priests (!) come from Káshmir, a far greater number
than is assigned to any other country except one. (_J. A. S. B._
VII. 165.)
It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and
the Lamas with whom he came in contact to regard Káshmir as “the
very original source from which their Religion had spread abroad.”
The feeling with which they looked to Káshmir must have been nearly
the same as that with which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon.
But this feeling towards Káshmir does not _now_, I am informed,
exist in Tibet. The reverence for the holy places has reverted to
Bahár and the neighbouring “cradle-lands” of Buddhism.
It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted
by Tod, uses Marco’s expression in reference to Káshmir, almost
precisely, saying that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from
Káshmir, “the foundry of magical superstition.” (_Rajasthan_, I.
219.)
NOTE 4.—The people of Káshmir retain their beauty, but they are
morally one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppression,
now under the Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt
aggravated this. Yet it would seem that twelve hundred years ago
the evil elements were there as well as the beauty. The Chinese
traveller says: “Their manners are light and volatile, their
characters effeminate and pusillanimous.... They are very handsome,
but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery.” (_Pèl. Boud._ II.
167–168.) Vigne’s account is nearly the same. (II. 142–143.) “They
are as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious,” says Mr.
Shaw (p. 292).
[Bernier says: “The women [of Kachemire] especially are very
handsome; and it is from this country that nearly every individual,
when first admitted to the court of the Great Mogul, selects
wives or concubines, that his children may be whiter than the
Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls. Unquestionably, there must
be beautiful women among the higher classes, if we may judge by
those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the shops.”
(_Travels in the Mogul Empire_, edited by Archibald Constable,
1891, p. 404.)]
NOTE 5.—In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying
in Káshmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there
were many Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing
state; there were 100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end
of the 11th century a King (Harshadeva, 1090–1102) is mentioned
_exceptionally_ as a protector of Buddhism. The supposition has
been intimated above that Marco’s picture refers to a traditional
state of things, but I must notice that a like picture is presented
in the Chinese account of Hulaku’s war. One of the thirty kingdoms
subdued by the Mongols was “The kingdom of Fo (Buddha) called
_Kishimi_. It lies to the N.W. of India. There are to be seen the
men who are counted the successors of Shakia; their ancient and
venerable air recalls the countenance of Bodi-dharma as one sees
it in pictures. They abstain from wine, and content themselves
with a gill of rice for their daily food, and are occupied only in
reciting the prayers and litanies of Fo.” (_Rém. N. Mél. Asiat._ I.
179.) Abu’l Fazl says that on his third visit with Akbar to Káshmir
he discovered some old men of the religion of Buddha, but none of
them were _literati_. The _Rishis_, of whom he speaks with high
commendation as abstaining from meat and from female society, as
charitable and unfettered by traditions, were perhaps a modified
remnant of the Buddhist Eremites. Colonel Newall, in a paper on the
Rishis of Káshmir, traces them to a number of Shiáh Sayads, who
fled to Káshmir in the time of Timur. But evidently the _genus_ was
of much earlier date, long preceding the introduction of Islam.
(_Vie et V. de H. T._ p. 390; _Lassen_, III. 709; _Ayeen Akb._ II.
147, III. 151; _J. A. S. B._ XXXIX. pt. i. 265.)
We see from the _Dabistan_ that in the 17th century Káshmir
continued to be a great resort of Magian mystics and sages of
various sects, professing great abstinence and credited with
preternatural powers. And indeed Vámbéry tells us that even in
our own day the Kashmiri Dervishes are pre-eminent among their
Mahomedan brethren for cunning, secret arts, skill in exorcisms,
etc. (_Dab._ I. 113 _seqq._ II. 147–148; _Vámb. Sk. of Cent. Asia_,
9.)
NOTE 6.—The first precept of the Buddhist Decalogue, or Ten
Obligations of the Religious Body, is not to take life. But _animal
food_ is not forbidden, though restricted. Indeed it is one of the
circumstances in the Legendary History of Sakya Muni, which looks
as if it _must_ be true, that he is related to have aggravated
his fatal illness by eating a dish of pork set before him by a
hospitable goldsmith. Giorgi says the butchers in Tibet are looked
on as infamous; and people selling sheep or the like will make a
show of exacting an assurance that these are not to be slaughtered.
In Burma, when a British party wanted beef, the owner of the
bullocks would decline to make one over, but would point one out
that might be shot by the foreigners.
In Tibetan history it is told of the persecutor Langdarma that he
compelled members of the highest orders of the clergy to become
hunters and butchers. A Chinese collection of epigrams, dating
from the 9th century, gives a facetious list of _Incongruous
Conditions_, among which we find a poor Parsi, a sick Physician, a
fat Bride, a Teacher who does not know his letters, and _a Butcher
who reads the Scriptures_ (of Buddhism)! (_Alph. Tib._ 445;
_Koeppen_, I. 74; _N. and Q., C. and J._ III. 33.)
NOTE 7.—Coral is still a very popular adornment in the Himalayan
countries. The merchant Tavernier says the people to the north of
the Great Mogul’s territories and in the mountains of Assam and
Tibet were the greatest purchasers of coral. (_Tr. in India_, Bk.
II. ch. xxiii.)