On this Herath: Is Kashmir really incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits..! || by Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo || LIVE IMAGE

On this Herath: Is Kashmir really incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits..! || by Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo || LIVE IMAGE

It is
today Herath, the most ancient, auspicious, traditional socio-religious and
cultural festival of Kashmir. Herath is held generally one day ahead of
Shiv-Chaturdashi of Hindu lunar month Phalgun, which falls in February or March
every year. There are twelve Shiv-Chaturdashis in a year, but the
Shiv-Chaturdashi of Phalgun is considered as Maha-Shivratri. Herath, which is
the indegenous festival of Kashmir valley though independedent of
Maha-Shivratri is also deeply connected with the grace of Lord Shiva. In fact
Herath is dedicated to the two wishful sons of Lord Shiva and his consort Mata
Parvati, who are called Vatuknath and Raman (Ramgaudh). They and especially
Vatuk Bhairav are recognised as Bhairavs with the divine power of removal of
distress (Sankat-Haaree). The reference to the Mahashirvratri festival is in
the ancient scripture of Kashmir, the Neelmatapuran.

Herath as it is called in
Kashmiri language is the offshoot of “Har-Ratri”, the night of Hara
-the lord of lords, Shiva. Usually the festival begins from the first day of
the Phulgun lunar month with the cleansing process of houses and especially of
the place where the Vatuknath-Puja is ceremonised. The establishment of the
Vatuk-Bhairav in the form of “Kalashas” in homes is a very significant
part and the core of the whole festival. The current puja system is based on a
very specific and special way compiled and composed, on the basis of the
earlier traditions, by Rishi Logaksha, one thousand years ago, and the
Grah-Sutra. A modern look was given to the Logaksha-Padati by Pt. Keshav Bhat
Shastri almost a century ago which was later adopted by the Kashmiri Pandit
community as the final voice on the subject.

The coincidental togetherness
of Herath with Mahashivratri is the beauty of the festival and adds charm and
bliss to the festival both socially and spiritually. Both the nights of the
Herath and the Mahashivratri are considered spiritually oriented nights and the
great ‘sadhaks’ use these two nights as a means to their spiritual advancement
and attainments. In south India, there was a tradition in certain areas to
throw small pebbles on the roofs of the people in order to remind them to keep
awake during the night of Maha-Shivratri so that they are led to do ‘sadhana’
during the blissful night.

Herath is a wonderful
manifestation of understanding, co-existence, assimilation and beauty of
thoughts that impact the spiritual and cultural pathways. Vaidik tradition,
Advaita philosophy, Shavisim, Kashmir’s Sarvastvadin school of Buddhist philosophy,
Vajrayana Bhairav-leniage and Vaishnava & Shiva Astuti have found their
comfortable place in the tradition of Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandits. The
nature-lovers and nature-worshippers; and spiritually oriented community of the
Pandits maintained its tradition for the last thousands of years with, without
and despite through the vicissitudes of history. There is a very famous story
of history of Kashmir related to one of the unkind rulers of Kashmir, Jabbar
Khan, who took over from his younger brother, Sardar Azim Khan, as an Afghan
ruler of Kashmir in the early years of nineteenth century and the observance of
Herath in Kashmir.

Pandit Anand Kaul Bamzai, the
celebrated author of the famous book, The Kashmiri Pandit (released on 1st
January 1924) on page 69 records, “Jabbar Khan was once told by someone
that it was a common notion among the Pandits that snow falls invariably at the
Shivratri night (13th of the dark fortnight of Phalgun). To test this, he
ordered that the Pandits be not allowed to observe this festival in Phalgun
(February-March) but in Haar (June-July). Accordingly, it had to be observed on
the corresponding night in the latter month. It so happened that even on this
night flakes of snow, preceded by a heavy rainfall which had rendered the
atmosphere very cold, fell. The bard then, mocking at him, sang-

Consequent upon the miraculous
happening, the local Muslims (who were also irritated by the unjust dictum of
Jabbar) turned up for their neighbours and friends, Hindus; on the
following day and congratulated them on the occasion. They additionally paid
their tributes (Salam) to the diety of the festival for the wonderful thing that
had happened. It is with effect from this particular event that the following
day of Herath was recognised and called as ‘Salam’ in the valley and continues
to be as such till date, practically.

Herath this time is being
observed by the Pandits in their 32nd year of displacement due to their forced
mass exodus as a result of the Pak-sponsored terrorism in the valley. They
continue to practise the rituals and festivals even in their exile with more
dedication, devotion, commitment and sense of duty towards their indegenous
cultural tradition. This makes them more akin to the soul of Kashmir’s proud
past, tormented present and the bright future.

There has been a consistent
proverbial repetition by all and sundry about the Kashmiri Pandits that
‘Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits’. Time has come to translate
the famous proverb and the off-repeated rhetoric into a reality as soon as
possible. This can happen only when the whole community is practically
resettled in the valley as per its geo-political aspirations. But the
resettlement in Kashmir has the following three important preludes:

1. Establishment of a lawfully
created Board mechanism to protect and preserve all Hindu temples and shrines
in Kashmir;

2. Formation of Special Crimes
Tribunal-Court to go into the excesses committed against the Kashmiri Pandits
which the NHRC recognised as ‘acts akin to genocide’ and

3. Reserve or Nominate five
seats for the minorities of the valley in the Assembly of the UT of J&K in
the all important process of Delimitation along with reservation and nomination
of one seat each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively for them.
This will eventually empower the community politically and provide it the much
awaited justice which deluded them for the last seven decades consistently.

Though there is no provision
for reservation for religio-ethnic minorities or groups in the constitutional
scheme of things but equally was there was no idea in the minds of the founders
of the constitution that any section of the people will be forced to live as
refugees in their own country. Unbelievable and unforeseen situations lead the
vibrant societies and nations to go for a new thinking. Extraordinary
situations demand extraordinary solutions and the necessary political will in
this context can be expressed by the effective constitutional amendment as did
happen in the case of abolition of Article 370/35A and the related issues.

In case the constitutional
amendments are not brought to this effect, yet there is another option
available with the Delimitation Commission and the government. The important
thing to note is that we have both the constitutional mechanism as well as the
precedence available on this account in the case of Pudducherry Assembly which
mutatis mutandis can be applied in case of J&K as well to nominate 5 seats
for the minorities of Kashmir valley with voting rights. The same scale can be
applied in respect of Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as well.

It is the question of the
national will, the intent of the State and the accommodation of the
constitution of India to make believe the Pandits that they are and continue to
be part and parcel of Kashmir inspite of them living as refugees in their own
country. Delimitation will definitely test the intent of the State and the
polity of the nation towards the indegenous people of the Kashmir valley, the
Kashmiri Pandits, in the real sense and use it as the practical confidence
building measure in respect of Kashmir & Kashmiri Pandits.

Thus, the million dollar
question on this Herath about Kashmiri Pandits remains: “Is Kashmir
really incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits”..!