Studio: international art (66.1915)

A Sketching Tour in the Kashmir Valley

“ The Mar Canal, Srinagar ”

the walls. Little touches of
colour spot the banks—a
group of punditanis (Hindu
women) coming down the
stone steps of some ghat
to fill or clean their shining
brass pots; or children
playing by the water-side.

The tin-covered domes
of the Hindu temples shine
in the sun. Everywhere
kutchoos and doongahs
are tied up. Shikaras pass
up and down—sometimes
with a crowd of burqaed
ladies—or you may see
H.H. the Maharajah’s guru
or spiritual adviser, airily
clad in saffron-coloured
silk, wending his way to the
Palace. A beautiful painted
face appears at a latticed
window, and you think of
the “Arabian Nights” or
Jezebel!

Then there are those dis-
turbers of the peace, the

Pen Sketch by P. Aberigh-Mackay

box wallahs. They scent the
visitor like a vulture his prey, and
come swiftly round the boat in
their shikaras with their wares,
embroideries, wood-carving,
papier mache. They hang out
of the windows, too, and tempt
you up into their shops.

The visitor is responsible for
much in the degradation of Kash-
mir art. Instead of the beautiful
all-over designs so restrained in
form and colour, many atrocities
are perpetrated, based on the
chenar and iris, to suit the Sahib
and his pocket. But there is still
much that is worth seeing and the
shops themselves are very
picturesque.

I have a Persian friend, a box
wallah, nicknamed “ Suffering
Moses ” (his real name is Sufdur
Mogul), who, among much
rubbish, still makes beautiful
papier mache, using Persian and
Kashmiri designs. He is old and
bent, and when he remembers it