Poetry has an expressive power. Anyone who reads or listens to it has an emotional reaction to it. When the lyrical beauty of Kashmir is combined with poetry, we know we’re in for a treat. From spiritual poetry to romantic lyricism, Kashmiri poets have explored a variety of themes, all of which have added to the richness of Kashmiri literature. We will discuss in brief about some of these famous poets and their beautiful works.
Table of Contents
Top 10 most popular Kashmiri Poets:
Lal Ded
Lalleshwari, also known as Lal Ded in Kashmir, was a Kashmiri mystic who practised the Kashmir Shaivism school of Hindu philosophy. She was the creator of the mystic poetry style known as vatsun or Vakhs, which translates as “speech.”
Her verses, known as Lal Vakhs, are among the earliest in the Kashmiri language. They play an important role in the history of modern Kashmiri literature. Other names for Lal Ded include Lal Dyad, Lalla Aarifa, Lal Diddi, Lalleshwari, Lalla Yogishwari/Yogeshwari, and Lalishri. Lal Ded and her mystic musings continue to have a deep impact on the psyche of Kashmiris.
The book “Remembering Lal Ded” in Modern Times was published as a result of a national seminar on her held in New Delhi in 2000. Paul E. Murphy also refers to her as the “chief exponent of devotional or emotion-oriented Triadism” in his book “Triadic Mysticism.”
Rupa Bhawani
Mata Rupa Bhawani was a Kashmiri poet who lived between 1621 and 1721. She was a 17th-century Hindu saint who lived in modern-day Kashmir. She was the daughter of Pandit Madhav Joo Dhar, who lived in Khankah-i-Shokta, Nawakadal (Srinagar at the time). He introduced her to yoga practises. Alakheswari was her nick name.
According to oral and written legend, Madhav Joo Dhar was a devoted follower of Mata Sharika. Even after her early marriage, she frequently visited Hari Parvat to perform her Sadhana at midnight. This raised concerns about her as a woman on her own. Her mother-in-law and husband were cruel to her. She eventually left her in-house law’s in search of God.
Nund Reshi
Rishi also known as “Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani” and by the honorary title “Alamdar-e-Kashmir”, was a Kashmiri Sufi saint, mystic, poet and Islamic preacher. Nund Reshi was among the founders of the Rishi order, a Sufi tradition of the region.
He influenced many spiritual teachers and saints, including Hamza Makhdoom, Resh Mir Sàeb, and Shamas Faqir. Noor-ud-Din disseminated his teachings or message through poems known as shruks. His poems are four to six lines long and revolve around religious themes, moral principles, and frequently call for peace.
He also worked hard to bring Hindus and Muslims together. Ann poshi teli yeli wan poshi, which translates as “Food will thrive only until the woods survive,” is one of his most famous poems.
Zinda Kaul
Zinda Kaul (1884–1965) was an Indian poet, writer, and also an educator. He wrote in Persian, Hindi, Urdu, and Kashmiri, among other languages. Kaul also translated Kashmiri works into English, Persian, and Hindi. Kaul was born in Habbakadal, a city in Srinagar, in August 1884 to a Kashmiri Pandit family.
His father, Lakshman Pandit, was unconcerned about his formal education, and Kaul had to overcome many obstacles in his life. Zinda Kaul was the first Kashmiri poet to receive the Sahitya Academy award in 1956 for his poetry collection Sumran.
It was first published in Devanagari, but the government later had it printed in Persio-Arabic. The Sahitya Academy of India also awarded Kaul 5,000 rupees for this book.
We hope you liked our article. If you enjoy poems than you may also like Kashmiri Bhajans article in which we brief about popular Kashmiri Bhajans. Please like and share this article and let us know your favorite poet and poem down below in the comment section.
Dina Nath Nadim
Dinanath Kaul “Nadim” (1916–1988) was a prominent 20th-century Kashmiri poet. He was born on March 18, 1916, in Srinagar, and with him, an era of modern Kashmiri poetry began. He also practically led the Kashmiri progressive writers’ movement.
Nadim was born in Kashmir and spoke Kashmiri, though he first wrote in Hindi and Urdu. He influenced a large number of poets his own age as well as those younger than him.
Vitasta, Safar Taa Shehjaar, Heemaal Taa Naaegrai, Shuhul Kull, and Bombur Taa yamberzal are among the operas written by Nadim. Bombur Taa yamberzal, his most popular operatic work, was the first to be published in Kashmiri.
“Me Chhum Aash Paghich” is Nadim’s most powerful anti-war poem in Kashmiri. In 1971, he received the Soviet Land Nehru Award, and in 1986, he received the Sahitya Natak Academi Award for “Shuhul Kull.” He passed away on April 7, 1988.
Arnimal
Arnimal was the wife of Munshi Bhawani Das, an illustrious Persian scholar at the court of Jumma Khan, the Afghan Governor of Kashmir from 1788 to 1792 AD. Arnimal, who was born in the eighteenth century, nearly two hundred years after Habba Khatoon, continued the tradition of her predecessor by making the love lyrics adopted by Habba Khatoon more of a plaintive wail.
Arnimal’s lyrics are works of art in the Kashmiri language. Her word pictures of delicate sentiments are so vivid, real, and charming that very few Kashmiri poets have surpassed her. The majority of these lyrics have been set to music and are still sung with great interest and gusto by Kashmiri minstrels.
Motilal Sakhi
Moti Lal Saqi, born in 1936 in Bijbehara, Kashmir, enriched Kashmiri language and literature in a variety of ways, emerging as a major poet and critic in the language while still in his youth. From the lyrical romanticism of his first collection of poems, ‘Modury Khwab’, to the spiritual restlessness and inward quest for higher values based on faith reflected in ‘Mansar,’ for which he won the Sahitya Academi award, and ‘Mrigvan,’ Saqi’s sensibility as a poet underwent a significant change and established an idiom distinctly his own.
The traumatic experience of being uprooted from his native soil in 1990 was expressed poignantly in many of his poems, with his long poem ‘Marsi’ being a most disturbing document of the tragedy of the Pandits’ displacement.
His most recent collection, ‘Niry Nagma’, reflects his intense nostalgia for Kashmir and highlights the agony of being forced to live in exile away from the Valley’s many charms and attractions.
Dina Nath Walli
Dina Nath Walli (1908–2006), also known by his pen name Almast Kashmiri, was a well-known water-color artist and poet from Srinagar, Kashmir. He was a member of the modern art movement in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and he was well-known for painting everyday scenes in Kashmir.
He lived in Srinagar’s Badyar Bala neighbourhood, which has been home to many Kashmiri Pandit artists such as S.N. Bhat and Mohan Raina. In 1936, he returned to Srinagar, where he primarily painted landscapes in water colours.
In 1939, he received gold medals from the government of Kashmir, and in 1940, he received a highly commended medal from the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta.
Swami Gobind Kaul
Swami Govind Kaul’s devotional lyrics reveal that he was also deeply influenced by Mansurul Halaj’s and he freely used the popular idiom of his own Kashmiri dialect, which is a blend of Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic.
His songs are concentrated with imagery, and the vocabulary he employs to convey his inner experiences suggests unequivocally that he, too, must have walked the same spiritual path that Lalleshwari had walked several centuries before him.
Chandra Dasi
Chandra Dassi is the late Pandit Gwash Lal Ganjoo of Rainawari in Srinagar, Kashmir. She was born in Anantnag, Kashmir, and received her early education there. Her father was the owner of a landed estate in Anantnag. Sh. Raj Nath Dassi is her husband.
She has been religious since childhood and spends the majority of her time doing so. She has devotedly served Swami Harekrishan. Chandra Ji’s unwavering devotion and service to this great saint enabled him to initiate and bless her in the knowledge of the Supreme.
We hope you liked our article. If you enjoy poems than you may also like Kashmiri Bhajans article in which we brief about popular Kashmiri Bhajans. Please like and share this article and let us know your favorite poet and poem down below in the comment section.