Habba Khatoon

Habba Khatoon's music pushed her poetry gradually into learned circles and those who had fled on the works of immortals like Firdausi, Omar and Hafez were bound to raise their eyebrows at first.

They take their stand on a legend that Habba Khatoon was born to a petty chieftain in Gurez who passed her on to a Kashmiri trader Hayaband in lieu of the liquidation of his debts.

Habba Khatoon received instruction in the study of the Holy Quran and, of course, the Persian classics which, owing to the patronage at the court had become the rage of the times.

Despite this Habba Khatoon was fondly devoted to him in love and fidelity and left no stone unturned in trying to evoke a suitable response from her husband.

She would so to the stream to fetch water for the household, go to the uplands in search of firewood and wild edible roots, ply the spinning-wheel and do other chores in the tradition of the old times.

contemplates such an act but concludes on a note of self-introspection but neither the display of emotion in abandon not admonition brought any relief to Zoon in her predicament and Aziz continued to be indifferent to her.

Sipar treh mar paermo kiano Phyur no kuni gomai zaer zabre Tche kyoho vatiyo myaeni marnai?

[4] One of her most famous songs Wolo Myaeni Poshay Madano (Come, my flowery Cupid) graphically representing the state of her mind at the time is surcharged with melancholy, bitterness against the wild talk of the people and vexation at the indifference of her husband.

Wolai ve'si' gachhvai aabas, Dunya Chhu nendri ta Khaabas, Praraan chass bo' jawaabas, Wo'lo...

The oral tradition describes Zoon as Yousuf Shah Chak's queen consort, although there is scholarly debate about whether she was in fact a lower status mistress or member of his harem.

Here was the young peasant woman slaving for her loaf, neglected and loathed by her husband, abhorred by his mother and a victim of people's gossip, being entreated by the heir-apparent to take her exalted place in his palace.

She had sought love from Aziz Lone which he denied her: she was in need of affection from his mother which she did not give; she expected normal regard and courtesy from society which treated her with disdain.

Need less to say that she accepted the offer and entered the palace in circa 1570 Habba Khatoon was of an age when Kashmir suffered much political, social and economic distress.

What was worse, the Sunni-Shia rivalry took an ugly turn and distressing form, leading to an extensive cleavage between the two sections of the population, and sympathies of the masses were alienated.

Because of their mutual bickerings and quarrels, disgruntled Kashmiri leaders often sought assistance from the emperor, or his satraps, who encouraged defections and destabilisation.

[1] Habba Khatoon reached the palace when dark clouds of apathy and disdain were rolling against Kashmiri language and art.

Another princess with a less forceful character would have found her sensibility smothered and perhaps fallen in line with the average literati in upholding Persian at the cost of Kashmiri.

Towns and villages were no longer enough to satisfy the craving of the royal couple and they sought the company of nature in its naked beauty, matchless grandeur and unparalleled sublimity.

The credit for the discovery of the far-famed queen of the hills, Gulmarg, is given to Yusuf Shah and his consort who spent much of their leisure in its sylvan glades.

The Emperor Akbar despatched Mirza Qara Bahadur, at the head of a large body of troops to invade the country in order to deliver its inhabitants from the yoke of the tyrant.

Hussain Shah was a poet and, it was said, a man of liberal and secular views but Akbar was watching the condition in Kashmir and his agents sent reports to him.

Yusuf had left Kashmir with high hopes of returning in a few weeks with Mughal troops and funds to fight the enemies and recover his throne.

Most of those we come across, e.g., shamaa' (candle), ishq (love), burqa (veil), aab (water) were already naturalised in the language of the people long before her advent.

It has to be conceded that it creates an impact of verisimilitude on the reader who discovers in her lyrics the strength and variety of his mother tongue unaided by other influences.

Yousuf Shah being a patron of art and music, Habba Khatoon was trained by renowned practitioners in rendering ghazals and songs in the Iranian style.

Since Habba Khatoon was an adept in both it was only natural that she made her own contribution and she did so in the form of a new musical composition known as raasti-kashmiri, on the model of raasti farsi, which is sung in the last quarter of the night.

[4] Her poems Harmukh Bartal, Char kar myon maalinyo, Vaervain saeth vaar chas no and many others are wailings known as Yadhaaq in Kashmiri.