Thread by @dhruvkotru

From Tip of the Tongue to Manuscript - A Brief History of Vaakh's of Lal Ded -
There is nothing greater in Kashmiri literature than the Vaakhs of the 14th century's great Saint- poetess #LalDed. There is perhaps no Kashmiri who does not have a Vaak on the tip of his (1/9)

tongue. The popularity of these sayings is so ubiquitous that an average Kashmiri always finds use of one or the other Vaaks during conversation to make a point with the desired emphasis. However, even as the Vaaks are popular but the story of their compilation is barely (2/9)

known to the world. Here goes the fascinating story:

Until as late as the 19th century there were no manuscripts of #LallaVaakhs but they survived on the tongues of the #Kashmiris and also had been transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation. Reportedly, (3/9)

Edwin Arnold, the famous author of Geet Govinda, The Song Celestial was the first western scholar to have collected them in 1885. But this claim awaits further confirmation and definite investigation. The first partial manuscripts of these sayings were collected in 1895 (4/9)

by #AurelStein including the 60 #Vaakhs compiled by Bhaskar Razdan. In 1911, Stein deposited the two manuscripts at @UniofOxford @bodleianlibs .The first definitive search for the complete manuscript of #LallaVaakhs was set in by #GeorgeGrierson. However, no complete (5/9)

manuscripts existed then. Grierson entrusted the job to Pandit Mukund Ram Shastri who collected them from the oral utterances of an ascetic named Dharma Das Dervesh of the village Guch in Kashmir. Mukundram recorded them as he received even though meaning of several words (6/9)

were unknown to him. The transmission was in accordance to the tradition to pass on them as they were received from the earlier reciter. Mukundram passed the manuscript to Grierson who 6 years later assisted by Lionel Batnett finally came out with the first scientific (7/9)

edition under the title #Lallavakyani in 1920 published from London. The analysis of meters used in the utterance of these Vaaks bearing the unique local touch is the work of #PanditNityanandShastri. Since then, the same set of Vaakhs have been used by several scholars (8/9)

like Pandit Anand Kaul, Pandit Jayalal Kaul, B.N.Parimoo, Pandit Gurtoo & more, in recent decades to produce their editions of the Lalla's sayings.(9/9) #SNPArchives @nirupamakotru @dkandathil @MattLaemon @Dilleye #TuJantaHeKyaHaiKashmirKeBareMai