Chob: Follow the stick
Chob is a Persian word which in essence means (wooden) stick, rod, mace, and also a twig, a shoot of a tree, a beam, and suchlike. With Persian etymology, Chob symbolises beating also. In Kashmiri, it is Chob Khi’yn or Chob Di’yn, to get thrashed or thrash someone. Chob as stick or staff symbolised power or authority like that of a policeman or a Tehsildar or a teacher in the past. In schools, sometimes, the children received sticks from teachers for so-called administering discipline, besides using Soi (stinging nettle) as ‘punishment’ against ‘errant-children’. The practice has since ceased to exist.
Chob or Chabuk was also used as whip for the horses or the cattle for speeding up. Choban, a herdsman or horse keeper, is a relative noun of Chob. Its meaning multiplies when pre-fixed to some nouns or verbs like Hunis Chob or Kharas Chob and Zaminas Chob. “ Zan ditik’ or ‘zan piye’ Hunis chob”, in Kashmiri describes harsh beating of someone like a dog-beating, without feeling guilt or shame on part of the thrasher. The thrasher could be anybody from policeman, parent, spouse, relative, or a stranger, beating someone with stick or without stick, thumping someone with fists, slaps (on face and head) and kicks, mercilessly inside or outside his/her home or on the road or at any place. It is also called ‘mar di’yn’.
Then, Zaminas Chob indicates exertion or exercise or activity or effort by a person just for futility. What one will get by beating the ground with a stick? Chob, represented by a stick, a mace, whip, hammer, whatever, stood for authority or power from gavel of judge, auctioneer, club manager, to a Jagirdar’s chabuk or even a horse-driver or cart-driver’s kamcha which he used on the animal. Chob symbolises power and authority over weaker species.
Remnant of medieval times
A remnant of the medieval practice, in some high courts of India, an attender or piyada or jamadar, or peon in simple terms, wearing official outfits, walked ahead of a judge to maintain order of his way from his private chamber to the courtroom and back to chamber. The piyada, a footman, usually held a staff in his hand while maintaining the judge’s walking distance. I have seen it myself at the Karnataka High Court in 2008.
Chobdar of Kashmir
With Persian root, ‘Chob-dar’ was the one who held a mace or staff in his hand in old Kashmir at the time of revenue gathering from the villagers. He was also called ‘piyada’ as he led the way of team of revenue officials to each village. The team under the control of Wazir e Wazarat ( district level) and Daftar e Diwani ( State/province level), included a battery of officials, named, Tehsildar, Nib Tehsildar, Thanedar, Kardar, Mukhdam, Patwari, Shakdar, Chakladar, Lambardar, Tarukdar( Tarazu-dar), Harkara and Doom. Chob-dar always accompanied the team of revenue officials headed on top by Tehsildar of those days, and showing his chob, stick, to the poor villagers, giving them orders and demanding the share of the grain for the Maharaja.
He did not have any powers or ‘authority’. He was just a ‘piyada’, symbolised by the stick he held in his hand for the purpose he was engaged by his Masters. At times, Chobdar may have been using ‘stick’ against the peasants? There is a related proverb in Kashmiri which goes like this: Kur Gayi Lori Rusti Chobdar. Literally, it connotes that a daughter was and is to his parents’ home like a Chobdar without a mace. The daughters have had been always the darlings of their parents, the most loved ones, respected in the Kashmiri homes, old and new. In fact, the daughters have in all societies of the world from East to West, North to South, been dignified member of families. The proverb seems to have been used from those days, in a lighter vein, to compare this honoured member of a household with the then ‘chobdar’ , who gave orders in the household without ‘chob’ in her tender hands which parents obeyed like poor villagers of the old Kashmir.
Chob Khat:
Chob was also used for a method of accounts in the old Kashmir. It was called Chob Khat. The bread-seller or milk-seller maintained a separate account with each household in his mohalla or village where bread or milk was given by the seller on credit. Chob, a small polished, strong and straight stick, usually a foot or so in length, was held by a household with the seller of milk (Go’ir) and bread (Kan’dar) who carved a tiny v-cut mark on the stick by a sharp knife, in vertical rows. The stick used for this archaic method of maintaining accounts was called Chob Khat. This unique method of keeping balance of accounts of the customers was mainly due to large scale illiteracy and poverty among Kashmiri Muslims though paper and account books were very much available and this practice existed in the valley up to four or five decades before.
Herbal connection:
Chob has also found place in the names of some medicinal shrubs of the valley. Chob e Kuth, aromatic root of Kut, saussurea lappa , shrub plant, Kuth in Kashmiri. In Persian, it is called Qust or Kust, starting with either of the two alphabets, ‘qaf’ and ‘kif’, a medicinal root of costus. It was imported into Lhasa via Leh from Srinagar Kashmir. Its oil was used for incense and destroying insects in land. It constituted a large export between Kashmir and Punjab and loads of the shrub passing along the roads, beginning from the Jhelum valley route, were at once recognised by the sweet violet-like perfume they gave forth.
The higher reaches of North of Kashmir abounded in production of Chob e Kuth which was gathered in summers by shepherds and herdsmen. Sir Lawrence has mentioned about it in great detail. It was a state monopoly which earned the state ‘handsome profit’. It was exported from ‘Hindustan’, and from ‘Bombay’ and ‘Calcutta’ it was supplied to Read Sea and China where its demand was the highest. Chob e Kuth was ‘excellent remedy for preserving clothes from insects, and was much used in perfumery.
As a medicine it has many properties, tonic, aromatic and stimulant, and it is useful in cough, asthma, fever, dyspepsia and skin disease’, he writes. Chob is also part of the name of yet another shrub plant or tuberous root of that plant, Smilax China, which was imported into Kashmir from China. It is famous Chob Chini or Chob e Cheen which was ‘sovereign remedy’ of all Hakims of old Kashmir for serious ailments like long fevers. Chob Kar, was a bitter root produced and exported from Kashmir to Punjab.
Its oil was used for remedying neck stiffness and the hind legs of horses were anointed with this drug to straighten and strengthen them as curvature in horse’s legs was considered blemish. From Kashmir and Punjab, a special kind of ‘haldi’ (turmeric) was exported to East Turkistan, Yarqand, where it was called Zard-chob. It shows that like Kashmiri, in Yarqandi Chagtai language, Chob had also found a place.
End-word: Chob symbolises inequality between strong and weak, powerful and powerless.