From Rutun-Sas to Sas-e-Ras
‘Sas’ is Kashmiri name of pulses like dal, mong, chana876, or dal made of mong or mong e dal , also the froth, the soup of the dal cooked in a pot. The earliest mention of the word Sas is recorded in an old Kashmirian story of nineteenth century when Jammu Dogras reigned over the valley and the Maharaja’s share of grain [revenue] was collected by a machinery of Pandit officials. The story gave birth to an old idiom, Rutnun Sas.
It is said that there was a Kardar, an overseer of village whose duty was to collect the Maharaja’s share of grain. Like other officials associated with revenue collection for the monarchy, he was also a Pandit but he was famous by his nickname ‘Gagor Wol’, for obvious reasons, among the poor peasantry of the villages. Gaggar is plural noun of rats, while Wol is the suffix added to any noun. Hence, the term Gaggar-Wol in the context was a satire, a caricature, nickname that was drawn and given to the Pandit Kardar who was engaged by the Maharaja to search for the collection of revenue from the poor peasants represented by the word Gaggar, rats.
The Kardar had a stupid Pandit servant, Ratun who always carried ‘Qalamdan’[ a box containing pen, inkstand and paper for writing orders of the Kardar] and his duty was also to take care of dress and food of his master. Ratun was famous for his idiotic actions which his master generally ignored. One day, Kardar visited a village in the company of Ratun, Patwari and other officials for collection of the Maharaja’s share of grain. He called the chief of the village, Muqdam, and asked him to give some dal, to Ratun for preparing a sas for dinner of the officials. The Muqdam, like other peasants of the village, in order to ingratiate the Kardar in his favour, gave one kharwar [192 lbs] of dal to Ratun. Ordinarily, Ratun should have used a small portion of it for making sas for dinner of the Kardar and other officials.
But, the he cooked the whole dal in more than thirty earthen pots as if for a big feast and when Gagor Wol, after completion of the day’s work, returned with his officials to his quarters in the village, he was shocked to see what the foolish Pandit had done with one Kharwar of dal. He had prepared ‘sas’ of the whole weight of the dal. The officials and Kardar burst into laughter and jeered at Ratun’s preparation as Rutnun Sas, which became, thus, a famous saying to represent stupidity and extravagance of any fellow in the valley those days.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, we find mention of a unique porridge of the dal, called ras-sas or sas e ras, which was prepared by Kashmiri Pandits to feast gosain [modified term of Goswami, sadhus, mendicants] on the occasions of heavy rains, snow, plague, cholera, or famine to get rid of the calamities. The Pandits also offered the porridge of sas e ras to dogs and crows in order to ward off the disaster.
After Gulab Singh purchased the Kashmir valley and its inhabitants from British in 1846, he set up an image in Basant Bagh Srinagar, called Mandir Bagh since that time. He feasted a large number of sadhus and common people of the area by setting up Bhandar to celebrate the establishment of an idol in Basant Bagh which [garden] was previously laid out by the Sikh Nazim Kernel Mihan Singh. Apparently an age-old custom in Kashmirian community from the pre-Islamic times, Bhandar, [Sanskrit] was organised on the same occasions to ward off calamities. Sas e ras was an offshoot of Bhandar.
The term sas e ras is a composite of two words, sas and ras. ‘Sas’ has already been explained above. ‘Ras’ is a Sanskrit word with several meanings, but in the context and under the local culinary tradition, it means gravy, curry, soup of cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes [su’in, vegetable, meat or fish eaten along with rice in Kashmir]. Initially, from a lexicological angle and historical record, the dal must have been the chief ingredient in the making of ritual food, sas e ras, and later, other non-vegetarian items like mutton, etc., must have found their way in its making under the Muslim influence.
The porridge of sas e ras, therefore, became rich with the ingredients of dal, rice, meat, vegetables, spices and oil. It was prepared on cross-roads, roadsides and similar places, and sometimes goat, sheep, ox, or mutton or beef were also used in its preparation in the villages. The ingredients like mutton, vegetables and dal were separately cooked and then mixed together with the cooked rice [Bate]. The food of sas e ras, which was prepared on fuel-wood [zuin, balan], was distributed in handfuls among people of the locality and the passers-by, young and old, men and women. The eaters sometimes grasped by hands [ thap e thap] as much of the sas e ras as they could hold or take in their cupped- hands, looking at it as a blessing or a good omen, Tabarruk [Persian].
Till the recent past, the Kashmiri Muslims invoked the name of ‘Sheikh San'an’, with reverence in times of distress caused by incessant rains. When the water bodies overflew or were likely to overflow by heavy rains continuing for several days, the people felt greatly disturbed and threatened by its ill-effects of flooding and damaging property and crop. In a state of anxiety, they would invoke the name of ‘Sheikh San'an’, besides that of God, for protection against possible disaster by setting up ‘sas e ras’, a sort of community-kitchen, on roadsides and even in the compounds of the masjids and ziarats.
The young boys of mohallas and villages would assemble and raise money and collect ingredients required for making of ‘sas e ras’ . They would campaign from house to house for the purpose, chanting loudly slogans: ‘Ya Sheikh Sanah, Obur Kar Fanah’[ O, Sheikh San'an, we implore ye to clear the sky of the clouds]. The household that contributed to the ‘donations’ was admired and praised by the young men, and so, while leaving his compound [angan], they would chant: ‘Harkat Ti Harkat, Yath Garas Barkat’ [move, move, blessings to this household]. And, the household that did not participate in contribution of sas e ras was cursed by them in rhythmic words: ‘Hagar Ti Hagar, Yath Garas Gaggar’ [wheels, wheels, rats to this home].
The Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages while clubbing sas e ras under the category of ‘old tradition of Nazar o Niyaz or Khairat’, refer to the name of ‘Sheikh San'an’ which was invoked by the people, while organising sas e ras to ward off inclement weather. But who was the Sheikh San-an, the Kashir Academy [VI: 159-161] is totally silent on it? It is intriguing, indeed! In my childhood, I thought it was “Sheikh Muhsin Fani”, Mughal time Persian poet, who is buried near the Sheikh Musa Ghat adjoining Dabtal-Gurgari Mohalla, Srinagar, my birthplace. But, as maturity and knowledge dawned on me, the things got demystified enabling me to understand that he was not any historical character or any saintly personage known to Kashmir or beyond. But, he was a ‘fictional’ character who dominated the theme of a long story written in poetic style by a Sufi poet, Farid ud Din Attar who lived and died [1221] in Nishapur Iran.
The story titled, ‘Sheikh San'an’ was published along with other mystic stories in his book, ‘Muntiq Ut Tair’, ‘ Language of the Birds’, which was translated as ‘Concourse of the Birds’ by British translator, Fitz Gerald in 1857 and then published posthumously in 1889. The Persian story of Sheikh San'an became famous in 1910-1920s when it was used by an Azerbaijani writer, Javid Hussain, for his play which was repeatedly published and staged in Baku. It was the time when Bolshevik’s doctrines had penetrated deep inside the Central Asia and East Turkistan. Well, originally in Farid ud Din Attar’s ‘fictional’ story, Sheikh San'an was an imaginary saintly man who had perfected himself to a higher degree by Hajj and prayers. He was followed by four hundred disciples. One night in Makkah, he dreamt that he had gone to Greece and worshipped an idol there. Greatly disturbed by his dream, he set out from Makkah to Greece along with his disciples to get the meaning of his dream.
Along with his pupils, he travelled from end to end of that country and then, one day, in the streets of Greece, his heart and mind were instantly captivated by the sight of a Christian lass who was like a shining-moon looking from her balcony. He fell madly in love with her, wandering about day and night in the streets of her mansion and sleeping on dust of her doorsteps. The disciples tried hard to dissuade the Sheikh from the life of apostasy. Their repeated pleadings and efforts to drive him away from the temptations of sinful life and return to his pious life did not have any effect on the Sheikh which left them have their heads in their hands.
After reluctance of several days, the young lady finally relented and conceded to frenzied emotions of the amorous Sheikh but only after he had agreed to her demands to renounce Islam, desecrate the Quran, drink wine with her, girdle himself with Christian zunnar and act as her hog-ward. His disciples wept and journeyed back to Kabah with sadness filling their hearts. Their sheikh had become Christian. But then after many days, his disciples returned to Greece to see the condition of their Sheikh. He was in tears of remorse, looking at heavens with hands praying for forgiveness and had thrown away the Christian zunnar and worn again the Sufi’s khirka. The Christian girl, after seeing the radiance descending on the repenting sheikh, confessed her faults, sought pardon from the Sheikh but she had grown too weak and frail. She became Muslim but ‘her sweet soul separated itself from her body. She, a drop in the ocean of illusion, had returned to the true ocean’.
In the Hussain Javid’s play, the original story of Attar is distorted, characterised and dramatised. Under the dominant influence of the Lenin’s ‘inter-nationalism’ of the last century, the author presented the Attar’s story of sin and repentance as a story of great romance of Sheikh San'an and Georgian girl, Khumar, that had crossed the boundary of different religions and nationalities of the two lovers who fell to persecution of the religious fanatics.
As the Azerbaijani’s play was repeatedly published till third quarter of the last century, it seems quite probable that some communists, who brought loads of Marxist literature inside Kashmir right from mid-1930s to early-1950, may have familiarised the name of Azerbaijani character, Sheikh San'an, among socio-educationally backward populace or it might have been ‘Karistani’[ mischief] of some Persian knowing exploitative-Pir who may have inducted the name of Farid ud Din Attar’s fictional character, Sheikh San'an, as a ‘Muslim saint’ in the psyche of socio-politically immature population. The slogans of all kinds have had dominated politico-cultural landscape of Kashmir for decades, to say the least.
Bottom-line: On huge historical evidence, Kashmiri Muslims have been habitually and uncritically given to Pir Parasti, generation after generation, which many a time tends to make them act quite awkwardly. Imploring the fictional character of Sheikh San'an for help in times of distress is just an example to cite. To sum up, Jo Tum Se Pehle Aye Thay Unki Karistani Dekho[ poet Shujah Khawar].
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- J . Aslam, Historian and Author
