Takia: Nothing spiritual about it

At the threshold, it has to be noticed that towards the end of the seventh century CE,  it is said there lived a sorcerer, a bunghi, who knew witchcraft , at the right bank of Jhelum downstream opposite Shergadhi Palace Srinagar. He was a Sadhu or Swami. The present locality of Maisuma is identified with that Swami, it is claimed by Sanskrit chroniclers. Some Persian chroniclers have used word “Takia Maya swami” for the resting place of that Sadhu; word [ Takia] is not found in Sanskrit chronicles which give us only the name of a Swami as sorcerer who lived there. However, in Kashmir, there are names of some villages or mohallas pre-fixed with the word “Takia” such as Takiabal, Manigam Ka Takia, Takia Mian Shah, Asham Shah’s Takia, Takia Ahmad Shah, Takia Tappar and Takia Maqsood Shah.  Takia or Takiya is a Persio-Urdu word which means a place of resting, an alcove, of recluses, faqirs, dervishs, who never go out. The names of the cited localities with word “Takia” indicate that the dervishs lived and meditated in solitude there in olden times. Regrettably, self-styled “Adeebs” have borrowed and used “Takia” for cannabis-dens of Kashmir.

No connection with Veshram-Asthal:

Takia has been confused by some Vloggers with the Sanskrit term “Veshram-Asthal”. “Veshram” means taking rest, resting oneself after a long tiring journey or labour or suchlike, by a traveller or a labourer. Asthal means the place. Thus, when a traveller or a labourer in olden days, took such rest, as under the shade of a tree or a wall or thatched-hut or near a stream, it was generally called Veshran-Asthal”. It had no  “saintly attribution” in it. Even, it did not have remote nexus with Shoda Takias of the last century as misinformed by these raconteurs on social or public media. The stories of fascination are attributed to this term to catch imaginations of people. Unfortunately, due to legendary ignorance of history and Deen, some people, in recent years, taking to the social media platforms have attempted to glorify Shoda Takia practice of yesteryears’ Kashmir as a dignified part of Sufi-religious milieu of Kashmir originating from so-called “Vishram-Asthal”.   Such “sensational” U-tubers and “poet-raconteurs”, using calculated poetic words, do not hesitate to compare Shodas and Shoda Takias with “Dost e Khuda” , which equals to saints in Islam, Wali Ullah in Quran. The Chinese describe their dark past of opium tradition as “period of humiliation” but it is a pity that some Kashmir raconteurs and cultural writers have described Shod e Takias as “dignified, beautiful and respectable alcoves, amazed with rose gardens, grapevines and filled with ecstasy ruptures and aroma of cannabis” of the Kashmir’s past. “A crowd is almost blind to the truth..... scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images evoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed fact”.

Kralwari’s satire:

Maqbool Shah Kralwari [1820-1877], a renowned Sufi poet of the nineteenth century, whose Sufi poetic tradition was followed by other famous Sufi poets like Soch Kral [1774-1854], Rahman Dar [d 1872-1875], Shams Faqir [1843-1901] and others has in his famous Masnavi “Peer Nama” written about Shodas which shows Bhangi or a Charasi existed in his time. Although Shod-e-Takias as such did not exist in his time and naturally do not find mention in his metrical satire, yet he in unambiguous words says: Charas Te Banghe Chat Yus Nange Pheri, Karan Tass Pach, Dapan Yi Gayi Faqeeri, …..Khososan Yud Tamis Marith Gazih Taal, Dapan Pizkin Yohi Gov Sahibi Kamal, [The wandering Charsi and Bhangi are considered and trusted as Faqeers/Dervishs, friends of God, and ……Sahib e Kamal]. If yesteryears’ Shodas and Shoda Takias were mystics and alcoves of mystics , how to answer the dreadful menace of the modern day drug addicts which in August 2023 numbered 13-50 Lacs in the valley? What kind of message these half-read raconteurs, Vloggers and Bloggers intend to impart to the posterity?

With the worldwide campaign against the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances followed by the enactment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 1985, the Shoda Takias and Shodas came to an end and they are no longer eulogised as glorified saints. Rather, Shoda is stigmatized in the conscious Kashmirian society now which is fighting against the new menace of drug-addiction.

Bottom-line:

The opium-addicts of olden days felt “heavenly pleasure” in its consumption like “drug addicts” of the modern times. Those days, opium was available at a cheaper rate. So, Kipling expresses the feeling of an addict in this proverb:” If I can attain Heaven for a pice, why should you be envious?” But, drugs in general are no longer cheaper. They cost lives of addicts. Opium, Bhang, Charas, or any other narcotic drug is only “The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows”, as rightly summed up by Kipling, and not “The Gate of the Hundred Joys” or ““The Gate of Any Happiness”.

M J Aslam, historian, author & freelance columnist.