The Word of Lalla (Also known as Laleshwari, Lalla Yogeshwari & Lalishri Between 1300-1400AD.)

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Lalla Dyad, the most respected woman saint- poet of Kashmir belonged to the early fourteenth century and was a legend in her own time.

The profound verses of Lalla Dyad were recorded from oral tradition for the first time by Baba Da'ud Mashkwati in his book Asraral Abraar in 1654; the manuscript was in the Persio-Arabic script. Bhaskara Razdan of the 18TH century prepared a collection of the verses of Lala in the Sharda script, the earliest and the most common script developed in Kashmir. He called the collection Lallavaakya (Lalla's sayings).

The European scholars appreciated the significance of these manuscripts and among other intellectual efforts to rediscover the past glory of India, initiated a systematic survey of rare manuscripts obtaining in the country. In 1876 Dr G Buhlur, an eminent Indologist, well versed in Sanskrit and oriental learning, made a survey of Sanskrit manuscripts in the valley of Kashmir and published his report in 1877 from London. The report, inter alia, contains a catalogue of the manuscripts in Kashmiri. While making a survey of the Sanskrit manuscripts obtaining in various private libraries of the Pundits of the valley found two manuscripts of the verses of Lalla Dyad, one in the Devanagri was incomplete comprising 6 folios and the other in the Sharda, comprising 13 folios. Dr G Buhalar placed the two MSS at S No 800 and 801 on the list of the MSS he purchased in 1875-76.

Sir Richard Temple, the principal editor of the Indian Antiquary published from Calcutta, stayed in Kashmir for a pretty long time and had intimate contacts with the most renowned Sanskrit pundits of the valley. While inquiring about various aspects of Kashmiri mysticism, called Shaivism, he had to have a thorough understanding of the poets of the land, especially Lalla Dyad, writing in the vernacular.

Sir Richard Carnac Temple, (15 October 1850, Allahabad, India - 3 March 1931, Territet, Switzerland) was the British Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and an anthropological writer.

Richard Carnac Temple was born in Allahabad on 15 October 1850. After education at Harrow School and, from 1868, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Temple was commissioned in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1871. He was transferred to the British Indian Army in 1877, being mentioned in despatches while serving with the 38th Dogras in the Second Anglo- Afghan War of 1878-79.

Temple had been honoured as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1894, recognising his work in India, and in 1913 he was President of the anthropological section of the British Association.

Temple joined the Folklore Society in 1885 and among the papers he published in its journal was The Science of Folk-lore (1886). He wrote various works often dealing with the religions and geography of India. He believed that a knowledge of local folklore was useful both to ruler and ruled.

In 1920 the Royal Asiatic Society published as one of its Mono- graphs (Vo. Xvii) the Lalla-rakyani, or "Wise Sayings of Lalla Ded (or Lalla), a mystic poetess of ancient Kashmir." They were edited with translation, notes and vocabulary by Sir George Grierson and Dr Lionel D Barnett. It was a work of great scholar- ship, each of the editors taking his share with a consummate mastery of a difficult subject-Sir George Grierson as to the linguistic and Dr Barnett as to the philosophic phase of it.

It impressed me forcibly, because, irrespective of the merits of the editors, the authoress of the Sayings, as a wandering ascetic and devoted follower of the Shaiva Yoga form of the religion of the Hindus, obtained such a hold on the people of the country that her verses have become a household word. This is because her songs illustrate her religion on its popular side, though they are not a sys- tematic exposition of Shaivism on the lines laid down by the theologians who preceded her. In fact, what we have in her poems is not a mere book-religion, as evolved in the minds of great thinkers and idealists, but a picture of the actual hopes and fears of the common folk that nominally followed the teaching of these wise men, whom they had accepted as guides. She gives, indeed, an account, often in vivid and picturesque language, of the actual working out in practice of a religion previously worked out in theory. As such Lalla's work is a unique contribution to the body of evidence that must necessarily form the basis of a future history of one of the most important religions of India, of which very little is even yet known in England.

Lalla, the prophetess of Kashmir, is commonly known in her own country at the present day as Lalla Ded, Lalla Didi and Mai Lalla Diddi, all of which names mean Granny Lalla. She is also known as Lalishri or Lalla the Great. In Sanskrit Literature she is called Lalla Yogishwari, Lalla the Mistress of Yoga asceticism, or Laleshwari, Mistress Lala, Lala the Great. It is further said that Lalla Didi is her name among Muhammadans and Lalishri among Hindus. However this may be, Lalla Ded is her usual appellation everywhere. Lalla, Darling, is a common personal name of Kash- miri women, though legend has given it a very different and much coarser rendering in Lalla Ded's case.

There are few, countries in which so many wise saws and pro- verbial sayings are current as in Kashmir. Knowles, in his Dictio- nary of Kashmiri Proverbs, has collected some 1600. None of these proverbs have greater repute than the Lalla-vakyani, the Sayings or Word of Lalla. There is not a Kashmiri-Hindu or Mussalman- who has not some of them ready on the tip of his tongue and who does not reverence her memory. In this way she and her work are of general importance.

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