A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS ii A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS A © The Author All rights reserved. No part of this book protected by this copyright Dictionary notice may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written Of permission from the copyright owner. First Edition 1992 Kashmiri Second Revised Edition 2006 Published by: Proverbs Indian Institute of Language Studies C-13, Greenview 33, Sector 9 Rohini, Delhi 110085 www.iils.org Omkar N. Koul ISBN 81-86323-21-X Printed at: Radha Press 2465 Main Road, Kailash Nagar, Delhi- 110031 Indian Institute of Language Studies iv A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS Ø Proverbs are like butterflies, some are caught others fly away. Proverbs in a language do reflect the socio-cultural milieu and wide Preface range of experience of the people who use them in a particular society. They do not have to be always true. Folk wisdom is sometimes contradictory. For For the purpose of this dictionary, a proverb is defined as a statement that example, the following two proverbs regarding a couple or two friends are may contain an advice, a warning, a prediction or simply an observation. contradictory: Idiomatic expressions and similies which are the part of the language are not included in this dictionary. 1. halen ba:nan vuk1r’ tha:n, hivis hiviy samkha:n Proverbs are of different types. Some proverbs are simple folk say- ‘The twisted pots have twisted lids.’ ings (for example, p@tshis potsh khara:n ‘One guest does not like the other’). One meets the people of his/her own interests. Such proverbs have their literary meaning quite prominent. Some proverbs (‘Birds of the same feather flock together.’) are philosophical which aspire to deal with great mysteries and complexities 2. naras khar t1 kharas nar of life (for example, bech1nas n1 mandchun t1 bast1 khakhra:yi k’a:? ‘One A human being gets a donkey (as a companion) and a who is not ashamed of begging, why should he be ashamed of the sound of donkey gets a human being. ( ‘One gets a partner just his begging bag?’). Others are metaphorical in which the literal meaning is opposite to his/her expectations.’) merely redundant (for example, g@:v n’a:y bo:za:n s@:ri:, dã :d1 n’a:y n1 kã:h ‘Everyone listens to the dispute of the cow and no one listens to the Proverbs may or may not be regarded as a source of accumulated dispute of the bull.’ This means that women earn sympathy more readily wisdom. They are seen as a collection of tags that enable thoughts to be than men). In this dictionary, all the three types of proverbs are listed. communicated and exchanged. A large number of proverbs listed in this collection have been Proverbs in any language have their own characteristics and style. handed down orally from generation to generation. Slight variations in their They are short memorable statements. It is said, ‘A proverb is shorter than wordings are inevitable. Such proverbs have been listed in their most famil- a bird’s beak.’ Proverbs are generally used and quoted extensively in con- iar form. Some common variants are also mentioned. versations and literary texts. The origins of the proverbs are obscure in most of the cases. Proverbs in Kashmiri are of different styles. Prominent types are as Some of these are directly related to certain religious, cultural, historical follows: and literary texts. A large number of them are quotes taken from the literary (especially poetic) compositions of famous saint poets like 1. A simple statement Lalleshwari and Sheikh Noor-ul-Din. They have become part of the folk tsu:t~ his vuchith tsu:~ th rang rata:n wisdom. A number of proverbs are borrowed from Sanskrit and Perso- ‘An apple gets its colour from another apple.’ Arabicsources. The sources of proverbs have not been indicated. 2. Conjoined phrases A wide range of beliefs prevail regarding the wisdom of a:yi v@:nis t1 g@yi dris kã : proverbs.Most common beliefs are as follows: ‘(She) came to visit the shopkeeper but went to visit a baker instead’. Ø A good proverb is never out of season. 3. Question-answer style Ø Hold fast to the words of ancestors. “m@:j, vohava:n chumn1 k ã:h.” Ø Proverbs are the condensed good sense of nations. “potr1 vati peth beh.” Ø Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them. ‘Mother, no one abuses me.’ Ø A proverb is the wit of one and the wisdom of many. ‘Son, go and sit on the road.’ Ø Time passes away but sayings remain. Besides the use of terms of address, the question-answer style is also A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS v vi A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS used with the help of a narrator. Consider the conversation between a Vowels Front Unrounded Central Back Rounded mother-in-law and daughter-in-law: High i i: 1 1: u u: Mid e e: \ \: o o: 1 noshey kuth khas, dopnas a:m ts k’a: karni chas. Low a a: O O: ‘(My) daughter-in-law, go to your bedroom.’ Consonants Bil. Dent. Retro. Pal. Vel. Glo. (She) replied, ‘What else I have come here for?’ Stops: vl. unasp p t tà k Here the term dopnas ‘she/he told her/him’ is used to indicate addressee vl. asp ph th tàh kh and addresser. vd. Unasp. b d dà g Proverbs have been collected from both primary and secondary Affricates: sources. A large number of proverbs have been collected from the people vl. unasp. ts c who use them natively in day-to-day conversations. Detailed notes were vl. asp. tsh ch maintained of such proverbs. Among the secondary sources some earlier vd. unasp. j collections, Kashmiri language dictionaries and various texts have been Nasals: m n consulted. It is important to mention here that A dictionary of Kashmiri Fricatives: proverbs and sayings by Rev. J. Hinton Knowles (1885 Indian reprint 1985) vl. s š h is the first attempt in compiling the proverbs and sayings in Kashmiri. A vd. z large number of proverbs listed in the above dictionary are either obsolete Lateral: l or merely translations of the Persian proverbs. The obsolete proverbs and Trill: r those which are merely literal translations of Persian proverbs have not Semi-vowels v y been listed in the present work. Among the native scholars, Ghulam Nabi @ @ 1 Nazir has compiled a collection of Kashmiri proverbs entitled k :shir’ d p t’ The nasalisation of vowels is indicated by the nasal sign /~/ (Kashmiri sayings,1988) with their meanings in Kashmiri. This caters to the above the concerned vowels. The colon sigh /:/ after the vowels indicates interest of native speakers of Kashmiri only who can read and write Kashmiri. the length of the vowels. The palatalization of consonants is indicated by The above two prominent works are useful reference materials on proverbs the sign of apostrophe /’/ after the concerned consonant. Abbreviations @ @ 1 and sayings. Omkar Koul has edited k :shir’ d p t’ dikshanri: (A dictio- used above are: Vl. (Voiceless), Vd. (Voiced), unasp. (Unaspirated), Asp. nary of Kashmiri Proverbs, 2000) which provides explanation of Kashmiri (Aspirated), Bil. (Bilabial), Den. (Dental), Alv. (Alveolar), Ret. (Retroflex), proverbs in Kashmiri. In the present volume, a large number of proverbs Pal.(Palatal), Vel. (Velar), Glo. (Glottal). have been collected from various literary texts and dictionaries. Kashmiri proverbs in Devanagari and Roman transcription are im- Proverbs are listed in the alphabetical order used in the linguistic mediately followed by literal translations. Literal translations present simple texts in Kashmiri beginning with vowels and followed by consonants. The renderings of the Kashmiri proverbs in English and are not merely word-for- 1 1 @ @ O usual order is as follows: , :, , :, a, a:, i, i:, e, e:, u, u:, o, o:, , k, kh, g, c, ch, word translations. Sometimes literal translations make the meanings clear. j, ts, tsh, t, th, d , t, th, d, n, p, ph, b, m, y, r, l, v, š, s, z, h. For understanding Whenever necessary, their metaphorical (hidden or extended idiomatic mean- the transcription of the proverbs it is important to mention the phonetic ings) are explained. Whenever possible, an attempt has been made to pro- values of these signs. Speech sounds in Kashmiri are presented below: vide English equivalents or near equivalents after their literal translations or simple explanations. It is to be noted that the translations do not claim to be equal in style. Translating Kashmiri proverbs into English has been a diffi- cult job. I am grateful to my friend Mr. R.K. Bharati for going through an earlier draft of the manuscript and for offering constructive suggestions for its improvement. I would also like to thank Prof. Peter Edwin Hook, Prof. A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS A DICTIONARY OF KASHMIRI PROVERBS Anjani K. Sinha, Dr. Dick Smith and Dr. H. Kumar Kaul for going through parts of the manuscript and for offering their suggestions. The first edition of this dictionary was first published in 1992 which is out of print now. Mr Sunil Fotedar volunteered to put selected proverbs from this dictionary on the web. This generated a lot of interest among scholars and general readers. I would like to thank Mr Fotedar for encourag- ing me to bring out the second edition of it. I am grateful to Mr. M. K. Raina for transcribing the original Kashmiri proverbs from Roman into the Devanagari script.