Habba Khatoon — The Poet Queen
This is Gurez valley, a breathtaking valley in Kashmir that is 56 km above Bandipura district and 123 km ahead of Sri Nagar. The people in this valley are ethnically Dards (historically it was a part of Dardistan) and speak in the Shina language. One of the stories they tell and pass on is that of Habba Khatoon which is a pyramidical mountain top named after a poet who lived there hundreds of years ago.
Habba Khatoon was born in a small village of Pulwama in 1554 with the name Zoon, which means the moon. Although a common first name, legend says she was called that because of her tremendous beauty. Zoon, despite being a peasant’s daughter, was a curious and passionate girl. Having uneducated parents, she learnt to read and write from the village Maulvi. Naturally gifted, she grew up to be an enchanting poet and singer, singing in the valley and spending her days writing poetry. Due to a shortage of money and societal standards, Zoon was married off to a peasant boy at a very tender age. It is said that her mother-in-law and sister-in-law mistreated her because they did not agree to her writing poetry. They tried to change her behaviour and make her conform to a more acceptable life. Unhappy with the marriage and the family she had been wed into, the marriage ended in divorce.
They say that, one day king Yusuf Shah Chuck (the king of Kashmir) was riding in the valley on horseback, hunting, when he heard Zoon sing. She had been singing in the woods, sitting under a chinar tree, when their coincidental meeting took place. The king was immensely impressed with her poetry and beauty, and the two of them fell in love. Yusuf decided to take her home and make her a part of his harem. Sometime after becoming a queen, Zoon decided to change her name to Habba Khatoon. She continued writing poetry as a queen, deeply in love with her husband. As her words spread through the valley, she is known to have introduced “loal” to the Kashmiri language, equivalent to a lyric in the English language.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck the wonderful couple when Yusuf Shah was arrested and sent to Bihar by the Mughal emperor Akbar. Overcome by the sorrow of her lover, Habba Khatoon became an ascetic and roamed the valley of Kashmir still singing and writing poetry. She would roam around the peak in Gurez which is now named after her. After her husband's death, she would walk around the river Jhelum and mourn. She died twenty years later, approximately in 1609 in her late 50s by drowning in the river.
One of her poems translated in English is
Wild, the vagrant yellow rose
Again has bloomed,
Beauty has in all that grows
Rare forms assumed!
Where, O love, your hiding place?
I wander far,
Seeking you among the streams
The dew-drops pour.
Jasmine in the forest gleams,
But where (is) your face ?
Violets bloom for me to trace
To where you are.
In this, she is remembering her love with the hope to find him. Khatoon was different from the poets of her time. Instead of writing spiritual and community-based poetry, her poems were personal and candid. They were filled with sorrow, love, separation and desire. She was able to connect with the hearts of Kashmiris hundreds of years ago and continues to do so. She is considered one of the most important Kashmiri writers in history with her songs echoing throughout the valley to this day.
