The Tiger Ladies   “Lyrical recollections of coming of age in Kashmir.Up on the northern border of India,hard by Pakistan,lies the enchanted valley of the author’s childhood....Koul conjures up an elaborate portrait of the world she knew growing up,with its ancient customs of respect between the Mus- lims and the Hindus who lived there....A beautifully rendered,decep- tivelysimplehistoryofthepersonalandpolitical.” —KirkusReviews “Sudha Koul’s writing is transportive,evoking beautifully the Kashmir we keep in our hearts.Her book is at once a history,memoir,and lesson; the author is both to be congratulated and thanked.” — ,author of InheritanceandThe Journey Like Indira Gandhi and her father, times contradictory world. Though Jawaharlal Nehru, Sudha Koul she attends school faithfully, along was born a Kashmiri Brahmin. The with her Muslim girlfriends, complet- Hindus, though a tiny minority of ing her graduate education and be- Kashmir’s population, lived in great coming a magistrate, she looks for- harmony with Muslims, leading in- ward to the marriage her parents will tertwined lives in the same cultural arrange for her. She participates fully fabric. Kashmiris were isolated in in the rites and rituals of Kashmiri their valley, called “Paradise on culture and mourns her parting from Earth” by Moghul emperor Jehangir, her beloved valley when marriage and enjoyed a culture so dissimilar takes her to the United States. to any other in India that they were This is a magical memoir of a largely unaffected by what was hap- land now consumed by political and pening in the world around them. In religious turmoil, a richly detailed 1947, the year of Sudha’s birth, the story of a girl’s passage into matu- partition of India and Pakistan by the rity, marriage, and motherhood in British and the first stirrings of funda- the midst of an exquisite and fragile mentalism in Kashmir ignited what world that will never be entirely the would gradually become a religious same. and political inferno. Sudha grew up immersed in the colorful legends and rituals of Kash- Sudha Koulis author of Curries with- miri life, now imperiled for Hindus out WorriesandCome with Me to In- and Muslims. Her story is that of a dia: On a Wondrous Voyage through lost Eden, full of the textures, tastes, Time. She lives in New Jersey with and magical tales of a distant, at her family. The Tiger Ladies A Memoir of Kashmir SUDHA KOUL BEACONPRESS Boston Beacon Press 25 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 www.beacon.org Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. © 2002 by Sudha Koul All rights reserved First electronic edition 2002 Text design by Melodie Wertelet Composition by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Koul, Sudha. The tiger ladies : a memoir of Kashmir / Sudha Koul. p. cm. ISBN 0-8070-5920-X ISBN 0-8070-5918-8 (acid-free paper) 1. Jammu and Kashmir (India)—Description and travel. 2. Jammu and Kashmir (India)— Social life and customs. 3. Koul, Sudha. I. Title. DS485.K24+ 954´.6—dc21 2001005970 ForShyamji,DhannaandBabuji,Tathaji, andotherancestorswhoexhortmeto writewhatmightverywellturnouttobe anepitaphtoawayoflife. (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1) AndforClarissaPinkolaEstes, whodoesnotknowme. This page intentionally left blank WhohasnotheardoftheValeofCashmere? ThomasMoore,LallaRookh() (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1) This page intentionally left blank Contents  Grandmothers  Mothers  Daughters This page intentionally left blank