KASHMIR 333
skilled Muslim weavers. In wood carving, furniture making
and papier-mache work the craftsmen of Kashmir are
famous. Pandits go in only for the learned professions, but
now these departments being overcrowded, they are slowly
entering trade and other lines of employment.
Music is unknown among them. They sing in a droll
and droning voice the Sanskrit slokas and mantras in
chorus, their intonation having a distinctive touch of
Persian accent.
The women in Srinagar are very backward in education,
while the husbands are Bachelors and Masters of Arts. In
many cases the wives are perfectly illiterate and except
their Kashmiri jargon, a mixed language, through which
alone they can convey their thoughts verbally, they have
no other means of intercourse. But late or post-puberty
marriages are very common among them. Often the girls
are allowed to grow up to seventeen or eighteen years
of age before they are married. The dowry system
amongst them is as pernicious an incubus as in other parts
of India.
Ramclas had an occasion to attend a marriage ceremony
of the Pandits. When the ritual was in progress and the
purohits were breathlessly chanting the mantrams, Eamdas
went into the room where the celebration was held, to see
the bride and bridegroom. The bridegroom could be seen
whereas the bride was completely covered with a veil made
of a thick white sheet of cloth. It is clear that many
customs of the pandits are borrowed from the Muslims,
whose close contact with them, probably for centuries, has
influenced them into adopting many of their customs and
modes of living. Ramdas attended their marriage feast, but
he did not partake of it as he was mostly on milk diet
during his sojourn in Srinagar. The hundreds of guests
assembled for the occasion were served food on the floor on
which they were made to sit in three or four long rows,
as is the vogue in other parts of India. But what struck