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POSTED BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN ON 10-7-2025

Lalla – Vakyani or The Wise Sayings of Lalla Ded

The Mystic Poetess of Ancient Kashmir

By George Grierson and Lionel D. Barnett

Published by The Royal Asiatic Society, London – 1920

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“Lalla-Vakyani, or The Wise Sayings of Lal Děd,” a scholarly endeavor by Sir George Grierson and Lionel D. Barnett, published in 1920 by the Royal Asiatic Society, holds a dual significance for both philologists and students of religion. As the “oldest known specimen of the Kashmiri language,” dating back to the fourteenth century A.D., it provides invaluable linguistic insights. However, its primary importance lies in its portrayal of the popular understanding and practice of the Śaiva Yoga religious system in ancient Kashmir.

The book’s preface clarifies that Lalla’s songs are not a systematic theological treatise but rather offer a vivid “picture of the actual working out in practice of a religion previously worked out in theory”. This perspective makes the collection a “unique contribution” to the historical study of one of India’s most significant religious systems. The division of labor between the editors is also outlined, with Dr. Barnett focusing on the Yoga system and its accompanying notes, while Sir George Grierson handled the text, translation, appendixes, and vocabulary.

The “Introduction” offers what little is known about Lalla’s historical background, confirming her existence and her probable contemporaneity with Sayyid ‘Ali Hamadani, a prominent saint who arrived in Kashmir in A.D. 1380 and played a key role in the region’s conversion to Islam. Lalla, a Yoginī and follower of the Kashmir branch of the Śaiva religion, was noted for her spiritual breadth, believing that “all religions were at one in their essential elements”. Despite Hindu admiration sometimes asserting that Hamadani was inspired by her, Kashmiri Muslims, while denying this, still hold her in high regard. Numerous unverified stories about Lalla are circulating, including tales of her cruel treatment by her mother-in-law, her subsequent life as a wandering mendicant, and her ecstatic, sometimes semi-nude, spiritual practices. The editors candidly admit the absence of authentic manuscripts, instead relying on meticulously preserved oral traditions passed down through generations of “ustāds, or teachers” and recorded from professional reciters.

A substantial “Preliminary Note on Yoga” provides a detailed exposition of the Yogic discipline, aiming to “emancipate the individual soul (puruṣa) from its bondage to the material universe (prakṛti)”. This emancipation is achieved through a “mental and bodily discipline culminating in a spiritual transformation,” leading to kaivalya, or salvation. The citta (mental organism) and its “five intellectual functions” (vṛttis)—right judgement, false judgement, imagination, sleep, and memory—along with “five moral functions” or “afflictions” (klēśas)—primal ignorance, egoism, material desire, hate, and clinging to embodied life—are meticulously explained as hindrances to be overcome.

The note further elucidates the “eight members” (aṣṭānga) of Yoga: yama (moral discipline towards others), niyama (moral discipline towards oneself), āsana (sitting postures), prāṇāyāma (breathing regulation), pratyāhāra (sense-withdrawal), dhāvaṇā (negative fixation of citta), dhyāna (meditation), and samādhi (perfect stillness of thought). Successful practice is believed to grant “various miraculous powers (vibhūti)” and “the ‘light of intuition’, prajñāloka”. The highest stage of samādhi is described as nirbīja (“seedless”) or asamprajñāta (“unconscious”), involving the arrest and paralysis of citta activities, culminating in the intuition of the distinction between puruṣa and prakṛti.

The microcosmic theory of the human body is extensively detailed, likening the vertebral column to Mount Meru, with a microcosmic sun at its base and moon at its top. Three vital nāḍis—Suṣumnā, Idā, and Piṅgalā—are central, with Suṣumnā ascending to the Brahma-randhra (the upper extremity of the skull). The moon is described as exuding nectar, part of which flows downwards to meet the microcosmic sun. The cakras, conceived as lotuses attached to the Suṣumnā, include Mūlādhāra (at the base of the spine, housing Kuṇḍalinī), Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata (in the heart, containing Prāṇa or breath of life), Viśuddha (in the throat), and Ājñā (between the eyebrows). The ultimate goal is to raise Kuṇḍalinī, the “power of spirit” or “creative force,” through the Suṣumnā to the thousand-petaled lotus, Sahasrāra, located at the base of the palate and representing the “sphere of the Absolute or Transcendental Being, Parama-Śiva”. This absorption merges the cosmic energy into infinite bliss, overcoming “Death (cosmic, conditioned being) and the Kula”.

 The appendixes further enrich the volume by offering insights into Lalla’s language, noting archaic forms and phonetical peculiarities, and analyzing her unique stress-accent based metrical system, distinct from traditional Persian or Indian quantitative metres. This comprehensive approach makes “Lalla-Vakyani” an indispensable resource for understanding a pivotal figure in Indian spiritual and linguistic history.

–subham-

TAGS–KASHMIRI POETESS LALLA,  DEVOTEE OF SHIVA, Kashmir, mystic poetess, Lalla, book bY Grierson