As in all cultural languages, there are idioms about greed in Kashmiri also. The famous & oft-quoted Kashmiri proverbs relating to greed are: Ziyadeh Tamihis Ziyadeh Balai, and Kham Tamah.
The first one is correlative of well known Urdu idiom, Lallich Buri Balla Hay which in English equals to greed is evil, the root cause of troubles, an “internal affliction”, “a diseased condition of mind & heart” that squeezes life out of life of a person.
Ziyadeh Tamihis Ziyadeh Balai literally can be translated as more greed brings more problems to the greedy. A greedy or avaricious person is called Kham Tamah in Kashmiri while greed or avarice is Tamah. In the local language, Kham Tamah is one whose desires never get fulfilled & he gets no benefit by his avarice.
The related old proverb is Kham Tamah Hachmich Kol, which implies that a greedy fellow is like a dried-up stream of no use, no benefit, to anyone. An analogy of a greedy fellow is drawn in a less known idiom, “Gavi Zav Woch, Su Miye Guzh”, to a person who wants his hand on everything, this & that. It literally connotes that a cow delivered a calf, and a greedy stupid fellow said, calf may be given to him.
There is one more greed-related proverb Bagih Bog, Te Nani Tok which means after a greedy fellow receives his big share in distribution of something he still asks for more. Bagih means what comes as share by distribution & division & Bog is a complete due share of anything that comes under such distribution & division.
So, proverbs indicate that after a greedy fellow gets his due share in food [Bagih Bog], in the context of the proverb, he also asks for his grandmother in Tok. Tok was a small earthen shallow dish for eating from a platter which was generally used by the Kashmiri Bataas/ Brahmans in dining tradition in the past. There is a connected idiom with Tok which is Tok Kadun which means to go for begging with Tok in hand, like beggar’s bowl.
Greed is never satisfied. Avarice is endless. In Christianity, greed is compared to goats who are greedy & unsatisfied which is quite against the characteristic of the sheep who are content & satisfied.
The parable in Christianity that a hundred goats will eat as much as thousand sheep draws analogy between greedy & contented humans. In Hinduism, greed [ Lobha in Sanskrit] is inimical to Moksha , peace of mind.
Islam stresses on Tawaqul, contentment with what Allah has given you & warns Muslims to guard against the inclinations & predispositions towards greed, the cause of many wrongs. Ghina, self-contentment is chases away greed.
Greed leads to self-destruction. Sheikh Muslihuddin Saadi of Shiraz, great Persian poet of 13thcentury, ‘master of speech’ throughout Western countries, narrates a wonderful story.
He says that there a merchant who had 150 camel-loads of goods, forty slaves & servants. He traveled from place to place. One night, in the island of Kish, he invited Saadi to his room & the whole night he bragged about his wealth & how much more he intended to earn before finally setting to a no-more-wealth-now-like-life.
He said to Saadi, “I have such a correspondent in Turkistan, and such an agency in Hindustan; and this paper is the title-deed of such a piece of ground, and for such a thing I have such a person as security.” Then, he revealed his long itinerary-plans in his short life, saying to Saadi, “ I intend to go to Alexandria, as the climate is agreeable” but, same time, he said , “No! “, not now, he could not travel as “the Western Mediterranean sea is boisterous”, stormy & windy.
Then, he said, “O, Saadi! I have one more journey before me: when that is accomplished I shall retire for the rest of my life and give up trading.” Saadi, looking at him with curious-eyes, asked him what was that journey to which he replied, “I shall take Persian sulphur to China, for I have heard that it brings a prodigious price there; and thence I shall take China-ware to Greece, and Grecian brocade to India, and Indian steel to Aleppo, and mirrors of Aleppo to Yaman, and striped cloth of Yaman to Persia, and after that I shall give up trading and sit at home in my shop.”
He continued with this rambling-talk till he had exhausted himself. He was left with no power to talk boastfully anymore. He had no words with him to impress Saadi anymore. But, he asked Saadi what he had to say about what he had heard him saying so long.
Saadi said to him, “you have not left me a single subject to talk about” but “you must have heard of the merchant-traveler who fell from the mount & died, and the people said on his death: “A world-loving greedy person’s eye is satisfied either by contentment or the grave-yard-dank”.
Leo Tolstoy in 1886 wrote a classic story of an avaricious peasant, titled, “How much land does a man need”. It is considered one of the best short stories of all times from the pen of Leo Tolstoy. Real gem with everlasting message, a living reality of human life and the struggle he engages in all his life, energies and till the sun sinks behind the mountain.
It is the story of Pahom, a poor peasant, living a contended and simple life in a village. Then Devil implants lust in him to have as much land as he can for cultivation of crop, cattle, horses, farmhouses, and renting out to earn more and more money.
Initially he buys some acres of land in his village and pays off debts by sale of the produce. A land dealer from another place visits & tells him there is 1300 acres of land in their area which he can buy at 1500 rubbles only. He agrees. He sells his land, cattle, house and property in his native village and sets on a journey with him.
He has sale money with him. In the meanwhile when he is at this new area /commune, he is approached by another dealer who tells him that he can buy 13000 acres just at 1000 rubble in a steppe land which is endless in a far off place. He is lured into the deal. He accompanies the dealer to that place. Here he meets the chief of the community. He shows him an expanse of endless land, steppes, from a hillock.
Pahom’s eyes are brightened by looking at a sea of land with no end, boundary anywhere. He asks for the cost. Chief tells him, 1000 rubble daily.
He gets confused and seeks elucidation. Chief tells him that they sell land by a measure of a day and that he can go to any extent of the endless land and get as much land as he wants in a day by digging as many holes as he wants and putting turf on them as a mark for measurement.
The only condition is that he must return by sunset to the point where he starts, that is the point they stand on the ground. Chief puts his cap as mark of start with money of 1000 rubble of Poham on it. And, he starts his walk with a spade in hand.
Poham digs poles from North to South, East to West, on the sea of land. He has covered hundreds of thousands of acres of land. It is hot. He gets exhausted but does not rest thinking that he can make it back to the start before the sun sinks. But the sun goes down and down towards the hillock. It is getting late.
He gets alerted that time is running out, he won’t be able to return by sunset. He looks at the sun which has reached the earth. One side of it has already disappeared. As he reaches the hillock, it is dark. He looks up, the sun has already set.
He cries…. All my labour has been in vain. The people on the hillock are shouting at him, want him run fast towards the mark. With tired legs and broken body he reaches the mark of cap. He falls forward and reaches the cap with his hands crouching on ground.
Chief laughs, Poham has gained too much land. But the servants of Poham rush to him. They try to raise him up but blood is flowing from his mouth. Pahom is dead. Now his servants pick up the spade and dig a grave long enough for him (Poham) to lie in and bury him in it.
Bottom-line:
Yes, six feet from his head to his heels is his grave, is the land that “he all needed”. Pahom, needed! Sometime back, a friend of mine sent me a video clip probably from some TV drama featuring the leading Kashmiri TV artist & comedian Mr. Nazir Josh, popularly known as Ahaed Raze.
In the video clip, he is Dar Saab, an avaricious land broker, who is virtually on death bed. But, even in such condition of health, all that he utters is land, land, land, its price, measurement, kanals & acres.
A friend attends him, wishing him recovery & eternal-blessings of Jannah after death. But climax reaches when dying Dar Sahab, the land-broker, asks the attendant-friend: “how much a kanal costs in Jannah”?
M J Aslam is an author, historian.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.