O Ye Glorious Orientaliste

Sir Marc Aurel Stein (Hungarian: Stein Aurél) (26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) Hungarian archaeologist. Stein purportedly inspired by Sven Hedin's 1898 work, Through Asia; a man whose work I continue to enjoy, not least on account of his notes on the Rajatarangani by Kalhana, notes which combine the man's varied talents: cartography, numismatics, classics, medieval Kashmiri, not to speak of Sanskrit. The translation is none too shabby either.

Let's face it: were I have as qualified, I would be proud to call myself an Orientalist just to join his club.

And this does not hurt:
‘How Grateful I must feel to the kindly fate which allowed me to do so much of my work in Kashmir for the last 55 years.’’- Sir Aurel Stein
En route to Kishenganga, Kashmir, 1942



Here are some fun tidbits:

Stein's Kashmir Diary: Excerpts
Still Kashmir, Vangath. Last night at Peer Bakhsh's suggestions the tribal people who in the summer months pasture their flocks in the high valleys gave me a real serenade. Some of the Kashmirian songs were very melodic and reminded me of Hungarian songs.
- August 25, 1891.

On the Dudh Kuth Pass. Twelve thousand feet high. Cooler than Srinagar. I am taking advantages of the opportunity to learn Kashmiri and regularly take lessons both on the march and at camp from Pandit Kashi Ram. Though not a scholar like Govind Koul, he is more reasonable and a fine person.
- August 15, 1894.

In the night ride across the Wular lake a small storm made me worry for the safety of my Rajatarangini manuscript. It seemed as if the Goddess of Wisdom Sharda represented by the waters of Kashmir, was unwilling to let me abduct the manuscript. This is what happened 1200 years ago to Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang who had to leave his Sanskrit manuscripts in the angry Indus river.
- October 17, 1894.



The detailed account of these travels find mention in Ancient Geography of Kashmir, published in 1899 by Asiatic Society of Bengal. The accounts of few adventures and some aesthetic sojourns of these peregrinations indicate the inner orientation of Stein’s mind.

August 13, 1888. “Right after our departure at 6 A.M., we climbed a steep mountain with large glittering snowfields below the highest peak. As we moved along the ridge, the wind which in the morning blows up the valley and in the afternoon down the valley drove patches of heavy fog towards the peak. They soon overtook us and shrouded everything. Towards the east, Alatopa valley along with everything else was hung with clouds; while to the left of the ridge we could look to the Chand valley and hear the roaring of the Hillen brook some 2000 feet below. Luckily the fog around the ridge was not too dense. Otherwise it would have been difficult to keep the narrow trail. I estimated the altitude by points given on my map: 11500 feet. The flowers still grow abundantly. The scent from the masses of mint was almost overpowering. There are only gnarled trees and dwarf firs and a low creeping bush. Pir Baksh the guide, Piru for short, is an interesting companion who as a hunter in the retinue of officers has seen large parts of the alpine world. He has been in Astor, a garrison town in the Northern Kashmir and Ladakh where the valleys are over 10000 feet high. He knows Gujrat and has admired the railroad there. But by and large he has remained a simple hunter. He knows the valleys and the mountains around Barrangalla like the inside of his pocket and points out many places where years ago he spent with his sahibs months in tents surrounded by ice and snow. Hunting is only possible here in spring and winter.
“Piru and others can only imagine Europeans as English officers. Indeed they are the only ones who visit Kashmir; the country is so difficult to access that civil servants limited in their furloughs prefer Simla or Murree. All military matters are well known to these people - the first question addressed to me by my bearers, by the buffalo hunters we meet usually concern the length of my furlough or whether I am a Captain or Lieutenant sahib. All distances deceive in the fog and thus the march that brought me to this quiet place at 1.30 P.M. seemed doubly long. The area is covered, by short scanty- grass. There is penetrating cold. My tent, which I took the precaution to surround with the stone wall, is very comfortable. I hear the gay chatter of the bearers sitting around the camp fire. Nothing reminds me of the fact that I am living in the clouds, tired and full of expectation for tomorrow’s march. I turn in early”.

August 16, 1892. “The path into the valley of Mandi seems to be very old. In several places where it leads over steep rocks overhanging a wild mountain stream, steps are cut into the rock. Now I understand why all conquerors from Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030) the most successful of Turkish chieftains who from Afghanistan raided deep into India to the Sikh, Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) the great Sikh leader, the Lion of Punjab, who tried to penetrate into Kashmir over the Toshamaidan Pass were brought to stand still before the fortress of Lohara. The pious legend of Loharin people attributes the Maharaja’s defeat to the miraculous intervention of the saint Sayyad Canan who lies buried near the village of Tantrvand at the Loharin proper. Mysterious noises and alarms proceeding from his Ziarat are said to have thrown the Sikh army into confusion and to have brought about its precipitous flight.
“In reality Ranjit Singh’s retreat was due to for more natural causes. His troops had already suffered great losses by sickness and desertion on the advance to the Toshamaidan plateau. When the latter was reached by his advanced guard, the Sikhs found themselves without supplies and confronted by strongly posted force under Azim Khan, the Afghan Governor of Kashmir. After few days spent in inaction, Ranjit Singh received the news of defeat which his general, Ram Dayal sent with second column by Pir Pantsal Pass, had suffered before Shupiyan. Ranjit Singh then felt obliged to order a retreat. This developed into a complete rout when the hill men of Raja of Prunts attacked the Sikhs from the mountains about Loharin. On July 30, 1814, Ranjit Singh himself had to flee to Mandi after the complete loss of his baggage and great portion of his army”.




And this is just good clean fun:


Islam Akhoon - the Master Forgerer
- P. N. Kachru
Once Islam Akhoon, always Islam Akhoon -- Aurel Stein
He befooled world scholars, orientalists and authorities. But Aurel Stein found him out, made him confess and got him convicted publicly in Khotan, his home town. He was Islam Akhoon, a master forgerer of manuscripts, the like of whom world had never known before.

Islam Akhoon was one of the informers through whom the well known scholar Dr.Hornle of Asiatic Society of Bengal, had.got fifteen sites around Khotan in Central Asia marked for explorations of ancient manuscripts. Soon he became master of the scandalous game which trapped not only Hornle but many others in its net. Akhoon's "collections" during the period 1895 to 1898, and his supposed forays in Taklamakan later, came to be scandalously exposed. This enterprising native treasure -hunter enmeshed a network of international agencies in his so-called discovery of old Brahmi manuscripts, his "discoveries" finding their way into the collections in London, Paris and St. Petersburg where scholars continued for long scratching their heads over what they called the "unknown characters."

One orientalist, Backhund, however, started suspecting the genuineness of the Akhoon manuscripts from the beginning. In course of his inquiries from local sources, he had already gathered the information that Akhoon and his agents were using wooden blocks procured from a local cloth-print maker for their forgeries. After purchasing three supposedly old manuscripts from Akhoon, Backhund made local investigation and came to know through his servant how these "manuscripts" were being made. Backhund's critical inspection of the manuscripts drew his attention to several points which gave rise to suspicion in his mind. For instance, the manuscripts, acquired by him from Akhoon, "had a certain crispness or freshness and bore none of the signs of wear and tear normally associated with everyday use". Further, Backhund observed, the paper of the manuscripts was "exactly of the same kind as prepared in Khotan in the present day," and "though very ill-treated (burnt and smoky) is still strong, almost as if it were new." Backlund further observed that the corners of the manuscripts "were quite square (not round as usually they are in old books) and the edges recently cut, though in such a manner as to make them look old". But, inspite of these observations by Backlund, Dr. Hoernle stuck to his opinion about the genuineness of the manuscripts. It was in the late summer of 1900 that Sir Aurel Stein, after leaving the house of his host Macartney who was the representative of the British government in Kashgar, went to Khotan. This was the place from where Islam Akhoon was supposed to make his forays into the desert, and was supposed to have supplied his manuscript finds to the collection of British and St. Petersburg museums. One of the purposes of Stein's visit was to find out the truth about Akhoon's treasure hunting forays, he had told Hornle.

Perhaps suspecting Stein's intelligent move Islam Akhoon did not venture to see him personally, but managed to offer an old manuscript to him that had passed through ; his hands. Subjecting the manuscript to "water test", the mere touch of wet fingers was enough to wipe away the so-called 'unknown characters.' Peter Hopkirk the famous travel-writer of Central Asia writes that "to Stein's highly trained eye, it (the manuscript) looked suspiciously like certain of the books in Hoernle's collection in Calcutta."

Before leaving for London along with his treasure caravan, Stein was determined to unravel the truth behind Islam Akhoon's adventures of manuscript trade. Stein had collected sufficient evidence to expose Akhoon as a liar. Through his own explorations also he did not find any trace of the writings with Islam Akhoon's "unknown characters". Stein was determined to confront this forgerer who had managed to dupe learned scholars of entire Europe and England by engaging their attention. He put the responsibility of bringing the forgerer to book before he could manage to escape, on the Chief Mandarin (bureaucrat) of Khotan. It was on 25th April 1901 that the local Amkan's party caught Islam Akhoon in his home along with "a motley collection of papers" and produced him before Sir Aurel Stein. These were quite familiar to Stein as similar block-printed papers could be found in Calcutta also. But even two days' protracted probing could not bring Akhoon to accept the forgeries done by him. Pleading to the contrary he said that he had simply procured the manuscripts from persons "since dead or absconding". Commenting on this, Stein himself relates: "It was a cleverly devised line of defence, and Islam Akhoon clung to it with great consistency and with the wariness of a man who has had unpleasant experience of the ways of the law." In fact he already had to suffer at the hands of the law a couple of times before. According to Hopkirk, Islam Akhoon had been previously punished "for posing once as Macartney's agent and blackmailing villagers. Akhoon had been flogged and imprisoned.

Again, for forging another Sahib's handwriting to obtain money he had been forced to wear the huge and dreaded Chinese punishment collar of heavy wood, designed to prevent a prisoner from feeding himself. "Akhoon repeatedly denied of ever having visited the sites of origin of the manuscripts supplied to Macartney; insisting that he had procured them through his agents. Stein thought further investigations under the Chinese law would lead to the barbaric torture, which Stein, with his human nature, would never have liked. So, to debunk Akhoon's pronouncements Stein restored to Dr.Hornle's report itself. Finally Akhoon's defence crumbled and gave way on production of a copy of Dr. Hornle's report in which Akhoon's statements given to Macartney had verbatim details and graphic descriptions of his personal visits to the sites of the origin of the manuscripts.

Akhoon's first line of retreat was to admit having seen the old books being manufactured; but finally he admitted, that "he hit upon the idea of writing his own ancient manuscripts." For a long time Islam Akhoon and his close partner Ibrahim Mullah were producing, from their small factory, a steady supply of forged manuscripts. Their best customers were the two rivals, Macartney, the British representative, and Petrovsky, the Russian Counsel, both of whom were eager buyers. Akhoon admitted before Sir Aurel Stein that his first forged manuscripts were produced and sold in 1895. Initially, he imitated the cursive Brahmi characters, and these productions successfully found their way into the leading museum collections of Europe. "Thus Akhoon's factory gained confidence and prosperity", writes Stein, "in sand--buried Ruins of Khotan." As Islam Akhoon quickly perceived, that his "books" were readily paid for, though none of the Europeans who bought them could read their characters or distinguish them from ancient scripts, it became unnecessary to trouble about imitating the characters of genuine fragments.

While there was a constantly rising demand for such manuscripts, Islam Akhoon could not keep the pace with it. He decided to engage the block-makers to produce blocks for quick impressions to meet the demand and make a fortune as quickly as possible. The first consignment of these block-printed manuscripts was successfully produced and sold in 1895. Forty-five of these were fully described, and illustrated by Dr. Hoernle in his scholarly report of 1899.

Once the defence of Islam Akhoon collapsed, he told Stein everything he (Stein) wanted to know about the operations of the strange little factory that duped and deceived Hoernle and other scholars. The paper they used, Akhoon told Stein, was bought locally in Khotan. Then this was yellowed or stained light brown with Toghurga, a dye obtained from a local tree. After adding the writing by hand or by block-printing, the pages were hung over a fire so as to receive by smoke a proper hue of antiquity. Finally, before being taken to Kashgar and offered to their unsuspecting purchasers, the forgeries were thoroughly besmeared with the fine sand of the desert as they would have been had they come from a sand-buried site. "I well remember" Stein recounts, "how in the spring of 1898 I had to apply a cloth brush before I could examine one of these forged 'block priests' that had reached a collector in Kashmir."

With all this happening, Stein felt to blame squarely and every bit those who had unwittingly encouraged Akhoon and his gang by slapping up their forgeries so eagerly and so indiscriminately. Stein clearly indicted his friend Macartney and the Russian Petrovsky, but also reflected gravely on the valuable time wasted by Dr. Hoernle and other scholars on these worthless works.

Back in Kashgar, he again joined the Macartneys, but kept his feelings to himself. After two weeks of stay, he left for London, along with twelve crates of treasures, on May 29, 1901. In England, his task was almost delicate -- to go to Oxford to meet Dr. Hoernle and break to him the embarrassing news that he had been made a fool of by a semi-literate villager named Islam Akhoon. Stein feared that the shock could be too devastating for Hornle after having professed and publicised too much on these forgeries. But to Stein's great relief Hornle survived the shock. Reports Stein about the meeting: "He is deeply disappointed by Islam Akhoon's forgeries, but to my satisfaction he has recovered". Thus the responsibility to declare that all the "block prints" and the manuscripts in "unknown characters" procured from Khotan since 1895 were in fact modern fabrications of Islam Akhoon and his team. To save themselves from embarassment, the leading oriental scholars who had been enthusiastic about these "treasures" were anxious to shelve the affair and clear hastily the traces of these "old books" from the British Museum when Islam Akhoon, the treasure seeker from Khotan confessed to forging them.

Yet these extraordinary forgeries found their place in the British Museum where they were in two wooden chests labelled "Central Asian Forgeries". Islam Akhoon, the Devil, too, has got his share. The wily forgerer, who completely outwitted giants in the field of scholarship, is described as something of a genius. He too has his modest memorial -- that small corner of the British Library's oriental department near the Tun-Huang manuscripts where his once venerated "old books" are preserved for posterity.

Camped on Mohand Marg. I enjoy the freedom and work eleven hours a day. After dinner I along with Govind Koul take down Kashmiri tales from the mouth of the peasant bard Hatim, the storyteller and am thus collecting valuable material which I will put to good use in Europe.
- June 19, 1896.

Jammu: I visited again after 50 years the Raghunath temple library. Its six thousand old Sanskrit manuscripts had been catalogued by me with the help of Pandit Govind Koul and another excellent scholar friend Sahaz Bhat in what seems now like a previous birth. It had been a dreary task but it saved the collection from being lost. I had a very attentive reception, had to talk Sanskrit again for an hour or so thus purifying my tongue by use of the sacred languages after all my peregrinations in the barbarian North and West. It was a quaint experience to find myself in the end garlanded in the traditional Kashmir Hindu fashion for the first time in life.
- December 12, 1940.

Along the Kishan Ganga river: Towards the end of 12 marches I was glad to find myself back in Kashmir after all the barrenness past, the kingdom looked more verdant and fertile than ever. How grateful I must feel to the kind fate which allowed me to do so much of my work in Kashmir for the last 55 years.
- September, 1943.