Book Extract | The Dark-Coloured Waters: A Journey Along River Chenab by Danesh Rana

There are no inhabited houses at Bandarkoot, yet many people visit the place. They are attracted by the confluence of the rivers as well as the ziyarat at the foothill and an ancient temple on the other side of the river. On Baisakhi festival, a big fair is held here. After a dip in the confluence, the devotees pay obeisance at both the temple and the ziyarat.

The ziyarat is attributed to Sheikh Zain ud Din Wali, who lived in the fifteenth century. He was the chief disciple of the leading Sufi saint of Kashmir, Sheikh Nur ud Din Wali, popularly known as Nund Rishi.

Sheikh Nur ud Din Wali’s father, Salar Sanz, was a Hindu, with his family roots in Kishtwar. It is said that after having a dispute with his family, Salar Sanz shifted to Kulgam in Kashmir. Here, he embraced Islam under the influence of a Sufi saint and was rechristened as Sheikh Salar ud Din. At the insistence of his spiritual master, he married a widow who had been brought up by the village watchman after she was orphaned at a young age. Through this union, Nur ud Din Wali was born in 1377 in the Qaimoh village of Kulgam. As per the folklore, he did not suckle at his mother’s breast for three days after his birth. Lalla Arifa, a local woman who used to take care of his pregnant mother, was the one who breastfed the young child. Lalla Arifa would go on to become one of the greatest Sufi poetesses of Kashmir, popularly known as Lalleshwari or Lal Ded. Sheikh Nur ud Din Wali would transform into a greatest mystic, poet, philosopher and preacher from Kashmir. ‘Shruks’, the excerpts from his poems, four to six lines usually, which encapsulate his teachings, continue to echo all over the region. Sheikh Zain ud Din turned out to be his most important disciple.

Zain ud Din Wali was born in a Rajput family as Zia Singh or Zaina Singh. His father ruled a small principality near Bandarkoot, who was assassinated when Zia was thirteen years old. As luck would have it, Zia was afflicted with a serious ailment. Despite all possible treatment, the disease turned serious, with no chances of recovery. At that point, Sheikh Nur ud Din Wali was passing by Kishtwar. Zia Singh’s mother pleaded with him to save her son. He agreed but on a promise that Zia would meet him in Kashmir after his recovery.

However, the legend goes that Zia’s mother did not keep her promise and her son took ill again. His mother kept crying until she was visited by a dream reminding her of the unfulfilled promise. She resolved to rectify her mistake and, along with Zia, proceeded to Kashmir to meet Sheikh Nur ud Din. Zia and his mother adopted Islam, and they were renamed Zain-ud-Din and Zoon Ded, respectively.

Another story suggests that it was Nund Rishi who while passing through Bandarkoot happened to see Zain Singh. He asked the young man to accompany him to Kashmir. For this purpose, he threw his jai-e-namaz (prayer rug) in the Chenab and started off for Kashmir. Though the Chenab does not go to Kashmir, but Zain Singh tossed his own prayer mat in the river and followed Nund Rishi’s path. Apparently, Nund Rishi did not like Zain Singh’s gesture of travelling independently. Therefore, he directed him to carry out his meditation at the same place. Zain Sigh complied and stayed in a Bandarkoot cave to meditate for twelve more years. Later, in Kashmir, Zain ud Din took allegiance to the order of Nund Rishi and spent the rest of his life spreading his message. He meditated in Sopore, north Kashmir, for a long time and attained spiritual perfection. At this stage, Nund Rishi directed him to shift to a cave in Aishmuqam and meditate there for the rest of his life. On his arrival, Zain ud Din found that the entry to the cave was obstructed by snakes and scorpions. It is said that the saint carried a club with him that was given to him by his master. Seeing the serpents, he placed the club on the ground, where it instantly transformed into a dreadful cobra with majestic fangs. The snakes in the cave were awestruck and immediately surrendered and left the cave. Zain ud Din spent many years in the cave, meditating, surviving only on dry walnut kernels. He led a life of great simplicity and spread the message of love and social equality.

After his death in 1140–41, he was buried in Aishmuqam, where a great mausoleum came up. At the same place, there are twenty- four more graves of his relatives and closest disciples. The shrine also houses some relics associated with the saint, namely, a pair of patten, a rosary, a wooden club and a copy of the Holy Quran. The Urs or the anniversary of the saint is celebrated in mid-April with congregational prayers, and is attended by thousands, exhibiting a picture of inter-faith existence and the shared heritage of Kashmir. On this occasion, torches, locally known as zool, are lit on the surrounding hillocks.

There is a very interesting story behind the burning of torches, which is evocative of the famous story in the Mahabharata of Bhimsena and Bakasura’s battle at Ekachakra. Many centuries back, Aishmuqam village was under the terror of a local demon. There was hardly any day when someone from the village was not preyed upon by the demon. One day, the villagers approached the demon and requested him to eat them one by one. The demon agreed on a condition that the villagers would offer him bread every day. After a few months, it was the turn of a young Gujjar orphan called Bumisad to be the demon’s victim.

The boy’s turn to be devoured by the demon coincided with the day of his wedding. Bumisad approached the demon with the offering of bread. The boy started munching on the bread instead of proffering it to the demon. The outraged monster yelled, ‘Why are you eating my food?’ He replied nonchalantly, ‘The food I eat would eventually become your food too.’ He was audacious enough to challenge his enemy in a fight. Finding an easy adversary, the demon agreed to the challenge, vain about his own strength. Surprisingly, the fight continued for a week and, finally, Bumisad was able to vanquish the demon.

When the news of killing of the demon reached the villagers, they emerged from their homes carrying torches made of burning zool. When the light of the zool fell on the dead body of the demon, bloodied and battered, a joyous wave of victory spread all around. From that day of the triumph of Bumisad, the zool festival of torches is celebrated during the Aishmuqam ziyarat.

In 2015, a Hindi movie starring Salman Khan, called Bajrangi Bhaijan, was shot here. It was the first movie that was granted permission to shoot inside the shrine and featured a Qawwali sung by Adnan Sami.

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Danesh Rana, The Dark-Coloured Waters: A Journey Along River Chenab, Juggernaut, 2025. Hb. Pp. 328

The Dark-Coloured Waters is as much the story of a river as it is of a man shaped by its course.

Danesh Rana has had a profound connection with the Chenab. As a child, it flanked family road trips to Kashmir. In the 1990s, it ran through the newspaper headlines of bloodshed and militancy. And in 2002, it flowed past his police station in Ramban during a tense posting in the heart of conflict. In 2018, on election duty in Himachal Pradesh, Rana arrived at the river’s source – a symbolic homecoming that compelled him to write this book.

Spanning decades and landscapes, The Dark-Coloured Waters traces the Chenab from its mythic origins to the violence-scarred landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. Along the way, Rana blends memoir, travelogue and keen observation to chart the river in all its complexity. Every bend reveals something new – culture and conflict, memory and myth, power and resistance. The Chenab is also a river of diplomacy, enshrined in the Indus Waters Treaty and entangled in the acrimony of India–Pakistan relations. From Bollywood to bloodshed, spiritual quests to statecraft, the Chenab reflects the many Indias that surge along its banks.

This is no linear chronicle, but a riverine journey – restless, reflective and deeply human.

Danesh Rana is an Indian Police Service officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and various Union Territories) cadre. He has served for 25 years in different capacities in the three regions of (the erstwhile state of) Jammu and Kashmir. Presently, he is on central deputation with CRPF. His debut novel, Red Maize, won the Tata Literature Live! First book award for fiction in 2015. His second book, a work of non-fiction, As Far as the Saffron Fields: The Pulwama Conspiracy (2022), is a definitive work on the deadly Pulwama blast of 2019.