A recent news item about the commencement of the Cocoon Auction Market at the Sericulture Complex in Solina, Srinagar, brought back memories from the 1980s.
The first memory goes back to a time when, in a joint family setting and with the help of domestic helpers, our grand-uncle used to rear silkworms—kiramkashi, as it is locally called—to supplement the largely agricultural income of the household. Back then, our neighbourhood had a large number of mulberry trees, making silkworm rearing relatively easy. Besides providing leaves for the silkworms, these trees offered delicious fruit for children from adjacent villages. Whenever there was a shortage of mulberry leaves, the household workers would fetch them from neighbouring or even far-off villages.
As children, we would quietly sneak into the warm rooms—often carrying a rather foul smell—to observe the various phases of the worms’ life cycle until they enclosed themselves in white cocoons. Once news arrived that the Cocoon Auction Market in Srinagar had opened, the village kiram kash community would hire a bus and travel collectively to Srinagar, with loads of cocoons tied to the rooftop. It was always a festive departure, filled with hopes of a good return. We children eagerly waited for their return that evening or the next day, excited for the large watermelons they invariably brought back, along with copper or aluminium utensils, food items, toys, and some cash—depending, of course, on the market rates. One could usually read the mood from their faces: whether the returns had been good or disappointing by rural economic standards.
The second memory relates to my first job offer—selection as a Senior Research Assistant at the Sericulture Research Station, Pampore, under the Central Silk Board. I vividly recall that Dr. Maqbool Ahmad, the Joint Director and head of the Pampore Research Station, chaired the interview panel that included Prof. Dildar Khan of the Zoology Department, Kashmir University, among others. Though it was my first job interview, it went surprisingly well, leading to my selection ahead of some experienced candidates. However, some friends in the university hostel discouraged me from joining, fearing that the job was transferable across India, including distant stations in the Northeast. As the JKPSC had already advertised Lecturer posts and I held a two-year Research Fellowship, I eventually acted on their advice and decided not to join. Dr. Maqbool, who seemed genuinely interested in having me on board, graciously extended my joining date by a month, but I still could not persuade myself to accept the position.
The third memory takes me back to my research days at Kashmir University, when we identified the presence of the mulberry plant (Morus alba) in archaeological charcoal samples from the Early Historic Phase (500–1000 AD) at Semthan. The analysis—carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad—remains perhaps the first and only archaeological evidence of Morus alba in Kashmir. M. alba has been cultivated in China since ancient times and is not indigenous to India. It appears, therefore, that the tree was introduced into Kashmir from China, primarily for silkworm rearing.
The genesis of sericulture in Kashmir remains a historical puzzle. Several theories exist. Some scholars, like Ganju M. in Textile Industry in Kashmir (1945), argue that sericulture has an indigenous origin. Others, such as Mirza Haider in Tarikh-i-Rashidi, believe it was introduced in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The first theory draws from the reverence shown to mulberry trees by Hindus in ancient religious ceremonies like Bhairwa Pooja and the Yagneopavita ceremony—leading Ganju to conclude that silkworm rearing based on mulberry leaves has deep antiquity in Kashmir.
The second theory rests on the abundance of mulberry trees in Kashmir by the sixteenth century. Mirza Haider writes: “Among the wonders of Kashmir are the quantities of mulberry trees cultivated for their leaves from which silk is obtained.”
However, the identification of M. alba in archaeological contexts dating between 500 and 1000 AD, coupled with the absence of any record of the genus in Plio-Pleistocene or post-glacial deposits of the valley, indicates that sericulture in Kashmir is likely neither indigenous nor a late medieval introduction. As sericulture originated in China—well documented in Encyclopaedia Britannica and Radziniski’s A History of China—the mulberry tree must have been brought into Kashmir from there. While it is difficult to determine the exact date of its diffusion, the available evidence points to the 500–1000 AD period.
The Silk Route may well have facilitated this transfer, especially since Kashmir had close cultural and trade contacts with Central Asia and China during that time, as suggested by archaeologists and historians like S. L. Shali and S. M. Ahmad.
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