Habba Khatun

Hub Khatun is popularly known as Habba, or Habba Khotan. Khotan is the Kashmiri form of Khatun. Habba was a remarkable woman. Her original name was Zun, the moon. And truly she was like the moon in beauty, a ‘perfection of youth, health and grace.’ She came of a lower middle class family of Chandahara, a village about ten miles from Srinagar and about two miles from Pampar known for its saffron.

After some education consisting of the study of the Gulistan, the Bustan and the Qu’ran and somewhat prosaic life, she was married. Her mother-in-law bullied her. Her Husband was indifferent to her. she obtained a divorce.

One day, while singing in a saffron field, her melodies reached Yusuf Shah who happened to pass by. The Prince was captivated. This was the turning point in the life of Habba. She was henceforth a queen and was called the Nur Jahan of Kashmir. Her chief contribution was to music. The Kashmiri Rast melody is her addition to the charm of Kashmiri music. She introduced the Lol-lyric in Kashmiri poetry. By virtue of her extraordinary beauty, her great skill in music,Hub(meaning Love), was indeed “The Lady of Love .”

When Yousuf Shah was made to leave Kashmir by Akbar, Habba forsook the world and became a hermitess. Perhaps her stanzas refer to this period of her life-

Love has consumed me from within,

He has cast me into a hot oven

And is burning me to Cinder.

Love has melted me like the snow,

He has fretted me like the hill-stream,

And has made me restless like the rills.

The world observes the Ramazan,

The lover celebrates the ‘Id;

But there can be no ‘Id when love is away

-Kashmiri lyrics (page 77).

She built a small cottage near her mosque in the villageof Pandachhok, three miles from Srinagar on the Islamabad road and passed the rest of her life in contemplation and is believed to be buried there, through the exact grave cannot be definitely recognized.

Habba’s poetry is on the lips of Kashmiris. Her life saw strange changes of fortune. Till 18 or 19 she led a simple life in a village. For the following 14 years she enjoyed life with Yusuf Shah as the queen of Kashmir ‘Luxuriating in the spell of lovely weather at Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Ahrabal and on the Dal.’ For about twenty years, she was hermitess and died at the age of fifty-five or thereabout.

 What hope can keep me alive?

He doth not think of me ! – Habba Khatun

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