Lal Ded - the mystic saint-poet of Kashmir and her poetry

Lal Ded, a 14th-century saint-poet, said, "I came into this world of births and deaths/And found the true Self by mind-light/No one will die for me, nor I for anyone/How wonderful to die! How wonderful to live!"

- SATISH KUMAR SHARMA

Lalleshwari, popularly known as Lalla or Lal Ded (Granny Lal), was a Shaivite yogini who traversed Kashmir semi-nude, singing and dancing in spiritual ecstasy.

Legend says that when someone questioned her disregard for decency, she said, "Only those are men who fear God; such men are few."

However, when she saw Sayyid Hamdani (the contemporary Sufi saint from Iran who converted Kashmir to Islam), she ran away screaming, "I have seen a man!" and disappeared in the blazing oven of a baker. When Saint Hamdani came searching for her, she reappeared from the fire in a green dress.

Lal Ded is integral to the idiom of the Kashmiri people. A saying goes, "Whether they slaughter a sheep or a lamb, Lalla must get the stone," alluding to Lalla's ill-treatment by her mother-in-law, who gave her rice piled around a stone to make the heap look bigger.

Lalla personified the essence of what Vajpayee called 'Kashmiriyat'—the mystic, syncretic, and refined culture of Kashmir—a culture fragrant as saffron, soft and warm as pashmina, refreshing as the breeze blowing through its meadows, kissing wild daisies, and lyrical as mountain brooks flowing down into the vale.