Lal Ded the great saint poetess of Kashmir lived in the 14 th century. She was the mouthpiece of the ideas of many thinkers of her time. Her sayings show that she was an ascetic and practiced propagating Saiva thought of the Hinduism. There are few countries in which so many sayings and proverbs are in current use as that in Kashmir, and yet none of them have greater reputation than the sayings of Lal Ded. Her abiding influence on Kashmiri mind can be gauged by the fact that “there is not a single Kashmiri who has not some of them ready on the tip of his tongue and who does not reverence her memory”

In the words of Pandit Anand Kaul, “the Lal Wakhi or the sayings of Lal apart from being utterances of a holy woman expressive of grand and lofty thoughts and spiritual laws are short , apt, sweet, thrilling, life giving and pregnant with greatest moral principles are the veritable pearls and diamonds and gems of the purest ray serene of the Kashmiri literature. They are current coins of quotations, a volume packed in a single saying. They touch the Kashmiri’s ear as well as the chords of his heart and are freely quoted by him as maxims on appropriate occasion in conversation having moulded the national mind and set up a national ideal.”

Yet it is strange but true that till the beginning of the 20 th century there were no authentic manuscripts of Lalla’s sayings in Kashmir. Collections made privately were occasionally put together but none was complete and no two agreed in the contents or text. It was however in 1914 that George Grierson asked Pandit Mukundram to obtain for him a good and reliable copy of the sayings.

After much search and inquiry Mukundram was unable to find any satisfactory manuscript of the sayings. But finally he came in touch with an old Brahmin named Dharma Das who lived in village Guch not far from the famous shrine of Sarada. It was Dharma Das’s practice to recite the verses of Lal Ded for the benefit of piously disposed visitors who visited him. Pandit Mukundram recorded the text of the sayings from the dictation of Dharma Das and added a Hindi and Sanskrit commentary to them . All this was forwarded by him to Grierson. Thus it were these materials which constituted the most reliable manuscript of the Lal Ded’s sayings. Nevertheless in producing the final text George Grierson collected some other manuscripts also. These included Aurel Stein’s two manuscripts which were then housed along with his other collection of manuscripts in the Indian Institute Library at Oxford. While analyzing the verses of Lal Ded in their linguistic context ,Grierson encountered many problems as the subject of Kashmiri prosody was never investigated and hardly anything was known about it till the collection of the text of Lalavakhs itself.

Lal Vaakhs (A Folio From Bhaskara’s Manuscript, Sharada Script)

According to Grierson, “I regret that during my own stay in Kashmir I neglected to study it and when after my return to England I endeavoured to ascertain from native sources of Kashmir as to what rules were followed in such compositions, I failed to obtain any definite information.”

This unresolved issue of Vakhs on Lalla’s metres was referred by Grierson to Aurel Stein at whose suggestion the former, in a letter to Pandit Nityanand hinted to seek the help.

“A long time ago you very kindly offered me your help in my researches into Kashmiri language for which I was very grateful. Up to the present I have not had an opportunity of asking for your help but some time I may write and ask for it. A short time ago I was talking to Sir Aurel Stein about you and he suggested that you would be glad to have a copy of my edition of Isvara Kaula’s Kashmirishabdamrita and so I sent it to you today by parcel post and hope that you will accept it. I shall be glad to hear of its safe arrival.”
- Sir George Grierson.

(in a letter dated April 20, 1917, by Sir George Grierson to Pandit Nityanand.) NS Mss, Nityanand Shastri Library Collection.