Sage of Swat

When I still used to lend a hand in the fields to my father – now 78 – he would refer to a certain Bahadar for his oral traditions about the right weather for sowing and harvesting. At that time, I was in college and was most familiar with the Gregorian calendar, which was commonly known as the Angrezi or English calendar in our community. My father, though, always ignored the Gregorian calendar and preferred Bahadar’s oral almanac to it.

Now I no longer help out with farming and work at my office instead, where we always use the Gregorian calendar. This system is the official calendar of Pakistan and is popular in offices, as it marks working days and public holidays.

But even today, my father does not follow the popular Pakistani almanac called Jantry in Urdu. He says that Bahadar’s almanac is better than the Jantry and more authentic. Like him, a majority of other Torwali farmers in the Swat District of northern Pakistan continue to consult Bahadar’s system for cultivation and harvesting.

We find a number of legendary stories in circulation about the authenticity of Bahadar’s almanac. One such story goes as follows:

“The father of Syed Jamal, a man named Sher, was once ploughing his field. It was a mid-summer day, and Sher was sowing his maize crop in Gurnal village. In the afternoon, Bahadar went to him and advised him not to sow more maize in the field because, according to Bahadar’s calculations, the time for sowing had ended that very afternoon. Sher did not accept his claim and kept up sowing the field. Bahadar told him to divide the field into two portions with some fencing, according to the time of sowing before and after noon on that day. He added that Sher would see that the maize crop sown in the afternoon that day would not ripen, whereas the other portion of the field would have a ripe crop. At the time of harvest in early fall, people really saw that the maize crop sown before noon that day in summer was ripe while the other portion sown after noon was not!”

Bahadar died about a hundred years ago. He lived all his life in Gurnal, a beautiful village on the hills about eight kilometers to the east of Bahrain town in Swat, in the heartland of the Torwali people. Bahadar belonged to one of the four Torwali clans, Bahadar Khel. He had no education at all. He could not read or write, but people say it was as if he had some magical knowledge about the changes in weather and seasons. People saw him as something of a saint.

He could not read or write, but people say it was as if he had some magical knowledge about the changes in weather and seasons. People saw him as something of a saint.

Bahadar had several followers from his family and clan. In addition to devising the almanac, he and his fellows designed a strategy for the distribution of irrigation water to the village’s fields. This system is still in use today and seems to work very well for the village.

For a long time, I was curious to learn about Bahadar’s almanac. Finally, in September 2017, at the time of Sul according to the almanac, I traveled to Gurnal to meet the elders and find out from them about Bahadar and his remarkable indigenous knowledge. In Gurnal I met with a number of elders. Among them, I interviewed Wakmadar, 75; Muhammad Siraj, 85; Muhammad Rasool, 70; and Muhammad Sharif, 64. All four confirmed the stories that I had heard. They also added more stories about Bahadar’s genius. All these stories tell of his keen observations and deep knowledge of the weather and seasons – from an indigenous perspective.

“Bahadar knew there was a day in the summer when stones would get softer. Once he was able to thrust a pickaxe into a boulder at a particular time, as the boulder was soft enough to be penetrated by a pickaxe. Later, the stone hardened again, and the pickaxe remained stuck in there. Bahadar told the people that he would be able to extract the pickaxe at that particular time on that particular day the following summer. He waited until that day and pulled the pickaxe out of the boulder when it softened again.”

“Bahadar could predict a “good year” or drought. He used to put ashes outside in the open air at night at the beginning of spring. By reading some signs in the ashes, he would tell people that the coming year would either be productive or one of drought.”

This would help people prepare for the drought. They would then look for other means to ensure food security than crops.

Bahadar could also forecast weather and seasons. As I will explain below, the periods of Sul, Gup, and others were days of heavy rain. Bahadar would tell people that they should take care of their herds as heavy rain was expected. People would listen to him and thus were prepared for such disasters.

“One bright sunny day, Bahadar was passing by a group of people who were cutting grass from the grasslands adjoining their cultivated land. The people were having a Hashar: a feast-like collective work party, when people help one another during harvest and other similar occasions. Although it was a sunny day, Bahadar told the farmers to stop cutting more grass and start collecting the cut grass instead, so as to save it from the likely heavy rain. People followed his advice only reluctantly, because they saw no sign of rain in the sky. But after some time there came heavy rain with thunder. So exact was Bahadar in his forecast!”

“One time Bahadar told the people in Gurnal that it was the first day of spring. The people mocked him, as Gurnal was still covered with snow. When the people did not accept his claim, he told them to go to Manko, a village along the Swat River between the towns of Bahrain and Madyan, and see that a wild apricot had bloomed there. A couple of men did go there and found that what Bahadar had told them was true!”

According to my interviewees, Bahadar’s seasonal calendar has nine months and each month is comprised of forty days. Beside these months there are special periods like Gup and Sul or Suel.

There are two Gup periods according to Bahadar’s almanac. One falls in summer, while the other is in winter. The one that falls in summer is called ‘Basha si Gup’ (Summer Gup) while the other is called ‘Himaan si Gup’ (Winter Gup). When the Summer Gup passes, the heat of summer begins to subside, and the season turns toward winter; and when the Winter Gup passes, the cold of winter begins to diminish, and the season turns toward summer. According to Bahadar, there are two similar periods in spring and fall. They are the periods of Sul or Suel. One is at the beginning of spring, whereas the other is at the beginning of fall. In spring, Sul comes at the start of the month of Chaiter (Chaitra), whereas in fall it comes at the end of the month of Pasheekal (Sawan). In both cases, before the Sul the weather becomes ‘crazy’ for a few days. These rainy days are called Charmaqaq.

My interviewees also gave me another version of Bahdar’s seasonal calendar. This twelve-month version is equally divided into six winter and six summer months.

It seems that Bahadar made keen observations of the sun and stars for years, and based on his observations, he orally developed this system

Bahadar’s system for the distribution of irrigation water in Gurnal, which is still practiced in the village, is based on the royaltya payment that the government makes to the owners of the forest. The village of Gurnal and its forest are divided into twenty-four “rupees” – a rupee being a unit representing one share. Each of the village’s four clans owns six shares, and each is entitled to one day (twenty-four hours) of water from the main irrigation channel. This share is in turn subdivided into three shares among the families of each clan. Each day is divided into the following periods of time:

Zaad: from the dawn Azaan to seven in the morning

Kharen Pheet: from seven in the morning to nine in the morning

Maidan: from nine in the morning to the midday Azaan

Sari: from the midday Azaan to Asr Azaan

Zek pheet: from the Asr Azaan to Isha Azaan

Zaat: from the Isha Azaan  to the dawn Azaan

In spring, at the beginning of the irrigation season, the four clans do a toss to establish who gets the first, second, third and fourth turn. Once this is done, turns rotate, so whoever was first becomes last, the second becomes first and so on. The rotating turn is followed regularly, giving each clan the opportunity to irrigate at different times of day

When I was conducting the interviews, I saw elders who were gathered to distribute the irrigation water in the village. They were actually monitoring whether anybody deviated from the rule. They told me that because of this ancient system of water distribution there were no feuds or fighting over turns for watering the fields. They told me that this way everybody’s field gets the needed irrigation water and they have a good yield every year.

It seems that Bahadar made keen observations of the sun and stars for years, and based on his observations, he orally developed this system. The skyline toward the west in Gurnal is very clear. Bahadar fixed various points along this skyline along the hill for the position of the sun. Based on these points and on the rising of stars, he built this invaluable indigenous knowledge system that for generations has played a role in building up the local people’s resilience against natural disasters and has helped them meet their daily food needs, which are mainly dependent on livestock and agriculture. His system of irrigation water distribution has helped the villagers water their crops in a timely fashion while preventing any water disputes.

By now, Bahadar’s almanac has been in use as a guide to cultivation and harvesting for over 150 years. Younger generations of farmers follow this system, too, as it is always passed on to them by their elders. So, this extraordinary example of Indigenous knowledge is likely to continue to support people’s resilience for generations to come.

Zubair Torwali hails from Bahrain, Swat District. He is a researcher, author, protector of minority languages and human rights activist