Habba Khatoon Mountain
Gurez’s most formidable peak is Habba Khatoon around which quaint legends abound. Habba Khatoon — the graceful, gigantic mountain, 13,000-foot, pyramid-shaped peak that rises over the town and is named after the eponymous peasant-queen-poetess, often referred to as ‘Nightingale of Kashmir’, who is said to have lived near the mountain’s base as a young woman. Habba Khatoon (Zoon), a woman who lived her entire life wandering the valleys of Kashmir in memory of her husband, Yusuf Shah Chak- King of Kashmir, who was captured by Mughal emperor Akbar so that the latter could acquire Kashmir Valley. It is in fact said that she still wanders around this mountain here in Gurez valley, still searching for the one she so deeply loved.
READ: OTHER PLACES IN GUREZ VALLEY TO VISIT
Habba Khatoon Spring:
The main exquisite thing is Habba Khatoon Spring (locally known as Habba Khatoon Uch ), located on the outskirts of Achoora Village, through which the lucid water gushes out. It is believed that Habba Khatoon once took water in an earthen pot (Clay Handi) from the nearby river, upon moving towards her hut the pot fell down and broke which then gave rise to a spring at the same spot.
The water of this spring is sweetest besides having medicinal properties, so bone-chilling that you can’t finish even one full glass and you cant place your feet or hands more than a couple of seconds inside it. Play a game with your friends, whosoever spends more time by dipping their feet inside this water, wins. You will truly enjoy it.
Some of the couplets that Habba Khatoon wrote after her separation from her husband are these:
I have sought you over hills and dales, I have sought you from dawn till dusk, I have cooked dainty dishes for you.
I do all this in vain!
Why are you cross with me?
I shed incessant tears for you, I am pining for you,
What is my fault, O, my love?
Why don’t you seek me out?
Why are you cross with me?
The shock of your desertion has come as a blow to me, O cruel one, I continue to nurse the pain.
Why are you cross with me?
I have not complained even to the spring breeze That is my agony.
Why have you forgotten me?
Who will take care of me?
Why are you cross with me???
Also Read:
Gurez Valley
Peer Baba Dargah
Baba Dervish
Destinations In Gurez Valley
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