Rantas in Kashmir: Myth or Reality?
About Us | Contact Us | E-Paper
Title :    Text :    Source : 

Rantas in Kashmir: Myth or Reality?

In Kashmir, the name “Rantas” is a mythical creature-famously described as a tall hairy wild woman with frightening face and voice, from Kashmiri folklore

Post by RK News on Tuesday, January 10, 2023

First slide

 

Dr. FAROOQ A. SHIEKH

 

The elusive creatures, or ‘cryptids’ as they are called, are an interesting part of legends and folklores. Most of them seem to have been exaggerations, whereas some continuously haunt us for explanations since their existence has been well documented even though their physical evidence has been lacking. Sasquatch also called Bigfoot, (from Salish se’sxac: “wild men”) a large, hairy, humanlike creature believed by some people to exist in the northwestern United States and western Canada. It seems to represent the North American counterpart of the Himalayan region’s mythical monster, the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti or Rantas in Kashmir?

The Bigfoot – a hairy humanlike creature: Does it really exist in nature?

The Bigfoot or Sasquatch is variably described as a very tall primate, standing erect on two feet, often giving off a foul smell, and either moving silently or emitting a high-pitched cry. The footprints have measured up to several inches in length and width, the researchers suggest that Sasquatch and his counterparts, could be a remnant of Neanderthals, but science till now do not recognize the creature’s existence. However, there is no biological evidence yet to confirm that this humanlike wild creature really exists in nature.

 

Footprints suggesting the existence of Sasquatch or Bigfoot

Surprisingly, there have been reports all over the world where people claim having seen elusivecreatures. They call them by different names depending upon the country or geographical location. Even today, whether they are delusions, figments of fanciful imagination or real? One can’t be sure? However, once in a while we do come across a story that is interesting enough and even though it may seem bizarre, it has an interesting ‘part’ of truth to it in our minds. The story of Zana, a wild woman, is such a tale. It not only have had witnesses, but several researchers teams tried to verify her existence and believe it to be true.

 

The Zana – A Hairy Wild Woman: Does the creature really existed?

Long back in a remote village in Abkhazia, a well known place in Georgia in Russia, a wild woman was caught in the mid-eighties. The creature was captured from the mountains and acted quite violently at first and was put in a cage. Her appearance was scary and strange. She had red hair all over her body and was very muscular and strong. The hair on her head was the same colour but much longer and hardly turn grey with her age. She was named ‘Zana’ and spent few initial years in a cage where her captors tossed food to her, which she used to eat hungrily.

With time, she seemed to calm down and was let out of the cage in which she dug a shallow hole for herself and slept there. Soon after she was let outside, she roamed the area but came back to the same place where she got her food from local people. Her master then trained her to do some chores, but she never liked to wear clothes. This she did when she was in the possession of a nobleman by the name of Edgi Ganaba. He kept her on his estate in a village called Tkhina. She did not like heated rooms and slept outside under an awning, where she had made a hole for herself.

However, the local people all knew about her and whenever they tried to tease her, she howled fiercely and bared her teeth. But astonishingly, the wild woman was obedient to her master and even pulled off his leather boots. In order to find the actual facts several scientific teams, particularly Professor Alexander Mashkovtsev, a zoologist and Boris Proshnev, went to the village and carried out some basic research on Zana. The information regarding her features, physical appearance, behaviour, etc., has been taken from the writings of Boris Proshnev in The Struggle for Troglodytes.

It is said that though she lived among the people for so many decades, she never learned to speak. She only muttered and made gestures but carried out commands made by her master and did chores like carrying huge sacks of grain weighing 80 kilos! She climbed trees and ran faster than a horse. And loved to eat grapes. The ladies in Ganaba’s household were scared of her, but she never attacked anyone or harmed any children.

Noticeably, the scientists who went to the village in the 1960s even happened to meet an old man who was 105 years old. He remembered seeing Zana and they even met one of her grandchildren! Yes, strangely she had human babies. It is believed that she was buried on Ganaba’s estate but even though many places were dug in the area, they did not find her grave? Or any of her remains. However, the grave of one of her sons was found as it was marked, and the dug up skeleton looked anatomically slightly different from a normal human skull.

As per the villagers, her children looked perfectly human, except for a dark skin and large facial features, and they led normal lives except the fact that they were extremely powerful physically and often picked fights easily with anyone. One of her grandsons named Shalikula, even lifted a chair with a man sitting on it with his bare teeth! However, it is believed thatZana was a wild woman pretty animal-like in her ways, so it is the villagers who raised her children. Zana died in 1890 but it is believed that she had been buried on the estate. Unfortunately, her grave had remained unmarked.

 

It is scientifically believed that Zana was an Almas, which is the Mongolian term given to a wild species of hominid ape-like people or a similar homologous term for so called Rantas in Kashmir, who are supposed to live in the woods or mountains of some regions in the world. In early nineteen forties, after the Germans invaded Russia, a ‘wild man’, alsoan elusive creature,was captured by their army. The beast, too, akin to Zana was covered with dark hair, but appeared to be human and could not speak.

The soldiers thought that he was a German spy and later shot him. Notably, the first written account of such species can be traced back to 1420 by Hans Schiiberger. He was taken captive by the Mongols and travelled all through the Tien Shan Mountains of Central Asia. He wrote in a journal while he was imprisoned,

“In the mountains “themselves” live wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings. A pelt covers the entire body of these creatures,only the hands and face are free of hair. They run around in the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass, and whatever they can find.” He added that the lord of the territory presented them with a couple of these forest people and three untamed horses which were the size of donkeys and other animals the likes of which he had not seen in Germany.

In early nineteen sixties, a Russian Pediatrician Ivan Ivlov saw an entire family of Almas on a mountain slope. Noticeably, in 2003, mountain climber Sergey Semenov found the foot and leg of an unknown species in the Altai Mountains, a range that runs through Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The bones were said to be several thousands of years old but the creature could not be scientifically identified. The local people, who live in these mountains,do not think that these creatures are much different from humans. They just consider them to be “wild people” who live in the mountains and forests. In fact, some of the children often say that they meet the children of the wild people and they never do any harm. The Zana and others like her remain largely elusive “creatures”a mystery, whether living or dead?

Does Rantas really exist in Kashmir?

In Kashmir, the name “Rantas” is a mythical creature-famously described as a tall hairy wild woman with frightening face and voice, from Kashmiri folklore. As per scary imagination, Rantas a female with pointed teeth, long nails and could be seen walking with two inverted broad bare feet, especially pointed backwards. The scary creature has twolong hairy breasts loosely hangingdownward with her thick black hairis pretty long and so loose covering all ofherbody and easily reaches her feet.

It is believed that she lives in thick-forested areas or isolated places with minimum or no human interference. She frequents nearby villages in extreme cold windy weather, mostly in deep winter nights with heavy snow all around. She can often hide in dark abandoned places, during mid-nights strangely shouting-out in an atypical “rantas-voice”- a repetition of Woyee..,Woyee.., Woyee.., Woyee and again and again Woyee, Woyee…., loudly in a wild tone. Such a horrifying voice can make you shiver, especially in the darkness when you are alone.In the Kashmiri folklore, she is mainly a sexual predator of men, with an ability to change her form, could appear or disappear at will? It is said that she can easily extend her arms to any length or appear as someone’s wife or some other woman of a locality one you already know well. She is a wild misogynist, trying to murder or disfigure women. In past times, she was often invoked to frighten children into staying safe at home during winter.

In summary, is this Rantas an analogous creature akin to Zana? I guess my own famous quote fits well, “The biggest mystery of nature is nature.” Any surprises or undiscovered creatures are possible in nature. This is how my 10-year-old daughter is excited about?  Does Rantas really exist in this typical geographical region with Himalayas in the vicinity? However, no one till date has confirmed beyond doubt or genetically proved the vary existence of such wild beasts. Significantly, the traditional stories and Kashmiri folklore about Rantas is a part of our simple rich culture and tradition. It strongly reminds us or reflects our past, the way of our past generations or ancestors have been living.

Of a time when digitalization had not begun, and a single government owned radio set had had beena sole recreation for awhole village. The children, irrespective of their age, would sit around an elderly person at home, grandpa’s /grandma’s or parents in the harsh cold winter season, particularly in deep snow days eagerly gathering-together tolisten those interesting un-ending stories, horror encounters with the wild beasts, for example, Rantas in the immediate neighborhood areas, of a tale where she took ‘Sataar Kak’ to a faraway place into her deep cave and unfortunately Kak never returned back and disappeared forever…?

Although, most of the Kashmiri tradition continues even now, however, looking at the present day hectic life with two cell phones in hand and no-time to listen and sitting with the children, there seems not much inclination for such an attractive stories of our rich Kashmiri tradition, due to this modern way of life.  No longer the way it used to be in the past. The main aim of this article is whether; we educate our newer generations about our rich past? However, the question remains how?

 

 

(Author is Nature Lover, Former Associate Professor, Avalon University School of Medicine, Curacao, Netherlands. Email: nanofarooq@gmail.com)