I'm pleased to feature Venice of Asia (Dal Lake); a lovely video by Panidhar Revanur of the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar. The post is timed to show the beauty of the lake to the participants in my forthcoming Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop.
According to Wikipedia, ancient history records mention a village named Isabar to the east of Dal Lake as the residence of goddess Durga. During the Mughal period, the rulers of India designated Kashmir, and Srinagar in particular, as their summer resort. The area around Dal lake in Srinagar was developed with Mughal-type gardens and pavilions.
Interestingly, during the British Raj though the Maharaja of Kashmir restricted house building in the valley, the British circumvented this rule by commissioning lavish houseboats to be built on the Dal Lake. The houseboats are generally made from local cedar-wood and measure 24–38 metres (79–125 ft) in length and 3–6 metres (9.8–20 ft) in width, and are graded in a similar fashion to hotels according to level of comfort.
Panidhar Revanur is based in Bangalore, and used a Canon 5D Mark II with Magic Lantern 17-40mm, 24-105mm, a Glidecam HD 4000, and graduated filters.
I'm not sure why the opening soundtrack is an Arabic song, especially as there is wonderful Kashmiri music which would have furthered the authenticity of the piece.
