History of Jammu and Kashmir

Early history and Buddhism

Literally Kashmir means “land desiccated from water” (Sanskrit: Ka = water, shimeera = desiccate). According to Hindu mythology, Sage Kashyapa drained the erstwhile lake to produce the land. The earliest recorded history of Kashmir as an area begins with Ashoka Maurya who is often credited with founding the city of Srinagar as part of vast expanding empire. Kashmir was once a Buddhist seat of learning, perhaps with the Sarvastivadan school dominating. East and Central Asian Buddhist monks are recorded as visiting the kingdom.

During his youth in the late fourth century, the famous Kuchanese monk Kumarajiva, whose father was born in to an Indian noble family, studied Dirghagama and Madhyagama in Kashmir under Bandhudatta, later becoming a prolific translator who helped take Buddhism to China. His mother Jiva is thought to have retired to Kashmir.

Vimalak?a, a Sarvastivadan Buddhist monk, travelled from Kashmir to Kucha and there instructed Kumarajiva in the Vinayapi?aka.

Islam and Hinduism

Kashmir has known both conquerors and despots and also peaceful rulers. Some of the Kashmiri rulers like Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin were tolerant to all religions in a way comparable to Akbar. Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony and friendliness since the 13th century when Islam first became the majority religion in Kashmir. The Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits leading to a syncretic culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines.

There were also several Muslim rulers in Kashmir who were intolerant to other religions. Sultan Sikandar Butshikan of Kashmir (AD 1389-1413) is often considered as the worst of these. Historians have recorded many of his atrocities. The Tarikh-i-Firishta records that Sikandar persecuted the Hindus and issued orders proscribing the residence of any other than Muslims in Kashmir. He also ordered to break all “golden and silver images”.

The Tarikh-i-Firishta further states: “Many of the bramins, rather than abandon their religion or their country, poisoned themselves; some emigrated from their native homes, while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Mahomedans. After the emigration of the bramins, Sikundur ordered all the temples in Kashmeer to be thrown down” (…) “Having broken all the images in Kashmeer, he acquired the title of the Iconoclast, ‘Destroyer of Idols’.” (Muhammad Qasim Hindû Shah Firishta : Tarîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981)

The Histories

The metrical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, called Rajatarangini, was pronounced by Professor H. II. Wilson to be the only Sanskrit composition yet discovered to which the title of history can with any propriety be applied. It first became known to the Muslims when, on Akbar’s invasion of Kashmir in 1588, a copy was presented to the emperor. A translation into Persian was made by his order, and a summary of its contents, from this Persian translation, is given by Abul Fazl in the Ain-i-Akbari. The Rajatarangini, the first of a series of four Sanskrit histories, was written about the middle of the 12th century by P. Kalhana.

His work, in six books, makes use of earlier writings now lost. Commencing with traditional history of very early times, it comes down to the reign of Sangrama Deva, 1006; the second work, by Jonaraja, continues the history from where Kalhanas left off, and, entering the Mahommedan period, gives an account of the reigns down to that of Zain-ul-ab-ad-din, 1412. P. Srivara carried on the record to the accession of Fah Shah in 1486. And the fourth work, called Rajavalipataka, by Prajnia Bhatta, completes the history to the time of the incorporation of Kashmir in the dominions of the Mogul emperor Akbar, 1588.

In the Rajatarangini it is stated that the valley of Kashmir was formerly a lake, and that it was drained by the great rishi or sage, Kasyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma, by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula). When Kashmir had been drained, he brought in the Brahmans to occupy it.

This is still the local tradition, and in the existing physical condition of the country we may see some ground for the story which has taken this form. The name of Kasyapa is by history and tradition connected with the draining of the lake, and the chief town or collection of dwellings in the valley was called Kasyapa-pura name which has been plausibly identified with the Kao-1r6.nupos of Hecataeus (apud Stephen of Byzantium) and Kaspatyros of Herodotus (3.102, 4.44). Kashmir is the country meant also by Ptolemy’s Kao-ir,~pta.

The Raj

During the 19th century rule, Kashmir was a favorite tourist destination due to its climate. Formerly only 200 passes a year were issued by the government, but now no restriction is placed on visitors. European sportsmen and travellers, in addition to residents of India, resort there freely. The railway to Rawalpindi, and a road thence to Srinagar made access to the valley easier.

When the temperature in Srinagar rises at the beginning of June, the residents would migrate to Gulmarg, which was a fashionable hillstation during British rule. This great influx of visitors resulted in a corresponding diminution of game for the sportsmen. Special gamepreservation rules have been introduced, and nullahs are let out for stated periods with a restriction on the number of head to be shot.