Kashmir has fascinated civilised humans for thousand of years. She has attracted many warriors, kings, poets, sages and scholars but she has been always out of reach of all these men. She is young damsel who is blandishing her eyes and flowing her hairs to encourage the people to rush towards her in their off senses. They take their horses and swords, carriages and wheels, imagination & zeal to have some exchange of glances with her but all of them have fallen on her feet. She is like an arrogant princess laughing on their defeat with one hand on her bosoms another on her beaming cheeks.
Now, fate and destiny have changed for Kashmir. Its body is stained with blood. Its beautiful valleys have been notched off beautiful sceneries and horrifying patches have been put instead. One can’t count its wounds. One can’t think how to heal its uncountable and immensely paining wounds. Even if you can, some scar marks will be left behind.
The history is a mute spectator. It watches each and every minute detail with patience and tolerance. When it speaks out, it utters the slightest details of times and events. It is so bold in telling truth that sometimes it sounds very harsh but it always talks crystal clear. It can never leave any culprit unscathed, it can never forgive anybody. What has been dotted in pages of history will come out. Her praises and applauses are worthy and unbiased, her warnings are firm & unbreakable and her truths are voluminous like volcanoes.
History of humanism
There is a folk story, very famous in Kashmir. It is about a woman whose name was Padmavati in her young age. She was married to a man who was not only ignorant, but cruel too. Her marriage brought the same old story of oppression live and real seen all the nook and corner of her life. She subjected her to cruelty in laws. She left her husband’s home and went to unknown place to search truth. When she came back from her mysterious journey, she had become a mystic and Sufi. She started preaching local villagers through her lyrical verses. She, like Kabir, opposed all the religious bigotries. She taught the lesson of love, kindness, service to humanity. In passage of time, she became Lalleswari for Hindus and Lalla Arifa for Muslims. Till then she had become a venerable character for all the Kashmiris. She is sill living in hymns songs and proverbs of Kashmiri language.
This Sufi woman adopted a son who was born in 1356 A.D. The boy was nurtured and nourished by Lalleswari’s motherly care. He was destined to become Sheikh Nuruddin - another sage to teach lessons of humanity. He too lived in the hearts of Hindus and Muslims. Nuruddin was called Nand Rishi by Hindus and Sheikh by Muslims. His grave is in midst of valley of Kashmir. The place is called Charar-e-Sharief. This dargah attracts large number of Hindus and Muslims who come there to get solace and peace.
The lalleswaris and nand rishis the hazratbals and chrar-e-shariefs are immortal remains of humanism. People do not come here to see whether the curtains are green or saffron, the symbols are made up of moon and stars or sun and trishul. Instead, they come here to weep out their woes. They have some unspeakable demands; they have something to say which they cannot say anywhere else; they have something to show, which they cannot show anywhere else. This is their natural faith, it does not know about doctrines of clergies and diplomacies of monarchs.
When the valley weeps these pilgrimages, soak the tears of this wailing widow.
History of kings, kingdoms and their tiaras
The oldest and most authentic book which describes about Kashmir is Rajtarangini (king of rivers) written by a Pandit scholar, Kalhana. This book was completed in AD 1148. The book has eight parts, capturing the whole history of Kashmir till period of the compilation of the book. This book takes the story back in to the Mahabharata age, as it describes that 27 generations of Pandavas ruled over this state. However, the book relies more on the mythological and religious sources than history. This is why it is difficult for the readers to alienate the history from mythological stories, e.g. there was, it says, huge river called Sat Sari flowing there where at present Kashmir’s sprawling valley is situated. The war between Demons and devtas (trinity of Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh) resulted in evolution of valley from beneath the river. The Gods seeing the beauty of the valley decided to reside in the Himalayas. This valley was a property of Rishi Kashyap. On his name, Kashmir was christened as the name of this vale.
The time passed with its own pace and lot of water flowed into Satluj; clans of Indo Aryan families inhabited The Kashmir. We know very poorly about that period of history of Kashmir, but it is evident that Hinduism was the primary religion and philosophy of the land.
Some more timepieces elapsed and there arose a great regent called Ashoka in India. This great Maurayan emperor brought Kashmir into ambit of his empire but he found resistance in Hinduism because Ashoka also tried to superimpose Buddhism. He failed. Two hundred years after the decline of Mauryan Empire, Kanishka, and a Kushan king ruled over from Kshmir to Bengal, brought Buddhism again in the valley. Not only that, Buddhism spread all over central Asia, Afghanistan ,Tibet by A.D. 352, and to China,
Japan and Korea by AD 552 from Kanishka’s Kashmir.
After Kanishka, a Hun ruler, Mihurkula set his empire in Kashmir. This was followed by Karkota dynasty. After that, there was rule of Utpala dynasty that ruled Kashmir from AD 855 to AD 1003. All these years were unhappy for Kashmir. For almost 400 years, Kashmir saw only marauders, killers, debauchery and lust in her own men and women. In short, there was nothing good to be written in history.
The time when Kalhana was writing last pages of his grand book, Rajtarangini, Kashmir was plagued by the incidents of intrigues, double-crossing and conspiracies. Regents were immoral and corrupt; public was thrashed on all quarters; junta was feeble and foolish; this beautiful woman called Kashmir was longing for someone to her fate.
This was the correct time for the rulers from the other sides to look towards Kashmir. First, Sultan of Delhi (at that time Quatabuddin Aibak was at throne in Delhi) tried his luck but his interest was half hearted. One of the most tyrannous and most cruel warriors ever born in history Changez Khan (or Genghiz Khan) made another attempt. He sent his marauders to Kashmir but they never reached Kashmir. Another Mongol conquered Kashmir sixty years after Changez. He was called Kublai Khan the great. His rule was extended from Tibet to modern Laddakh. This north - eastern part of Kashmir still today tastes the same old Mongol wine in its cultural delicacies.
On the same footing, this was also the right time for Sufis and sages to conquer the hearts of Kashmiris. It was the time when Sufi movement had swept all over Indian peninsula. It swept Kashmir too. At last, the sword of love wins the battle. What big staunch Muslim invaders could not do with their daggers and sabres these lean, wandering pantaloons had done. Thus, the advent of Islam happens in Kashmir.
M.J. Akbar in his book “Kashmir behind the Vale” writes-
“a strange and wondrous combinations of events – the arrival of a Musami Syed disciple of Sufi divine Shah Niamatullah Farsi of the Suharwardy order; the presence of an adventurer driven by a dream from his native Swat( now in Pakistan ); the death of great king Kublai Khan in distant Beijing, to name but three – created the conditions of the establishment of first Islam and then Muslim rule in the valley of Kashmir by the fourteenth century.”
Name of the Sufi was Syed Bilal Shah, lovingly called Bulbul Shah by the people of Kashmir. By the time, he died in 1327, the king, his brother and the commander in chief of army were Muslims, and the first mosque of Kashmir had been built in Shrinagar. Today this place where grave of Bulbul Shah and mosque are situated is called Bulbul langar.
M.J.Akbar in his book gives a description of the first Muslim King Shah Mir. It is not only interesting but unbelievable too. He was living in Swat and saw a dream that he will become a monarch one day, so he travelled all along to Kashmir to search his destiny. The trail of events was such that he actually seated on the throne of Shrinagar and remained there till his death. This dynasty ruled Kashmir for 222 years. This was a peaceful and prosperous time for Kashmir as well as its economy and polity. The greatest king of this period was Zainul abedin. People of the valley lovingly called him Bud shah because of his industrious works like popularising Kashmiri shawl.
Mughals ended this rule and Kashmir went to the hands of rulers who were not Kashmiri. On 28th March, 1586, Mughals captured the Kashmir. That day marked the end of Kashmir’s independence.
However, Akbar proved to be a great ruler for Kashmir. After Akbar, Jehangir too cared a lot for Kashmir. Jehangir’s love for Kashmir is evident from the scenic beauty of Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh. He wanted to die there but he could not. After Jehangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb kept their mettle in Kashmir.
Yet again, the turbulent situation arose after the death of Aurangzb. In forty-six years after the death of the Mughal king Kashmir saw fifty-seven governors and all of the were pathetic. The religious bigotry, in now Muslim majority Kashmir was a common practise by governors and kings. This was the time when Afghan governors of Ahmad Shah Abdali snatched Kashmir and plundered it. M.J. Akbar in his book cites a couplet –
Puisdan az kharabiye gulshan zi baghban
Afghan kashid guft kiAfghan kharab kard.
(I asked, says the poet, who laid waste this garden. With a deep sigh he replied: “it was the Afghan “)
This couplet tells how much cruel that period was that still lies in the memories of poets and commons.
Afghan ruled Kashmir until, 1819. In 1819, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab captured Kashmir. But the rule was not very much justified, now the misruling was against the Muslims quite contrary as it was during the rule of the Afghans. The collapse of Kashmir was inevitable; it seemed, after the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839. The crimes and beggary again flourished in Kashmir. Eventually Kashmir never recovered from its catastrophe since 1753.
After Sikh rule, another fierce battle was fought; British defeated Sikhs and captured the big state of Punjab. They sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh Dogra for 75 lakhs rupees. He was a commander in Ranjit Singh’s army but he betrayed his king.
History of political satire
The satire made against the people of Kashmir had begun in 1846. Dogras helped British in Anglo- Sikh war in 1848 and more bravely supported them in 1857 to crush the first mutiny against British. Gulab Singh’s son Ranbir Singh was also loyal to the white masters and cruel for Kashmiris. But British slowly crept into Dogra’s Kashmir. First, an officer on duty (OSC) was sent then a civil court was created in 1872. In 1888, the OSC reciprocated his special position provided by the British by splitting the royal family. The raja was accused in a false case and disposed. Everybody was stunned. Now British have clasped Kashmir that they wanted to protect themselves from Tsarist Russia.
In 1925, Hari Singh became the king of Kashmir. Till then unemployment, illite
racy, poverty, discrimination against Muslims had become common practices. The public was against the British Raj and Hari Singh both. The total power of administration and law was under the authority of the King, there was no democracy. The British exercised the real power. The Dogras had become real feudal class.
Now, fate and destiny have changed for Kashmir. Its body is stained with blood. Its beautiful valleys have been notched off beautiful sceneries and horrifying patches have been put instead. One can’t count its wounds. One can’t think how to heal its uncountable and immensely paining wounds. Even if you can, some scar marks will be left behind.
The history is a mute spectator. It watches each and every minute detail with patience and tolerance. When it speaks out, it utters the slightest details of times and events. It is so bold in telling truth that sometimes it sounds very harsh but it always talks crystal clear. It can never leave any culprit unscathed, it can never forgive anybody. What has been dotted in pages of history will come out. Her praises and applauses are worthy and unbiased, her warnings are firm & unbreakable and her truths are voluminous like volcanoes.
History of humanism
There is a folk story, very famous in Kashmir. It is about a woman whose name was Padmavati in her young age. She was married to a man who was not only ignorant, but cruel too. Her marriage brought the same old story of oppression live and real seen all the nook and corner of her life. She subjected her to cruelty in laws. She left her husband’s home and went to unknown place to search truth. When she came back from her mysterious journey, she had become a mystic and Sufi. She started preaching local villagers through her lyrical verses. She, like Kabir, opposed all the religious bigotries. She taught the lesson of love, kindness, service to humanity. In passage of time, she became Lalleswari for Hindus and Lalla Arifa for Muslims. Till then she had become a venerable character for all the Kashmiris. She is sill living in hymns songs and proverbs of Kashmiri language.
This Sufi woman adopted a son who was born in 1356 A.D. The boy was nurtured and nourished by Lalleswari’s motherly care. He was destined to become Sheikh Nuruddin - another sage to teach lessons of humanity. He too lived in the hearts of Hindus and Muslims. Nuruddin was called Nand Rishi by Hindus and Sheikh by Muslims. His grave is in midst of valley of Kashmir. The place is called Charar-e-Sharief. This dargah attracts large number of Hindus and Muslims who come there to get solace and peace.
The lalleswaris and nand rishis the hazratbals and chrar-e-shariefs are immortal remains of humanism. People do not come here to see whether the curtains are green or saffron, the symbols are made up of moon and stars or sun and trishul. Instead, they come here to weep out their woes. They have some unspeakable demands; they have something to say which they cannot say anywhere else; they have something to show, which they cannot show anywhere else. This is their natural faith, it does not know about doctrines of clergies and diplomacies of monarchs.
When the valley weeps these pilgrimages, soak the tears of this wailing widow.
History of kings, kingdoms and their tiaras
The oldest and most authentic book which describes about Kashmir is Rajtarangini (king of rivers) written by a Pandit scholar, Kalhana. This book was completed in AD 1148. The book has eight parts, capturing the whole history of Kashmir till period of the compilation of the book. This book takes the story back in to the Mahabharata age, as it describes that 27 generations of Pandavas ruled over this state. However, the book relies more on the mythological and religious sources than history. This is why it is difficult for the readers to alienate the history from mythological stories, e.g. there was, it says, huge river called Sat Sari flowing there where at present Kashmir’s sprawling valley is situated. The war between Demons and devtas (trinity of Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh) resulted in evolution of valley from beneath the river. The Gods seeing the beauty of the valley decided to reside in the Himalayas. This valley was a property of Rishi Kashyap. On his name, Kashmir was christened as the name of this vale.
The time passed with its own pace and lot of water flowed into Satluj; clans of Indo Aryan families inhabited The Kashmir. We know very poorly about that period of history of Kashmir, but it is evident that Hinduism was the primary religion and philosophy of the land.
Some more timepieces elapsed and there arose a great regent called Ashoka in India. This great Maurayan emperor brought Kashmir into ambit of his empire but he found resistance in Hinduism because Ashoka also tried to superimpose Buddhism. He failed. Two hundred years after the decline of Mauryan Empire, Kanishka, and a Kushan king ruled over from Kshmir to Bengal, brought Buddhism again in the valley. Not only that, Buddhism spread all over central Asia, Afghanistan ,Tibet by A.D. 352, and to China,
Japan and Korea by AD 552 from Kanishka’s Kashmir.
After Kanishka, a Hun ruler, Mihurkula set his empire in Kashmir. This was followed by Karkota dynasty. After that, there was rule of Utpala dynasty that ruled Kashmir from AD 855 to AD 1003. All these years were unhappy for Kashmir. For almost 400 years, Kashmir saw only marauders, killers, debauchery and lust in her own men and women. In short, there was nothing good to be written in history.
The time when Kalhana was writing last pages of his grand book, Rajtarangini, Kashmir was plagued by the incidents of intrigues, double-crossing and conspiracies. Regents were immoral and corrupt; public was thrashed on all quarters; junta was feeble and foolish; this beautiful woman called Kashmir was longing for someone to her fate.
This was the correct time for the rulers from the other sides to look towards Kashmir. First, Sultan of Delhi (at that time Quatabuddin Aibak was at throne in Delhi) tried his luck but his interest was half hearted. One of the most tyrannous and most cruel warriors ever born in history Changez Khan (or Genghiz Khan) made another attempt. He sent his marauders to Kashmir but they never reached Kashmir. Another Mongol conquered Kashmir sixty years after Changez. He was called Kublai Khan the great. His rule was extended from Tibet to modern Laddakh. This north - eastern part of Kashmir still today tastes the same old Mongol wine in its cultural delicacies.
On the same footing, this was also the right time for Sufis and sages to conquer the hearts of Kashmiris. It was the time when Sufi movement had swept all over Indian peninsula. It swept Kashmir too. At last, the sword of love wins the battle. What big staunch Muslim invaders could not do with their daggers and sabres these lean, wandering pantaloons had done. Thus, the advent of Islam happens in Kashmir.
M.J. Akbar in his book “Kashmir behind the Vale” writes-
“a strange and wondrous combinations of events – the arrival of a Musami Syed disciple of Sufi divine Shah Niamatullah Farsi of the Suharwardy order; the presence of an adventurer driven by a dream from his native Swat( now in Pakistan ); the death of great king Kublai Khan in distant Beijing, to name but three – created the conditions of the establishment of first Islam and then Muslim rule in the valley of Kashmir by the fourteenth century.”
Name of the Sufi was Syed Bilal Shah, lovingly called Bulbul Shah by the people of Kashmir. By the time, he died in 1327, the king, his brother and the commander in chief of army were Muslims, and the first mosque of Kashmir had been built in Shrinagar. Today this place where grave of Bulbul Shah and mosque are situated is called Bulbul langar.
M.J.Akbar in his book gives a description of the first Muslim King Shah Mir. It is not only interesting but unbelievable too. He was living in Swat and saw a dream that he will become a monarch one day, so he travelled all along to Kashmir to search his destiny. The trail of events was such that he actually seated on the throne of Shrinagar and remained there till his death. This dynasty ruled Kashmir for 222 years. This was a peaceful and prosperous time for Kashmir as well as its economy and polity. The greatest king of this period was Zainul abedin. People of the valley lovingly called him Bud shah because of his industrious works like popularising Kashmiri shawl.
Mughals ended this rule and Kashmir went to the hands of rulers who were not Kashmiri. On 28th March, 1586, Mughals captured the Kashmir. That day marked the end of Kashmir’s independence.
However, Akbar proved to be a great ruler for Kashmir. After Akbar, Jehangir too cared a lot for Kashmir. Jehangir’s love for Kashmir is evident from the scenic beauty of Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh. He wanted to die there but he could not. After Jehangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb kept their mettle in Kashmir.
Yet again, the turbulent situation arose after the death of Aurangzb. In forty-six years after the death of the Mughal king Kashmir saw fifty-seven governors and all of the were pathetic. The religious bigotry, in now Muslim majority Kashmir was a common practise by governors and kings. This was the time when Afghan governors of Ahmad Shah Abdali snatched Kashmir and plundered it. M.J. Akbar in his book cites a couplet –
Puisdan az kharabiye gulshan zi baghban
Afghan kashid guft kiAfghan kharab kard.
(I asked, says the poet, who laid waste this garden. With a deep sigh he replied: “it was the Afghan “)
This couplet tells how much cruel that period was that still lies in the memories of poets and commons.
Afghan ruled Kashmir until, 1819. In 1819, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab captured Kashmir. But the rule was not very much justified, now the misruling was against the Muslims quite contrary as it was during the rule of the Afghans. The collapse of Kashmir was inevitable; it seemed, after the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839. The crimes and beggary again flourished in Kashmir. Eventually Kashmir never recovered from its catastrophe since 1753.
After Sikh rule, another fierce battle was fought; British defeated Sikhs and captured the big state of Punjab. They sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh Dogra for 75 lakhs rupees. He was a commander in Ranjit Singh’s army but he betrayed his king.
History of political satire
The satire made against the people of Kashmir had begun in 1846. Dogras helped British in Anglo- Sikh war in 1848 and more bravely supported them in 1857 to crush the first mutiny against British. Gulab Singh’s son Ranbir Singh was also loyal to the white masters and cruel for Kashmiris. But British slowly crept into Dogra’s Kashmir. First, an officer on duty (OSC) was sent then a civil court was created in 1872. In 1888, the OSC reciprocated his special position provided by the British by splitting the royal family. The raja was accused in a false case and disposed. Everybody was stunned. Now British have clasped Kashmir that they wanted to protect themselves from Tsarist Russia.
In 1925, Hari Singh became the king of Kashmir. Till then unemployment, illite
racy, poverty, discrimination against Muslims had become common practices. The public was against the British Raj and Hari Singh both. The total power of administration and law was under the authority of the King, there was no democracy. The British exercised the real power. The Dogras had become real feudal class.(Dogra monarch, Maharaja Hari Singh with Maharani Tara Devi. )
In this scenario, a political movement started which remained after the independence of Kashmir and India. A party was founded called Muslim conference and its leader was Shaikh Abdullah. He was born in 1905 and was educated in Aligarh. He came and conquered all the hearts of Kashmiris. He made the Party in 1933. This was the incident which changed the fate of this land and continued to be in memories of people constantly at the time of independence and thereafter.
~MILIND
References
M.J. Akbar, Kashmir behind the Vale, VIKING 1991
Encyclopaedia of Britannica, 2000
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