Kashmir Before 1947 — The Timeline
Era of Buddhism
Against the popular belief, Srinagar was actually founded by Emperor Ashoka sometime around 240 BCE and not the Mughal emperor Jahangir. It was called Shrinagri then and Ashoka established it as a stronghold of Buddhism. However, Mughals popularized it during the medieval time since Kashmir is said to have been their favorite vacation spot. East and Central Asian Buddhist monks visited the kingdom post Mauryan era and led to the establishment of a famous Buddhist seat of learnings which strongly influenced Kashmir. Kashmir was the pivotal point for the entry of Buddhism to China through in the late 4th century CE by a famous Kuchanese monk Kumārajīva. Buddhism was the prominent religion that shaped and influenced Kashmiri culture for 900 years.
Hinduism Unfurls
Later the year 625 CE saw the rise of the first powerful Hindu Empire in Kashmir named Karkota Empire mostly influenced and supported by the north Indian emperor, Harshavardhana of the Vardhana dynasty, of that time. This dynasty was subsided by another Hindu empire, the Utpala dynasty in 885 CE and marked the rise of Kashmir as a power in the South Asian region. The reign of the Hindu dynasty ended in the 14th century, Hinduism shaped the Kashmiri culture for 700 years. During this period the valley saw a great rise in scholars, philosophers, poets, Hindu mystics and gurus, dramatists, literature, and the rise of a tantric tradition called Kashmir Shaivism. It started with Adi Shankara visiting Sharda Peeth, the ancient center of learning located in present-day Azad Kashmir, in the 9th Century which had four doors for scholars from the four cardinal directions. Adi Shankara opened the southern door by defeating in debate all the scholars there in all the various scholastic disciplines and branches of Hindu philosophy. It enabled him to ascend the throne of transcendent wisdom of that temple and led the expansion of wisdom in the valley. Later in 950 CE, Abhinavagupta was born in Kashmir and the valley found one of its first and India’s greatest philosopher, mystic, and aesthetician. He was a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on not just Kashmir but Indian culture as an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician. His most famous contributions to the field of philosophy is his completed work in Kashmir Shaivism and his commentary of Naṭyasastra of Bharata Muni which till day is a strong reference point in the Indian method of acting in drama and theater. In the 10th century, a philosophical text on salvation for non-ascetics was written on the Pradyumna hill in Srinagar called Mokshopaya. It was completely in Sanskrit languages and contained 30,000 slokas, even longer than Ramayana. It is a collection of one of its own kind of texts with dialogue between Vasistha and Rama illustrated through short stories and claims human authorship, later it got expanded into Yogavasistha.
Islam in Power
Shams-ud-Din Shah Mir was the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir who took over the throne after the death of the then queen Kota Rani in 1339 and established the famous Shah Mir Dynasty. His origin is highly conflicted till date however popular belief suggests his lineage links with Persian or Turkish Qadris. Shah Mir arrived in Kashmir in 1313 and entered the service of the king. Through his tactical ability, he rose to prominence and became one of the important personalities of the time. Later he assumed the kingship himself post the death of queen Kota Rani since she had no descendent and laid the foundation of permanent Muslim rule in Kashmir. One of the greatest Kashmiri scholar N. K. Zutshi states that dissensions among the ruling classes and foreign invasions were the two main factors which contributed towards the establishment of Muslim rule in Kashmir. During the Shah Mir dynasty, Islamic law was enforced and by the late 1400s, most Kashmiris had accepted Islam. During this time Persian was also introduced to Kashmir and became very prominent in the texts. In 1585 the Valley was conquered by Akbar from Mughal Empire, ending the native Kashmiri Muslim rule. Akbar added the valley to the Kabul Subah making it part of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, In the 17th century, Shah Jahan carved it out as a separate Subah with Srinagar as its seat making it the northernmost region of Mughal India merging it back to the modern-day India. It became the pleasure ground of Mughals during the summertime leading to the first attempt to beautify Srinagar. In 1751, the valley was taken over by Afghan Durrani Empire from the Mughals through a famous victory of Ahmad Shah Durrani over Ahmed Shah Bahadur’s Viceroy Muin-ul-Mulk. Ahmad Shah Durrani doings were pivotal to defining the modern landscape status and the lay of the land including borders of that geographical region today. He took control of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir from the Mughals and held it in his rule till 1820. He was considered as the one to initiate the repression on Kashmiris of all faiths.
The Sikh Rule
In 1820 Ranjit Singh of Punjab took back control of modern-day Kashmir and Pakistan from Durrani with his armies of Shikhs, marking the end of 500 years of muslin rule in the valley. The new rulers were cheered at first due to the suffering past encountered under the Afghan ruler. However, the Sikh rulers enforced anti-Muslim laws like death sentences for cow slaughter, closing down the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, and banning the public Muslim call to prayer. This was the time when European visitors were attracted to the valley, especially the journalists and literature scholars who highlighted the poverty of the Kashmiri peasants due to high taxes laid by the Sikhs. The first population migration started from the valley during this time where many Kashmiri peasants settled to the plains of Punjab, mostly Hindu. Later the 1832 brought a famine to the valley ultimately causing the Sikh rulers to reduce the land tax to half and started to offer interest-free loans to farmers. Post these changes Kashmir became the second-highest revenue earner of the Sikh Empire mostly through popularizing the Kashmiri shawls worldwide, especially in the west.
The Princely State
In Parallel one of the young Sikh troop, Gulab Singh rose in power and influence and was anointed as the Raja of the neighboring region Jammu and with his highly tactical general Zorawar Singh Kahluria he was able to expand his empire to Kargil, Ladhakh, Rajouri, Kishtwar, and Baltistan as well which were surrounding the Kashmir valley. The Sikh Empire stepped into the Anglo-Sikh war in 1845 and Gulab Singh used the opportunity to present himself as a mediator and stepped into two treaties with the English. One was to hand over the state of Lahore and the second was to retain the Kashmir valley with Gulab Singh as a bill of sale. Later post the Indian rebellion of 1857, Kashmir sided with the British and it gave it the status of a tributary state, allowing it to have its internal autonomy awarding it the term called Princely State. During the reign of the princely state, the valley continued to have internal conflicts which were mostly overlooked by the Raja. There was no political representation of Muslims in the region till 1930 causing internal revolutions against the state. The last of the Raja to rule the area was Raja Hari Singh before the independence of India. During his reign in 1941, the British censuses India and registered Kashmir as the Muslim majority population of 77%, a Hindu population of 20%, and a 3% of Sikh and Buddhist combined. Under the Hindu rule, Muslims faced heavy taxation, discrimination in the legal system and were forced into labor without any wages. Conditions in the princely state caused a significant migration of people from the Kashmir Valley to the Punjab of British India.
The purpose of this piece is to just highlight the rich history of the valley and create awareness about how the changes took place. The changes are pretty much parallel to the transformation of the Indian subcontinent in the last 2000 years. Hence let’s spend some time in knowing the history but remembering it for the brilliant scholars, writers, and Poets it gave to us, some of whom left a thumping mark of our literature. Throughout history, the beauty of Kashmir has influenced artists and songs. Most of the greats of the modern era spent some time in Kashmir to get motivation in their writings. Take some time and visit the work of Naseem Shafaie, Zinda Kaul, Lal Ded, Rupa Bhawani, Abdul Ahad Azad, Amin Kamil, Habba Khatoon, Arnimal, Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor.
Written by Manu Raj
