Dr. K N Pandita
Hindu Shrines of Kashmir, Substance Publishers, 425/4 Laxmi Vihar, Tomal, Bohri, Jammu, hard bound, pp. 233+photographs, Price Rs. 250.
This book is the result of 2-year long field survey and oral testimony conducted by a team of dedicated community scholars and researchers led by R. L. Bhat. Apparently, the project is prompted by Pandit Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust, Jammu.
Actually, as a sequel to consensual acceptance by a majority of KP community organizations, the Trust was given the task of taking up Kashmir Hindu Shrines and Temples Bill with the J&K Government. Despite sustained efforts, its adoption by the State legislature still remains elusive, perhaps owing to government politicizing the matter besides machination of vested interests. As the team proceeded with the drafting of the bill, it felt the draft bill would be incomplete without appending to it a comprehensive list of the shrines, temples, tirthas etc. in Kashmir in whatever conditions these were. This became catalyst for the team to undertake field survey, besides culling out oral history of these objects from knowledgeable resource persons, mostly locals, from all districts of Kashmir. Credit goes to the team for admirably accomplishing a painstaking assignment.
The volume is dedicated to the memory of countless “men and women of Kashmir” who preserved the heritage even in conditions of persecution, suppression and demolition from medieval times onwards till present day, except for one century of Dogra rule 1846 to 1947.
At the outset, the compliers have, albeit unnecessarily, stoked controversy about Kashmiri language phonetics and transcription of Kashmiri place, person and other names, in justification of the transcription module adopted by them in the book. Kashmiri language and literature remain dismally poor and famished in absence of an accurately standardized script. Sharada, the recognized script used by our ancestors, does not go well with “Kashmiriyat.”
Moving on to enlist Hindu shrines of Kashmir, the team has tried to establish with the help of preserved historical record, the existence of incredibly vast number of temples and shrines in Kashmir raised during the reign of various kings of Hindu period. Of course, Kalhan’s Rajatarangini is the primary and most authentic source; nevertheless, many European historians, archaeologists and epigraphers, besides eminent local historians, have given valuable information in this context. The compiler team has culled out material from most of these dependable and scholarly sources.
Some Farsi histories written in Kashmir, covertly or overtly mention about large scale demolition and destruction of temples, shrines, tirthas and other cultural-religious symbols of ancient Kashmir after the advent of missionaries from Iran and Central Asia in and onwards of the 14th century A.D. In particular, Sikandar Butshikan (A.D. 1393) and Shamsudin Araki (A.D. 1574) — the Iranian Noorbakhshi Missionary—-, assisted by the Sufis of that order, caused maximum destruction to the pre-Islamic sanskriti of Kashmir. Historians like Pir Ghulam Hassan (Tarikh-i-Kashmir), Anonymous author of Baharistan-i-Shahi, and Muhammad Ali (Tohfatul Ahbab) in particular, and Sayyid Ali and Haidr Malik Chadora in general, have faithfully recorded in part, socio-cultural transformation in Kashmir. In this context, the compilers have authenticated their assertions with historical evidence.
Close study of the work reveals that the compilers have taken great pains in enlisting in fuller detail the temples, shrines, tirthas, ashrams, khshetras, mathas, devasthans, cremation grounds, razabals, endowments, and landed assets etc. still traceable in Kashmir in ruined, dilapidated, destroyed, vandalized or intact condition. Entries are made district-wise and tehsil-wise with original location, though under the “secularist” agenda of the State government, many of these have been converted into astanas, mosques, and congregational payer grounds besides changing names of many localities seemingly to detach them from their original cultural linkage. The inventory contains 1399 religious places of the Hindus collectively holding over 20 thousand kanals of land in almost all districts of Kashmir.
These are the remnants of religious and cultural manifestations of an indigenous people of the valley whose ancestors had once raised and ruled for millennia the powerful Kashmir kingdom that spread from Kashghar to Kandhar and Amu to Stadru (Sutluj). By quirk of destiny, their descendents have now shrunk to an extirpated minuscule religious minority, struggling against odds to save these symbols from defacement in more than one way and in different manner at the hands of people in positions of power and authority in Kashmir. To cite just one example, the shrine of Gosaen Gund ashram occupying 20 kanals of land and 250 kanals of endowment, has not only been subjected to cartographic engineering, and reduced to just 96 kanals 9 marlas in the latest revenue records, but has also been bestowed with a new name of Gond-e Novroz.
The Team has done remarkable service to the cultural history of Kashmir and its Hindu minority. However, given the social and political climate of contemporary Kashmir, we are apprehensive about what future will bode for this priceless heritage of the exiled community. It is this cryptic skepticism, which makes us believe that this record, namely ‘The Hindu Shrines of Kashmir’ will remain a lasting document of great historical importance.
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