Chapter One

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF KASHMIR UP TO 1003 AD

Physical Features

Kashmir lies at the edge of the western and is formed of a flat alluvial plain at an average altitude of fifteen hundred metres. It is roughly one hundred and thirty-five kilometres long, and from thirty to forty kilo- metres in breadth at its widest point in the south-west. It is drained by the Jhelum (Skt. Vitastā), which rises in the extreme south-east of the Valley and flows in a north-westerly direction to the in the north, from which it re-emerges to flow west towards the Baramula gorge. Between its source and the Wular lake, it is joined by a number of other which drain the slopes of the surrounding hills. The most important tributary is the (Skt. Sindhu), which rises in the (Skt. Uttaramānasa) beneath Mount Haramukh (Skt. Haramukuṭa) in the north-east. Historically, the river system, including the lakes and canals, was important for its waterways. The Jhelum was navigable from Khana- bal, where it enters the plain, down to the rapids just below Baramula. Most of the important towns and many of the religious foundations were built on the Jhelum, and the large blocks of stone used in their construc- tion were transported by river craft. The flat valley floor is interrupted, predominantly in the south-west and north-east, by a great number of high plateaux formed of lacustrine deposits, known locally as wuḍar or karēwa (Skt uḍḍāra). These recall the Buddhist and Hindu legends, recounted in the Nīlamatapurāṇa, and by Xuanzang and Kalhaṇa, of the mythical draining of a lake which origi- nally submerged the Valley. Probably most of the valley floor was still not completely drained in the early centuries of our era, and early settlement was confined to the karēwas, as noted by Gaur (1987: 327). The kingdom was traditionally divided into two main administrative units, Maḍavarājya (Ksm. Marāz) in the east and Kramarājya (Ksm. Kamrāz) in the west, with the capital at their junction, but it is not known how early this division took place. 10 chapter one

The most important natural feature is the ring of enclosing mountains that forms a solid barrier around the Valley. This defined the strict bound- aries of the country in ancient times, although political control often extended to the adjoining hill-states and beyond. The natural protection afforded by these mountains, and the eventual fortification of the passes leading to the Valley, ensured Kashmir’s security from foreign invasion, and helped shape the special character of its people. The encircling moun- tains consist of three ranges: the Pir Panjal in the south and south-west up to the Baramula gorge; the range running north from there up to Mount Haramukh; and the range running east from Mount Haramukh to the head of the . These ranges were crossed by a series of passes in ancient times, few of which were all-weather passes. The Banahal pass in the south, which is now the vehicular route to the plains of north , led to the Upper Chenab Valley. Three passes in the south-west led to the Panjab: the high Sidau or Budil pass, which leads directly to Akhnur and Sialkot in a straight line from Srinagar, the Pir Panjal pass, and the Toshamaidan pass. Several passes in the north led to the holy shrine of Śāradā1 in the upper Kishanganga Valley and beyond to Chilas, while the Dugdhaghāta (Ksm. Dudkhut) pass led on to Astor and Baltistan (Bolōr). Finally the Zoji-la pass in the east still remains the main route to and Tibet. The western route via Baramula, which now leads to so-called Azad Kashmir in Pakistan, follows the right bank of the Jhelum, one hun- dred and thirty kilometres down to the great bend in the river at Muzaf- farabad where it crosses the Kishanganga river to ancient Uraśā, modern Hazara. It was the main route to the North-West, and was the entrance by which the Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Wukong, entered the Valley. These passes were guarded in ancient times by dvāra or draṅga (guard stations) to which there are frequent references in the Rājataraṅgiṇī. Wukong’s earlier testimony is important in this regard.2 They were

1 This was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in ancient Kashmir, and its famous wood image of the diety, a Śaiva Devī with Durgā-like attributes, survived until the reign of King Zain ul-’abidin (1420–70), who visited the shrine. The story of the visit, and the subsequent destruction of the image, is found in the Devanāgarī redaction of Jonāraja’s Rājataraṅgiṇī produced through the insertion of such passages into the Śārada redaction at a time between 1561 and 1588 (Kaul 1967: 15–18), and hence in the Persian translation prepared for Akbar in 1588–1590. 2 In Lévi and Chavannes’ (1895: 356) translation of the original itinerary, Wukong’s description of the three main gates is as follows: “le royaume (de Cashemire) est entouré des quatre côtés par des montagnes qui lui font rempart exterieur; on y a ouvert en tout trois chemins sur lequels on a établi des fermetures. A l’est, un chemin joint le T’ou-fan (Tibet); au nord, un chemin pénètre dans le royaume de Po-liu (Bolōr); le chemin qui part