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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s3: III Some Notable Facts About Kashmir

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s3

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III Some Notable Facts About Kashmir

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1. Kashmir is a large valley between two extensive ranges, almost impassable, of the Himalaya mountains. The river Vitastā passes through this valley and comes out into the plains of the Panjab through a narrow gorge, at which is placed the principal gateway into Kashmir. This has enabled Kashmir to shut entrance to it to foreigners, to such an extent that Kashmir may be shut like a castle. And Kashmir has always, unlike other Indian kingdoms, taken care to shut out foreigners. We read that the Gauda people who wished to take revenge on Lalitāditya, obtained entrance to Kashmir only on the pretext that they were going on a pilgrimage to the Śaradā temple. The three or four minor passages into Kashmir besides this chief one at Varāhamula (modern Baramulla) were also always shut and guarded.

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2. The river Vitastā is joined by another river in the centre of the valley. This river is called Sindhu (different from the chief Sindhu or Indus) and is looked upon as the Ganges of Kashmir and the confluence of Vitastā and Sindhu is considered sacred like the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna at Prayāga. In fact वितस्तासिन्धुसङ्गम is a great Tīrtha in Kashmir and is also called Prayāga. Near this Tīrtha Lalitāditya founded his city Parihāsapura (no longer existing). The third important river of Kashmir is called the Krishnā (modern Kishenganga) which joins the Vitastā lower down at the end of the valley.

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3. Śrinagar the capital is an ancient town. An older city exists said to be founded by Aśoka. The modern city was founded by Pravarasena about 553 A. D. at the latest (some years before Hiuen Tsang's visit in 630) and was also called Pravarapura. It is situated upon the Vitastā higher up than Parihāsapura and is laid on both banks of the river, there being many bridges of boats for communication.

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4. The chief product of the valley besides saffron (called Kāshmir in Sanskrit for this reason) is rice. In ancient times rice was also the chief article of barter. Government due was of course paid in kind and hence there was a large quantity of rice collected for government and government gave rice naturally to its servants as pay. Other people also usually gave rice in payment for services and in exchange for other things purchased. This state of things may remind any old inhabitant of Konkan of what happened there before the advent of the British. Kashmir was in fact a counterpart of Konkan in this respect.

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5. In another respect also Kashmir resembles Konkan. The people whether higher or lower subsist on rice and hence are very intelligent. The lower people in both are aboriginal and not Aryan. The higher viz. the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas and the Kāyasthas are Aryan and are found in both The Brahmins are equally orthodox and religious in both. The Kashmiris have overspread Northern India and equally the Konkan Brahmins Southern. Strangely enough in Northern India the title of Pandit is even now given only to Kashmir Brahmins and Konkan (and other Maratha) Brahmins, testifying to the reputation of both as learned men.

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6. Kashmir coin was Dinnāra. It is the Roman coin Denaris. It originally must have been the Indo Scythian coin. There were however gold, silver and copper Dinnaras. The word was the same for all and it appears even that the lowest value was also called Dinnāra. European scholars whose indefatigable labours cannot but be always acknowledged have collected many coins of Kashmir kings and tested their metal and weight. The incredible number of coins mentioned by Kalhaṇa as the daily pay of poets like Udbhaṭa or princes like Rudrapāla are well explained by Stein. It appears that the Kashmirians devised lowest divisions of value and introduced a system of counting by hundreds and thousands. The modern words still current in Kashmir viz: Pachisa, Hatha and Sisnu are evidently 25 (sk. Panchavimśati) 100 (sk. Sata) and 1000 (sk. Sahasra). Thus the credit of first introducing a decimal notation in coins belongs to intellegent Kashmir. In this way though rice often may in actuality be given in pay, the amount could be expressed in thousands of the lowest coin value.

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7. The number of villages in Kashmir is given by Stein as 66,063. Every country in ancient India had traditionally a fixed number of villages; e. g. the three Mahārāṣṭras had 99000. The number for Kashmir looking to its extent seems exaggerated. But we may state here that this traditional number is also given by the Skanda Purāṇa in which in Chapter 39 Māheshvara Khaṇḍa, the names of countries with their numbers of villages is given. Therein the number for Kashmir is given as 66000. All towns etc. are included in these and perhaps towns must have been counted as more than one village.

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8. We have said the Kashmiris resemble the Konkanasthas and their countries also resemble as they both produce rice. But in two respects the two people differ. The Kashmiris are eaters of flesh from ancient times and have not given up flesh-eating even now. The Konkanasthas appear to have been vegetarians from ancient days. The former again usually wear the beard but the latter do not. Beards in Kashmir are ancient and pre-Mahomedan as we have already seen from Kalhaṇa's description of Brahmins collected for the election of a king.

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