An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s1.28

v1.c19.s1.28

C. Regional study: (i) Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. Apart from being a hill-girt, high-altitude valley, Kashmir is linked by n. mountain passes across Gilgit and Hunza to C. Asia and through Ladakh to Tibet again to C. Asia. The date of the first food-producing settlements in Kashmir falls in the second half of the 3rd millennium B C [4.6.1] and if the suggested Chinese analogy for some of its features is correct, there could be a movement across the n. passes as early as this period. The sequence in the valley is continuous after that but has two major problems. First, although there is clear evidence of megalithism in the valley in the post-Neolithic period [4.17.1] the date and nature of corresponding settlements are unknown. Secondly, although the literary source of the *Rājataraṅgiṇī* associates Aśoka and at least three Kushan kings with the history of the valley and a few sites are traditionally associated with them the archaeological evidence of its earliest historical occupation does not seem to be earlier than the Buddhist remains at HARWAN on 3rd-4th century A.D. The Kashmir valley crystallized into a distinct political unit by the early medieval period but again, apart from the temple ruins at places like Avantipur and Martand, there is not much of archaeology dating from this period. In the adjacent Ladakh, an extension of the Tibetan plateau, nothing is virtually reported except undated megaliths [4.17.1] and Buddhist monasteries, hardly proved to have any worth-mentioning antiquity. Jammu, a strip of plain jutting out in the direction of the Kashmir valley, is reported to have yielded some stray neoliths [4.6.2] but no associated settlement, and perhaps the first clearly defined occupation in the areas is found at MANDA with its Harappa pottery [11.3]. The succeeding settlement history of the area is not clear but may perhaps be assumed to be continuous. The adjacent Himachal Pradesh is not yet known to have revealed any Neolithic settlement although neoliths are known to occur [4.6.2], and most of the known archaeological sites in the area are not likely to antedate the medieval period when a rather insecure political condition in the plains drove some Hindu kings into the Himachal hills where they not merely carved out territorial units but occasionally (as at Chamba) initiated distinct architectural styles as well.