Rumours or fairy tales or in Kashmiri lunguage “Padshah Daleeli” has been a favourite past times for both panditsaswell as Muslims, though the” Purpose “ of rumours has been different for most of the time .
Pandits created fairy tales by often distorting history to keep Brahminical elite into the royal fold of occupational regimes of Mughals , Afghans , Sikhs and Dogras pre-1947 and then post -1947 to remain in power politically aswell as economically they cling to their favourite past time .
on the contrary Kashmiri Muslim created fairy tales by distorting religious texts to celebrate their own sectarian motives and dominating other sects having different sectarian narrative about Islam and in recent times kashmiri muslim are being feed with fantasy of Pan islamic domination by misinterpreting religious texts by likes of zakir moosa who hardly find any support in kashmir now thanks to Almighty God thus both communities seems to cherish this rumour mongering as favourite past since thousands of years . We kashmiris are experts to carve out Alle kuli manz tulle kul (mulbintrerry tree out a gourd plant )
We Kashmiris must be tolerant enough to hear these fairy tales if not acted upon ,as kashmiri pandits and Muslim have developed emotional and now religious attachment with these narratives after aryanization of Kashmiri Trika by Kasyp Bandu and mullanization of islam . So our kashmiriyat expect us to tolerant enough with these narratives as long as Kashmiri pandits or Muslim do not try to get political mileage out of it .
In recent times , Kashmiri Pandit organisation having full liberty to talk on Indian commercial media to demonize the kashmiri muslim without being given fair chance to kashmiri Muslim and in this way pandit poster boys exploit these narratives to reach their political and economical goals .
Kashyap Reshi was not founder of Kashmir :
As mentioned earlier this religious narrative of Kashmiri pandits are not limited to religious creed which we must honour irrespective of which ever religion we follow but most of pandit political organisation are trying to suggest that since kashmir was founded by a kashmiri Pandit every one else is foreigner which imitates the religious narrative of Terrorist groups like ISIS who have misinterpreted opinion only Muslim must rule world the irony is Hindutva terrorist groups are also endorsing the same .
Just as Pandit organisations delve deep into Kashmir’s past to make their claims to remain in power we unbiased student of history also must approach the same academic path to explore the truth by studying their sacred religious, historical texts and quote their thier own religious , political leaders and intellectuals like Nilmatapurana,Rajtarangni and other historical literary works .
1.According to Rajtarangni which often quotes Nilmatapurana and other historical literature – Kasyapa reshiwho is also named Tarksya, had four wives — Vinata[Suparna], Kadru, Patangi and Yamini..
A)Patangi and Vinata gave gave birth to birds, B) Yaminigave birth to locusts and C) Kadru gave birth to Snakes.
On the face of it ,does it seems to be a normal family where a human can give birth to snakes , birds , and locusts .Walter Lawrence believes that half the stories to the discredit of Kashmir and its inhabitants are due to the fertile imagination of a particular community in Kashmir.
Brahmins are not aboriginals of Kashmir :-
The fact is word Kashmir pundit or Brahmin doesn’t appeared anywhere in Rajtarangni. Let me quote Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, No. 2, pages 264–268 which quotes “American scholars Abraham Eraly, “Brahmin as a varna hardly had any presence in historical records before the Gupta Empire era” (3rd century to 6th century CE) besides that When we actually encounter history, such as in Rajatarangini or in the Gopalavamsavali of Nepal, the texts do not deal with Brahmins or history of Brahmins, in fact “the word Brahmin their sacrifice or any of their rituals not even once been occurred or referred in any Indian text” dated to be from the first century CE or before.
The original inhabitants of Kashmir were not Brahmins : Pandit Kalhana starts his record of kings of Kashmir inRajtarangni around 3100 BC – first king of Kashmir was Gonada, he ruled Kashmir for 20 years prior to when great Mahabharata took place .Gonada the first king of Kashmir was killed by the army Hindu Deity “Lord Krishna” and his son Damodara was also killed by Krishna’s army( Rajtarangnitrans.by Aural stien volume 1 page 264-68
Now question arises,were he (Gonada) be a Brahmin Hindu as suggested by pandits why he rebelled against his own dietyinfact he was not Hindu at all .
KASHMIR WAS NEVER A SATISAR AS PER OXFORD UNIVERSITY AND KASHMIRIPANDIT AUTHORITY HISTORIAN : – Most of Kashmiri Pandit think tanks on Indian media with flamboyant poster victim boys on roll often put forward two narratives to back thier claim of being aboriginals and discrediting others as foreigners
Let us examine both of their argument and judge them on scientific and historical facts
1 – Kashmir was a lake surrounded by mountains and full of water called “ Satisar “ the Sati lake was special and favoriteresort of the mahadev . This lake was inhabited by Jaldeva or jaladbhav(water-demon.Kashyap reshi engaged himself in worship of Lord for the elimination of Jaladbhav, Lord Shiva asked Bishan and Brahma to punish Jaladbhav. The defense of Jaladbhav was very strong and Bishan and Bharma could not succeed he would hide in the lake at the times of trouble . in the end they decided to dry the satisar before killing him. therefore Bishan cut the piece of mountain this drained the water and dry land appeared the land that appeared for the first time . Jaladbhav hide himself in the pits near present Dal lake .but the water was not so deep that it would hinder Bishan and Brahma . Bishan brought a piece of Sameer mountain and placed it on the top of pit in which Jaladbav was hiding this crushed Jaladbhav to death and according to another narrative Kasyp reshi prayed hindu goddess Parvatifor help she turned into a bird (Haer in Kashmiri) and dropped a parbat on water demon and killed him eventually that pebble enlarged in size and became mountain this is the place where Kohi- Maran ( Hari Parbat ) is situated now. After a long time this place became a charming land and Kashyap Rishi thought of populating it hence the name Kashmir( Mir means house that is the house of kashyap ) it is also believed that the name of the wife of kashyap Rishi was Mir therefore the place was called after both of them as “KASHYAP MIR
Refutation
P. N. K. Bamzai was born in 1910 into a Kashmir Panditfamily of scholarly traditions, and received his first lessons in historical research from his father, Anand Koul, who was the pioneer of modern research on the history and folklore of Kashmir.He says:“Man ever saw satisar (whole Kashmir as lake is not possible to say yet) ”History of Kashmir vol 1 page 55 line number 55 .
Let me quote university of Oxford scholar oxford university geologist Richard Dixon Oldham studied lakes of Kashmir to find out whether the claim of satisar by Rajtarangni was correct or not – he came to conclusion that ” I studied kerawas ( lake deposits) they are fluviatile which means it founded near river or that they are formed by river, they are not lacustrine origin ( formed at bottom of lake) therefore he said according to his study it’s not possible that Kashmir was entirely covered by water in any point in time.
Pebble turns into Hari Parbat
Geologists say that the hill is composed of the volcanic rock formed by the eruption of magma from the depths of earth it does not come from outside . In fact the mountains encircling the Kashmir Valley are largely composed of these volcanic rocks that began forming with the eruption of magma 320 million years ago and reached its peak around 280 million years earlier Pandit Ratnagar who lived before Kalhana who is more authoritarian figure also refutes the story of pebble turning mountain, mentions the coming of Solomon by the name of Sandiman, who came flying on his throne with Jinns, birds and other creatures under his command from the western territory of the known world and landed on Jeetlark. Pandit Anand Kaul (1924), an activist and a pioneer in research on the history and folklore of Kashmir says that the Shankaracharya temple was originally built by Sandiman, who according to Kaul reigned Kashmir from 2629 to 2564 BC. Pandit Ratnagar, who lived before 12th century, a predecessor of Kalhana narrates the coming of Sandiman and gives a description of Sandiman exactly matching that of King Solomon who came from the western regions to Kashmir.
Besides Sir Aurel Steins official reproduced maps of the Muslim period published in 1897 by the Survey of India in Calcutta establish the fact that the hill was called as Takht-i-Suleimani till the end of Muslim rule in the valley. Besides this European travelers and officials like William Moorcraft, Jhon walker also provide evidence that the hill was called Takht-i-Suleimani in many travelogues and accounts till the 20th century.
(Author Dr zainulabideen is a student of Kashmir History and can be reached at [email protected]. His views are personal)