Kashmir Cultural Heritage --- III

Kashmir enjoyed the heights of her development and prosperity for a long time under various Hindu rulers who put a stamp of their monarchy on this land by building numerous magnificent temples in memory of different Gods and Goddesses besides their grand personal palaces, some of them so beautiful and strong that withstood the vagaries of weather for hundreds of years. Some magnificent institutions of learning with grand buildings and infrastructure also came up which also served people for hundreds of years. This prosperity and boom in Hindu faith continued for centuries till Buddhism entered the valley and lots of people converted to that faith. Consequently numerous Buddhist installations came up in the valley especially under the rule of Ashoka after he converted to Buddhism. But the good thing about the new faith was that there was no major damage to the rich Hindu infrastructure that existed in Kashmir, though the new faith changed the face of Kashmir to a great extent but the majority of people continued as Hindus and there existed a considerable harmony between the two faiths. The fact that cannot be ignored is that Buddhism didn’t spread under any duress but it cannot be denied too that Hindu faith received a great setback under the Buddhist influence not only in Kashmir but also in the whole of India.

Later when Mahmood Ghaznavi attacked the plains of Punjab, he almost knocked at the doors of Kashmir and Kashmir didn’t remain the same. Many of its adjacent areas were influenced by Islam and gradually Muslim settlers and missionaries started entering Kashmir and thus started a big revolution that was to change the ancient Kashmir upside down. -------- (to be continued)