[Reader-list] Seven Exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits

[Pawan Durani]

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Courtesy: Bhan Kamalnayan (Artist)

BY

PROF. K. L. BHAN



Introduction

So much has been sung of the marvellous and magnificent beauty of the
physiography of Kashmir, 'Paradise on Earth' by saints and sages,
philosophers and poets, mystics and bards, divines and emperors,
historians and travelers from far and near, that I wish I could
describe one hundredth of what they have sung. One must possess a born
poets, powerful and refined sensibility, imagination and vision
together with the boldness of his pen to be able to make attempt to
sing of her charms with full-throated ease. The Valley of Kashmir
lures all irresistibly. Those who have tramped across the globe have
no hesitation in asserting that Kashmir is a land of peerless beauty
on this planet. It excels the beauty of Switzerland. Bowl shaped with
lofty mountains standing guard all around, cradled in the Himalayas,
Kashmir has everything to gratify all the senses with thrilling
experiences and to seekers of peace it gives a satisfaction that is
much more solid and enduring than a thrill.
With its salubrious climate that infuses health and heartiness into a
sick-man, its bewitching, quite idyllic scenery, its arresting
landscape, its snowcapped peaks from which flow perennially murmuring
streams rivulets and sinuous rills and cataracts guttering, like
glass, fit for angels to repose by its mists and clouds that rise sky
wards like swirling smoke of incense, its remarkably exquisite dawns
and day breaks and equally enjoyable dusky evenings, its ancient and
mysterious all encompassing woods and evergreen forests that are home
to a treasure of fauna and flora, its gorgeously colourful meadows,
its warbling birds, its tranquil and placid blue lakes, bubbling
springs, its sprawling orchards laden with tempting juicy sweet and
delicious fruit, its pleasure gardens and grottos, its breezes that
kiss gently and tenderly and a variety of other gifts of nature that
beggar description, this happy and has been the chosen land of Gods
and to which nature has been lavish in her bounty. A new comer here
falls in love with it at first sight and cannot help being swept away
by a feeling of rapture and unearthly joy. He stands and stares around
in wonder. The magnetic beauty of the land draws him closer and closer
and spell bound he saunters about and deeper the wonder grows and the
more unwilling he becomes to part from it.
The germ of his attitude and response to the surroundings is
essentially the environment of unearthly peace, tranquility, calm and
security. Here peace rains imperceptibly from heaven and settles in
every nook and corner. Here peace descends from mountain tops and
cliffs, emanates from deep woods and forests, exudes from gardens and
orchards and finds retreats in every house and habitation and
inhabitation. It gives a feeling of the uplift of the spirit where by
a person merges and mingles with every thing around him and every
thing becomes part of his being. No one escapes this spiritual feeling
which is not a simple pleasure. No wonder, then, that this
spirituality forms the woof and web of more than five thousand years
old culture of Kashmir. This abode of peace and, the seat of Goddess
of learning.
Shahjahan exclaimed, "If there is paradise on the earth it is here, it
is here." Pandit Brij Narain Chakbast sang, particles of my
motherland, Kashmir are known for their hospitality. Not to speak of
its lakes and cascades, even the way side pebbles quenched my thirst
whenever the need arose." It is but natural that such physiography of
Kashmir should get reflected in the character of its ancient
inhabitants who are nice, good, gentle and harmony gave birth to
myriad saints and sages who attained highest goals of life by
meditation. The mother of the three worlds and consort of Lord Shiva
Parvati, chose to take her birth in this hallowed land the Maharagniya
came flying from the deep south to make it her home Lord Shiva himself
made it his abode. It is Sharda Peetha lovable, devoid of malice and
crookedness. Kashmir has been a sangam, a meeting place of various
communities and sects professing different faiths, beliefs and creeds
and all co-existing in prefect harmony and tolerance. Practicing
respect for others beliefs they had a world outlook and knew no
conflicts arise out of racial and religious differences.
The aboriginal inhabitants of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Hindus, in common
parlance known as Kashmiri Pandits (KPS) constitute a distinct class
of their own are considered to be a purest specimen of the ancient
Aryan settlements on the banks of the river Saraswati and who migrated
to Kashmir Valley in wake of the changing course of the river and
eventually becoming invisible, having been dried up. The offsprings of
rishis and seers and sages and belonging to the highest order of
Brahmins, this small community of the Samswats have been and still are
by and large, sober, peace loving and docile. They are among the few
ancient surviving races whose traditions come down from the Gods. They
are chataeterized by their being highly educated and learned.
Vidyadhars, with more than 95% literacy, they have produced a galaxy
of brilliant sages, saints, poets and statesmen, administrators and
ambassadors, who made a lasting contribution to the development of the
Indian composite heritage and culture.
When Islam came to Kashmir, it brought conflict as it brought wherever
its followers went. The KPs withstood and despite centuries upon
centuries of humiliation, persecution, repression and torture at the
hands of foreign rulers they survived. They passed through numerous
periods of shame and indignity and physical vicissitudes, yet century
after century they have recovered their glory by their own power of
self-preservation. They have succeeded against fierce odds in
preserving their rich cultural heritage bequeathed to them by their
forebears who were man and women as great saints, free thinkers,
intellectuals and literary giants showing matchless maturity and
tolerance. Kashmin Pandit is the product of that vibrant, vigorous and
unfettered, broad, exciting and tolerant culture and civilization that
has never shown apathy and aversion to new and alien influences,
thoughts and faiths whenever they came into contact with them. And to
this day he is known for his dignity of soul, true valour, tolerance,
piety, hospitality and forbearance. There are evidences of synthesis
of KP culture with ancient Greek, Roman and pre-Islamic Persian
culture. Tolerance has been and continues to be the hallmark of KP
culture, despite severe pressure to make it contrary.
Buddhism, acclaimed the most tolerant religion/way of life known to
the world, came to Kashmir much earlier than Is­lam, neither in the
form of political nor religious conquest, as the later did. It only
stimulated a new culture and religious resurgence without producing a
charm or conflict with the Samatna Dharma. Thus KPs joyfully loaned
the ranks of the Buddhist Church and endowed it with new directions,
open­ing new Vistas and leading to a new enrichment.
History bears witness that no fewer than 700 KP Brahamin monks crossed
the inaccessible mountains and carried the message of Buddha to Tibet,
China and Central Asia. As a mature and tolerant race the KPs always
upheld freedom of thought and free inquiry and in this background
forcible conversion was unknown to KP ethos. The interpenetration and
intermingling of Buddhism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism into a reformed
form of Hinduism with its fundamentals remaining unchanged has been
the sequel of the most tolerant cultural ethos obtaining in Kashmir
prior to the coming of Islam. During the Hindu rule there was absolute
harmony socio-political plane and the idea of conversion was something
unknown and non-existent in the Kashmiiri culture. Hindu places of
worship and prayer have never been misused as centers of preaching and
propagating intolerance and religious bigotry and hatred to other
faiths and creeds nor for inciting and abetting sedition nor as
repositories of arms and ammunition, nor for providing secure shelter
to sinners and criminals. The scope of their use has ever been
confined to purely religious, moral philosophical and literary
pursuits. The KP ethos echoes the basic Hindu ethos of equality and
co-existence of all religions (Sarve Dharma Sambhavah), of the entire
mankind being of but one family, (Vasudaiva Kuthumbakam), of praying
for the well being of entire mankind (Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu), not
only for a particular group or community of co-religionists. It has
always been a vehicle for transmitting the message of peace,
brotherhood and co-existence of all faiths, never contaminated
religion by an immoral union with politics. Such an unholy alliance
had no place in  the scheme of things as conceptualized by the KPs
right from the beginning of their history in the hoary past. And this
heritage and outlook they posses even today. With their high profile
thinking beyond banal mundane themes they turned Kashmir into a seat
of invigorating, illuminating and emancipating intellectual occupation
that attracted all in quest of higher values and spiritual exaltation.
The entire socio-political and religious structure of KP society in
Kashmir suffered a subversion in the beginning of thirteenth century
with the appearance on the scene of severel Muslim ambitious
adventurists and upstarts from far off alien lands. Harassed and faced
with physical liquidation at the hands of their arch rivals and
enemies in their respective countries they fled from there and found
of haven of refuge and safety and security in spiritually stable
though politically unstable Kashmir. Rinchen a fugitive refugee from
Ladakh, Shah Mir forced to flee from Swat for his life and Bulbul Shah
from Turkistan were given shelter in Kashmir, abiding by the glorious
heritage of extending consideration, compassion and kindness and
hospitality to those seeking refuge, irrespective of their beliefs and
faith. And in true Kashmiri Pandit tradition they were permitted to
practice their faith with full freedom without anybody raising any
objection. They found the natives peace loving and unorthodox to fault
and a country a propitious ground for their ulterior motives;
therefore, they stayed on and enjoyed the generosity and hospitality
of the Hindus rulers as well as the common people.
Before long they started preparation for grinding their axe, and began
to behave like the proverbial Arabian camel who cunningly occupied the
tent by steadily nudging its owner out.
These refugees, feeding fat at the hospitality of the people and
building up pockets of influence became ambitious of seizing power and
grabbing the throne with a particular design up their sleeves,
transforming the entire religious and demographic profile of Kashmir.
History bears witness to the glaring fact that they were responsible
for creating and shaping condition in Kashmir, which caused
intolerable affliction, miseries, torture, persecution, cruelty and
pain to the KPs in the name of Allah. The reader experiences
convulsions at the cruelties and indignities heaped on the helpless
KPs for the holly cause of spread of Islam. This is how they repaid
the munificence and benevolence of the Hindu rulers.
Zul Qadir Khan, a Turkish Tartar, leading his savage hordes in tens of
thousands looted and plundered and massacred the Hindus and razed the
standing crops to ashes, thus spreading death, dissolution and
ruination throughout the land for full eight months. The approach of
winter, forced him to return. He took with him 50,000 Kashmiri men and
women and children as slaves to be sold in Turkishtan. As fate would
have it, the barbaric heartless Khan was caugt in a blizzard while
traversing the mountainous path 'Devsar Pass' and the entire mass of
people perished in cold snow. This place is called as 'BATA SAGAN'
(Brahamans death oven).
Jonraj a Kashmiri historian of the time paints a harrowing picture of
the havoc and horror struck by Zul Qadir Khan in his spree of
massacres that decimated the Kashmir Hindus. The land having been
marauded, mangled, thousands died of poverty and starvation as if doom
"pralaya" had overwhelmed the country. The carnage turned rivers and
brook scarlet and gory with human blood.
Rinchen thought to be Buddhist by faith, received shelter and
sustenance and safety under the wings of Ram Chander a KP
Commander-in-Chief, whom he betrayed and got killed with a view to
pounce upon the throne of Kashmir. Since he was an alien he sought to
identify himself with a set of people with a vested interest. Bul Bul
Shah, one of them trickily converted Rinchen to Islam under the name
of Sader-ud Din. And as the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and with his
converts missionary zeal Rinchen started his campaign for the mass
conversion of KPs to Islam with all the brutal vigor and force at his
disposal. It was Bul Bul Shah who incited, aided and abetted Rinchen
to persecute and tyrannize the resistant Hindus and used all sorts of
unfairways and means like compulsion, taxation, unjust law, use of the
sword and forcible inter-marriages. Guided by him Rinchen pioneered
the path for the later Muslim rulers to depopulate, dominate, degrade
and drive KPs out of their ancestral land.