[Reader-list] Book - Paradise Lost - Seven Exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits

[Sanjay Khak]

*The entire PDF format of this book is available for download at -
http://ikashmir.net/exodus/introduction.html*
**
*It gives interesting historical account which we often tend to miss during
an empirical study on Kashmir. Not to be missed.*
**
*best*
*Sanjay Khak*
**
*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.