MY ROOTS 2

NILMAT PURAN gives details about the rituals of society and worship and social mores and customs     followed by the people those days.It was very liberal society with men and women sharing space equally in all spheres of life ,statecraft too. Some of the rituals  seem similar to the nature worship still prevailing in India in almost all  societies by bestowing divine powers to serpents,trees ,lakes mountains and the like.  All of these are held sacred by Hindus everywhere even today.Some,if not all,of these rituals ( though not maintainable now due to alien environs for the pandits ousted from kashmir) were being  followed in our homes . We used to celebrate KAW POORNIMA(kawi pinim) AND YAKSHA MAVAS(KHACHI  MAVAS) faithfully under the tutelage of our ladies.I have as an adult seen sacrifice of goat’s head at CHAKRESHWAR SHRINE in srinagar and BAHU temple at jammu duly sanctified by the temple priest. My  mother and later my wife would  feed  raw sheep lung at Hari parbhat on DURGA ASHTAMI DAY and even on any convenient Saturday or even from the top of our Karannagar home and I would be there when I had the time,but our purohit late AMARNATH had to be there for puja and prepyun( offering to the deity durga/sharika).Bhairav pooja would also be prevalent only with tehar charvan(cooked rice mingled with kidney cuttings and powdered tamarind. I can illustrate the depth of belief  when late Dina Nath Dhar f/o my late friend BRIJNATH DHAR grandfather of COL. ARUN DHAR forced the prashad on me (both of us were vegetarians!) after a bhairav puja.Such shakhti cult is mostly pravalent in shaivite regions of North india and Nepal.                              Nagas were  thought to be nobles,providers and protectors and thus divine,Yakshas grasping, and Pishachas cruel marauders  and that may have been the basic belief behind some of these rituals.

In the early 20^th century,archeoligical findings at BURZHAMA nearHARWAN have thrown some light on a fully devoloped culture . The ruins of theMARTAND TEMPLE on the plateau above MATTAN,of a vihara atPATTAN,of a temple at AWANTIPORE, of a temple  at Kanispora,depicts the edifice of art,culture and architechture. Most of the stone blocks and pillars have been pillaged or disfigured.   No reliable period can be fixed when  Hindu Aryans entered the valley and got assimilated  with the locals and Hindu religion became the dominant faith,though all the rituals were still followed as inclusive in the new set up.In the 4^th  century A.D.,                           

KUMARAJIVA ,a buddhist came to kashmir to study under BUDHADATTA which indicates that budhist faith had already spread in kashmir at that time.  By the 8^th              century A.D. , Budhism was very widely spread in the valley and was coexisting with Hinduism with new viharas/temples being built according to the faith of the king of the time. During KANISHKA’S reign ,the 4^th budhist council was held in kashmir under the chairmanship of KATAYANIPUTRA. Budhist missionaries went  to  spread the message of Budh to Ladhakh and Tibet and thus Budhism came to Ladakh and Tibet from Kashmir. Budhism flourished in kashmir upto 9/10^th   century A.D. .In 8^th century,TRIKA Shaivism  ( a monism specialised in kashmir)was  the dominant creed and such luminaries like UTPALA,VASU GUPT, ABHINAV GUPT,and KSHEMENERA  lived in Kashmir who produced the treatises of this creed and their propagation  of shaivism affected the domination of Budhism.. GAUTAM BUDH being  considered by Hindus as an incarnation of VISHNU indicated  an inclusiveness that led to mixing of the faiths and thinning of the lines of separation. The importance of the Shaivism or Budhism in that period  depended on the patronage of king and his faith.There  were periodic discourses by theologists of both faiths debating (based on logic) on the points raised by each other.IT IS A FACT OF HISTORY THAT NO WARS WERE FOUGHT FOR PROPAGATION OF HINDUISM AND BUDHISM, NOR WERE ANY FORCED COVERSIONS INDULDGED IN BY BOTH. By the end of 10^th   century  ,Budhism had declined in the valley and Shaivism was dominant. There have also been conclusions drawn by the modern historians that icoclanism was not been the characteristics of MUSLIM KINGS only but prevailed in the nonmuslim era also. The fact remains that there have been  a few   instances  like JULAKA, NARA, ABHIMANYU1, KHEMENDRA, MIHIRGUL,SHANKAR VERMAN,and HARSHA but their motive was avenging a personal pique,or replenishing the empty state  treasuries due to profilgacy,or  ransacking and loot due to devilry.There have been instances when the marauders have rebuilt the shrines after deep repentance.I am not aware of any such instance of rebuilding a temple,or vihara  by a muslim king which was destroyed by him earlier. The modern historians have induldged in a selective forgetfulness to the motive of destroying any non muslim symbol and dissent by the muslim rulers of those days for the spread of islam.This practice restarted in kashmir after the mass exodus of pandits in 1990’s.Before we proceed, there are three rulers in the Hindu period which deserve mention:

a.Queen Dida who ascended the kasmir throne by getting her step son murdered and ruled as a proxy for her infant son,proved to be a fair,and able ruler and consolidated her domain.

b.Avantiverman of Utpula dynasty.His reign was a period of development,prosperity and good governance.Founded AWANTIPORA town.He put his eminent engineer Suya on drainage of Srinagar city as for control of floods and marshes below wular lake by deepening the river jehlum ( called vitasta) . On such land reclaimations,apart from agricultural land , and new towns sprung up one of whom was named suyapur (now sopore) after him.

b.Lalita dittya mukhpada

Famed for his conquests beyond the valley thus expanding the territory north and south. Got the MARTAND SUNtemple constructed at the plateau near Mattan.