Baharistan-I-Shahi: A Chronicle of Mediaeval Kashmir

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Babaristan-i-Shabi is a Farsi manuscript history of medieval Kashmir written by an anonymous author (now identified as Muhammad Ali Kashmiri) in AH 1023 corresponding to AD 1614. A manuscript copy of the history is in the State Archives of J&K but, somehow it has remained inaccessible to researchers. The author belongs to the Shia faith. Kashmiri historians writing in Farsi have carefully avoided mentioning this work or drawing from it, leave aside giving it the importance it deserved. For four centuries, this significant chronicle of Kashmir remained unknown to or unaddressed by the students of Kashmir history though sparse references were not missing.

The main reason why this work remained relegated to oblivion is that it gives the story of the civilizational transformation of Kashmir, begun in the mid-14th century and lasting for the next two centuries, without suppressing or distorting the facts. Because the transformation was violent and unmistakeably reflected the Theo-fascist tendencies that repudiate the misleading Sufi convulsion, the book remained suppressed and even denounced. Babaristan can be considered the first and so far the only history of medieval Kashmir that reflects the dynamics of a profound social transformation of millennia-old indigenous society to a culture geographically, socially and philosophically springing from an alien origin.

A master copy was established after collating several MSS of the work particularly the two obtained from the British Museum and the India Office Library Useful footnotes have been added.

Dr Kashinath Pandit, originally from Baramulla, has a PhD in Iranian Studies, which is his area of specialization. He retired from Kashmir University as Director of the Centre of Central Asian studies. He has won the President of India's Award for Classical Studies and was also awarded Padma Shri by the President of India in 2017 He has authored about ten works on Kashmir and the region.

There is considerable evidence available that indicates the onset of stagnation and consequent degeneration of Kashmir society by the beginning of the tenth century (A.D.). It was becoming more and more difficult to throw up and sustain a strong central authority for the whole of Kashmir Valley. This led to a long period of intensive wars among Damras. and the contemporary central authority. Professor D.D. Kosambi, using a scientific methodology for his investigations, has been able to provide us profound insights in the appearance of this phenomenon. We quote: "The need to import trade goods, particularly salt and metal. difficult transport, lowering of grain prices with great increase in village settlements due to extensive water-works, meant concentration of wealth in a few hands for each small group of villages (emphasis added). A Kashmiri village could not be as nearly self-sufficient as one in India for the rigours and more varied climate made it impossible to do without wool, which had to be produced for exchange against cereals as a commodity.... In Kashmir the man who bad surplus acquired more wealth by trade, took to arms, and turned into a Damra.... The conflict between King and Damra feudal baron and central power, led ultimately to a Kashmirian Hindu king plundering temple property and melting down the images for profit, without change of religion or theological excuses, simply to maintain the army and a costly state apparatus. Because this could not continue forever, we have the ultimate victory of feudalism, and the weakening of the central power.... To pay for its essential import (salt and metal) Kashmir had an ideal commodity over a mountain to a large market, and without serious competition.... Without the Crocus or some equivalent commodity, the internal history of Kashmir would have been far less turbulent." (The Sardasatabdhi Commemoration Volume, The Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1957, pp. 108-120)

The above analysis refers to a much earlier period than the one dealt with in detail in Bahāristan-i-Shahi. Nevertheless, some useful clues may be found here to the otherwise seemingly senseless quarrels and conflicts of this period, before the Mughal takeover in AD 1587.

The disintegration of Kashmir society gathered momentum from the 10th century onwards, through endless conflicts between Damras and contemporary kings. It was during this period that the new ideas of Islam and some of its adherents slowly began to penetrate the Valley, and later culminated in the deposition of the last Hindu ruler Kota Rani by Shah Mir, a fugitive Khashya Muslim chieftain from Panchghavara (present Rajouri-Budhal) region who seized the throne of Kashmir by perfidy. He founded the first Muslim ruling dynasty of Kashmir under the title Sultan Shamsu'd-Din Shah Mir in A.D. 1339 ushering in a new epoch in Kashmir history.

The introduction of a foreign faith in Kashmir meant greater movement and activity on the trade routes to Western and Central Asia. In particular contact with Persian civilization became quite close, and linguistic barriers were crossed on a broad front. Alongside, favourable opportunities were created now for enterprising and ambitious missionaries and other adventurers from this region to thrive in the beautiful Valley by building a strong social base for their power and wealth.

Kashmir may rightfully boast of a long tradition of producing histories and historical works of considerable value. No fewer than a dozen histories are referred to by Kalhana which, besides other materials, served him as sources for his celebrated chronicle Rajatarangini written in Laukika 4225 corresponding to A.D. 1149/50, Kalhana's impact on the historians and chroniclers who followed him is evident in at least the works of four of them who endeavoured to carry on the tradition of recording the events of the rulers of their time: Jonaraja, Srivara, Präjyabhatta and Suka. While the work of Prajyabhatta is lost to us, the history of Suka takes us to the time of the second tenure of Sultan Fath Shah in A.D. 1538. The historical accounts of these four Sanskrit historians are relatively brief; they make only veiled references to events which deserved to be treated in greater detail. But they wrote under several constraints, and that perhaps explains why their perception and presentation of events did not match that of Kalhana's. It is also likely that what has survived the ravages of time is only a fragment of what they had written. Nevertheless, these accounts are valuable to us; at least we have something to fall back upon.

The tradition solidly established by Kalhana, which was marked by objectivity in approach and treatment, was followed by many later historians of Kashmir. From the time of the advent of Islam in Kashmir (placed by some historians somewhere in the last decade of the thirteenth century, though the presence of the people of Islamic faith in Kashmir had been reported by Kalhana in as early as the eighth century) to the reign of Mahārāja Pratap Singh the third Dogra ruler (d. A.D. 1925), many histories of Kashmir were produced in Persian. After the expansion of Islam in Iran and Central Asia, the art of recording the events and affairs of rulers and their subjects developed in a manner in conformity with the Islamic traditions. When the conversion process in Kashmir reached its culmination in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the social and political turbulence died down, the resultant peaceful order stimulated hitherto suspended intellectual and artistic activity. For more than a century after the founding of Muslim rule in Kashmir, Sanskrit continued to be used officially alongside Persian, though it was evident that the latter would very soon replace the former both as official language and the language of the elite. No wonder, therefore, that a patron of learning like Sultan Zainu'l-'Abidin worked for preserving the rich cultural heritage of Kashmir by starting a bureau of translation for translating Sanskrit works into Persian. Kalhana's Rajatarangini was translated during this very time. Unfortunately, much of the material produced during this time has been lost. Persian historiography had a rich tradition behind it. When Persian language took roots in Kashmir, the science of writing histories also absorbed the tradition which had already been established.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages