Travel Diary of Sriram and Soumya

Land of Kashyapa - Page#24 Last Page Sir Walter Lawrence in his ‘The Valley of Kashmir’ writes "Kashmir is full of temples, shrines, and centers of pilgrimage or ‘Teertha’. Almost every mountain peak, cave, and spring have temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and the different forms of Divine Mother Bhawani". But time is relentless. "marching forever onward, stripping away everything in its path". How else can you explain the near demise of a fertile civilization? We gave the world Arthashastra and yet we failed when it came to defending our lands. To understand the invader we need to understand his mind. When Mahmud Ghaznavi came to demolish the Somnath temple, the priests of the temple negotiated with him, offering to pay gold equal in weight to the idol. Ghaznavi rejected the offer saying "I'd rather be known as but-shikan (idol breaker) than as but-farosh (idol seller)". India is vibrant because it has different colours. Kashmir once had several vibrant...

Land of Kashyapa - Page#23 The boxes you need to tick Of the numerous boxes, you may want to tick when you are in Kashmir, the top box should be a visit to the Lal Chowk clock tower. I hadn’t imagined that I would, in my lifetime, be standing at Lal Chowk in peace and taking a picture in front of the Ghanta Ghar ( Clock tower) in my lifetime. The Communists in Srinagar named it Lal Chowk after Lenin seized power in Moscow in 1917. But the tower has been a witness, during the past three decades, to so much bloodshed that makes the name Lal Chowk (Red Square) appropriate. After Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi unfurled the Indian Flag atop the tower in 1992, the Ghanta Ghar has seen many Pakistani flags. At a point in time, the entire tower was wrapped in green. In their quest for political power and grand lifestyles, the “leaders” put thousands of youth on the chopping block. With the Abrogation of 370 in August of 2019, a separate Kashmir flag had become irrelevant. Srinagar has a vast number o...

Land of Kashyapa - Page#22 Naranag, a Yatra and the massacre of the Hindus To understand the importance of Naranag one has to understand the importance of Harmukh-Gangabal Yatra. Situated at 16,870 feet above the sea-level, the Harmukh Peak is believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva. Since time immemorial, Kashmiri Pandits have been carrying the ashes of their departed souls for immersion in the Gangabal lake, which is locally believed to be the Ganges of the Hindus. The Gangabal Lake also called Haramukh ganga, is situated at the foot of Mount Haramukh. The lake is considered sacred in Hinduism and is one of the homes of Lord Shiva. Kashmiri Hindus perform the annual pilgrimage of Harmukh-Gangabal Yatra after performing Puja at the Naranag temple. The Yatra trek is a 36-km journey on foot. The Yatra is performed during Ganga Ashtami which is a ritual dedicated to the dead ancestors, parents, and relatives. It falls during the month of September. The ashes of those who had died during t...

Land of Kashyapa - Page#21 Shankaracharya Temple It was the 13th day of October 2022. It was the will of the cosmos that I should be here on my birthday at the temple where Sri Adi Shankara composed Soundarya Lahiri ("The waves of Beauty"), whose 100 stanzas eulogize the beauty, grace, and munificence of Goddess Parvati. The hill is on the southern tip of Dal Lake. After a short journey by car up the hills, the temple is accessed by a flight of about 240 steps that has some breathtaking views of the city, lake, and Hari Parbat. Swami Vivekananda, who visited Srinagar in 1897 described this most conspicuous temple: “Look! what genius the Hindu shows in placing his temples! He always chooses a grand scenic effect! See, the hill commands the whole of Kashmir.” "The temple was originally built by King Sandhiman of the Gonanda Dynasty of Kashmir in (2605-2540 BC). He gave the name “Jeshteshwara “ and the hillock “Sandhiman Parbat”. According to Dr. Stein, King Gopaditya (369-...

Land of Kashyapa - Page#20 Parihaspora In Sanskrit - "hasa" is smiling. "Parihasa" has several meanings including Fun or Mirth or Merriment. Lalitaditya Muktapida, about whom I have written in my earlier pages in this series, built his new "pura" (a city in Sanskrit) and called it Parihaspora (city of fun and joy) Parihaspora is about 30 kilometers west of Srinagar and 10 kilometers east of the Sankaragaurisvara and Sugandhesa temple ruins which we saw on Page#19 of "Land of Kashyapa" Pandit Kalhana writes in his Rajatarangini - “There is no town or village, no river or lake, no island where the king did not build a sacred foundation.” He built the famous and elegant Sun temple at Martand and Parihaskesva at his capital Parihasspura." Writer Chaman Lal Gadoo observes: "Lalitaditya in Parihasapora - built four Vaishnava temples— the Muktakesva, Parihaskesava, Mahvaraha and Govardhanadhara besides a Buddhist monastery and a grand chaitya....

  Land of Kashyapa - Page#19 Sankaragaurisvara and Sugandhesa temple ruins 30 kilometers to the west of Srinagar and close to Baramulla are the ruins of the Sankaragaurisvara and Sugandhesa temples. Both places are less than a kilometer apart. The morning we traveled to the place, the roads were abuzz with army movement. Lots of armored carriers and trucks were moving at a furious pace with sirens blaring. Just that morning and not far from our place there had been killings. I was confused and surprised by the divide that existed in Kashmir. After decades of turmoil, on the one side, seemingly peace is prevailing as schools and businesses are running as usual, and on the other, there is an undercurrent of fear and apprehension about daily life with the threat from terrorists. Anyone could clearly see that the presence of the Indian army was important in restoring sanity and making life-as-usual possible. To the critics of the Indian Army, I can only recall the famous line by Jack N...

Pratapswami temple “Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.” - Will Durant Indian Historian Sita Ram Goel, though he initially had Marxist leanings, later became an outspoken anti-communist and also wrote extensively on the damage to Indian culture and heritage wrought by expansionist Islam and missionary activities of Christianity. In his chapter 'Let the Mute Witnesses Speak' from the book 'Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them' - he writes: "We learn from literary and epigraphic sources, accounts of foreign travelers in medieval times, and modern archaeological explorations that, on the eve of the Islamic invasion, the cradle of Hindu culture was honeycombed with temples and monasteries, in many shapes and sizes. The same sources inform us that many more temples and monasteries continued to come up in places where the Islamic invasion had yet to reach or from where it was forced to retire for some time by the rallying of Hindu resistance. Hindus were...

Loduv 30 kilometers to the southeast of Srinagar is Loduv. It is on the route to Awantipora. Historian and archaeologist Ram Chandra Kak, in "Ancient Monuments of Kashmir", considers the temple to be the first of its kind and the forerunner of the elaborate Avantiswami and Martand Temples. I read that the Loduv temple was once called Jeevanath Temple where Shiva was prayed as Bhairava. Also "this style of architecture came to an end around 6th century AD; therefore the temple cannot be dated later than the early years of the Karkota dynasty, perhaps even to the late 6th or early 7th century" It seems "the place is revered by locals, who routinely come to the temple to offer the milk of a lactating cow, whenever the cow births a calf, to the sacred symbolic' 'nag ``. When we reached the temple, it was nearly dark, and we had to negotiate a high wall to reach the sanctum standing in the middle of a "spring or a naturally fed pond known as Sanyas...

Awantipora Wherever we went in Kashmir I saw copper utensils that were tastefully decorated in floral motifs and geometrical patterns. The most beautiful thing I saw was a copper Samovar that served delicious "Kahwah" tea. The mountains of this place have copper deposits which have been mined since ancient times by Kings to mint currency. Much before Islam came to this place, Kings had been minting coins in silver and copper. Successful Kings were able to keep prices of essentials low and affordable for the masses. The currency of Kashmir in ancient India was complex and structured. Currencies were graded as Kowri, Bahagain, Punsu, and Hath. I read that even Dinar was a currency - only that its value was ridiculously very small. The need to mention the coinage and currency is to help the reader understand why history gives great importance to the lowering of prices of grain when it talks about kings like Avantivarman. It is said that during his time the price of paddy showed ...