Land of Kashyapa - Page #5 - Kashmir and Islam

Kashmir and Islam

India's relationship with the Middle East and West Asia goes even back to the pre islamic period. Islam came to India with the traders. There is a mosque in Kerala called the Cheraman Perumal Juma Mosque near Thrissur. The Legend is - "Cheraman Perumal Tajuddin, the Hindu King who moved to Arabia to meet Prophet Muhammad and converted to Islam.". 629AD is the date per the legend.
The first wave of invasions were by the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th century. When Muḥammad ibn Qasim defeated Raja Dahir of the Sindhi Brahman dynasty and sent the Rajas head to his governor in Basra, it maked the beginning of Muslim rule in India. Then came the Ghaznavids, Mongols and Sufis. Just to mention "Sufism never betrayed Islamic orthodoxy; if anything, it is Islamic orthodoxy in its purest form". And then came Sikandar Shah Miri in the early 1400's. Sikandar cleansed Kashmir of all "heretics and infidels'' (read Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs). Sikandar is epithetized as ''butshikan", the "idol-breaker." More about him when I write about the Hindu temple ruins.
Kashmiri Shaivism rose and flourished for 700 years. It all ended during the Lohara dynasty. Nothing pulls down dynasties like internecine wars, high taxes and general resentment. Which explains - ‘the enemy is always within’ Islamization gained momentum and soon Kashmir Shaivism and use of Sanskrit waned.
"For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir, including the Mughal Empire, who ruled from 1586 until 1751, and the Afghan Durrani Empire, which ruled from 1747 until 1819. That year, the Sikhs, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Treaty of Lahore was signed and upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, (Dogra dynasty) became the new ruler of Kashmir. The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory"
In our first stop of a tour of Srinagar we stopped at the "Kathi Darwaza" - built around the Hari Parbat fort (which I will write about later). The Kathi Darwaza is one of three gateways to the city that Emperor Akbar wanted in 1598. The other doors are Sangeen Darwaza and Bachhi Darwaza.
I made a wide angle picture of the Kathi Darwaza, and at 13mm wide I was extremely pleased with the skewing and perspective of the lens.
Just after the Darwaza I found this shop that sells a massive Kashmiri roti - which is actually a puri on steroids (fried in oil). They sell pieces of the Roti (like a slices of Pizza) and roll it up with halwa for consumption.
Sri Madhusudhanan Kalaichelvan elaborated on the elements that go into a typical gateway.
Sriram(Hari)

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