History of Kashmir

The history of Kashmir traces a Himalayan region shaped by ancient kingdoms, Hindu and Buddhist traditions, Muslim sultanates, imperial rule, and modern partition and territorial conflict.

Connect

Kalhana: A twelfth-century Kashmiri poet who composed the Sanskrit chronicle Rajatarangini. His chronicle is the principal narrative source for Kashmir’s early rulers.
Kashmir Shaivism: A nondual tradition of Hindu philosophy and practice that developed in Kashmir. Its texts and teachers made medieval Kashmir a major center of Shaiva thought.
Shah Mir dynasty: The first Muslim dynasty to rule Kashmir, established in the fourteenth century. Its foundation marks the transition from earlier Hindu dynasties to Muslim sultanate rule.
Sikh Empire: A South Asian empire founded by Ranjit Singh that ruled Kashmir from 1819 to 1846. Its conquest ended Afghan rule and set the stage for Dogra authority.
Kashmir conflict: A long-running dispute over sovereignty and governance in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Modern conflict is the most consequential continuation of the region’s contested political history.
Rajatarangini: A Sanskrit chronicle of Kashmir’s kings written by Kalhana in the twelfth century. It recounts the region’s dynastic past and shaped later historical writing.
Buddhism in Kashmir: The historical presence and development of Buddhist communities and institutions in Kashmir. Buddhist learning connected Kashmir to wider networks across South and Central Asia.
Kashmir Sultanate: A Muslim kingdom that ruled Kashmir from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Its rulers reshaped institutions, court culture, and religious life in the valley.
Treaty of Amritsar (1846): An 1846 agreement that established Gulab Singh as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir under British suzerainty. It created the princely state whose accession became central to the 1947 dispute.
Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir: The 1947 legal document by which Maharaja Hari Singh acceded Jammu and Kashmir to India. Its circumstances and scope remain central to rival accounts of the state’s political status.