Kashmir

The Kingdom of Kashmir
Kasheer

[[]] [[]] Flag Roundel
Winter Capital	Srinigar
Coordinates	latitude: 34° 4' 60" N longitude: 74° 49' 0" E
Summer Capital	Jammu City
Coordinates	latitude: 32° 43' 60" N longitude: 74° 52' 0" E
Government	constitutional monarchy
Legislature	Parliament Gyelyang Tshogdu
Head of State	His Royal Highness Vikramaditya Singh (2003)
Head of Government	?
Demonym	Kashmiri
Formation
Foundation	596
Independence	1820
Personal Union	1921
Constitution	1959
League of Nations	1980
Himalayan Confederacy	1980
Himalayan Postal Union	1982
Area	121,586 km² 46,945 mi²
Population	6,000,000
Languages
Official	Kashmiri
Other	Nepali
Religions
Official	Nihang Sikhism 84%
Other	Shaivism 13% Vajrayana Buddhism 3%
Currency	1 Himalayan Rupee (Rs) = 20 annaa (a) = 240 paise (p)
Time zone	UTC +6:00 DST is not observed.
ISO Code	KSH
International Vehicle Identification Code	KSH
Telephone Code	443
Organizations	League of Nations Himalayan Confederacy
Sports
Official
Other

History

• Text in bold print indicates PoD.

Pre-Islam

• Kashmir was one of the major centers of Sanskrit scholarship. According to the Mahabharata, the Kambojas ruled Kashmir during the epic period with a republican system of government from the capital city of Rajapura. Later, the Panchalas established their sway and their king Pravarasena II founded the city of Parvasenpur. Asoka, the great ruler of the Mauryan Empire introduced Buddhism to the region. The new religion co-existed peacefully with the dominant Hindu culture.
• Kashmir became an important seat of Buddhist learning, dominated by the Sarvastivadan school. Monks from eastern and central Asia visited the kingdom. In the late fourth century A.D., the famous Kuchanese monk Kumarajiva, born to an Indian noble family, studied in Kashmir under the great scholar Bandhudatta. He later became a prolific translator who helped introduce Buddhism to China. Vimalaksa, a Sarvastivadan Buddhist monk, travelled from Kashmir to Kucha and there instructed Kumarajiva in the Vinayapitaka. Although Buddhism was widespread in Kashmir long before the time of Asoka, it enjoyed his patronage, as well as that not only of the Buddhist rulers but of Hindu and early Muslim rulers as well. From Kashmir, it spread to the neighboring Ladakh.

Muslim rule

• The Abbasid Caliphate, during their stay in Persia, expanded into Afghanopakistan and northern India, but the new religion had little impact on the mass of the people and remained the religion of the ruling elite only.
• In 1339, in the vacuum left by the fall of the Abassid Caliphate, Shams-ud-Din Shah Mir became the ruler of Kashmir and the founder of the Shah Miri dynasty. He came from Swat, a tribal territory on the eastern border of Afghanistan. Until his death in 1342, he played a notable role in the political history of the valley.
• Shah Mir was succeeded by his eldest son Jamshid, but he was deposed by his brother Ali Sher five months later. Ali Sher ascended the throne assuming the royal name Alauddin.
• The Muslim rulers lived in relative harmony with their Hindu and Buddhist subjects, due partly to the similarity of the Sufi way of life of the rulers to the Rishi tradition of the Kashmiri Hindus. This led to a syncretic culture in some areas where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines.
• Most of the Kashmiri rulers, such as Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, were tolerant of the religions of their subjects. However, several were intolerant, of whom Sultan Sikandar Butshikan (1389-1413) and his (former Brahmin) minister Saif ud-Din were the worst. Historians have recorded many of the atrocities carried out in his persecution of the Hindus and Buddhists. He even went so far as to proscribe the residence of anyone other than a Muslim in Kashmir.

Sikh/Hindu rule

• In 1780, after the death of Ranjit Deo, the Raja of Jammu, the Kingdom of Jammu (to the south of the Kashmir Valley) was captured by the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of Lahore and became tributary to the Sikh R.S. until 1846.
• Ranjit Deo's grandnephew, Gulab Singh, subsequently sought service at the court of Ranjit Singh, distinguished himself in later campaigns, especially in the conquest of the Kashmir Valley in 1819, which ended a thousand years of Muslim rule. For his services, he was created the first Mahararaja of Jammu in 1820 beginning the Dogra Dynasty. With the help of his officer, Zorawar Singh, Gulab Singh soon captured Kashmir, and the Buddhist kingdoms of Ladakh and Baltistan.
• After Gulab Singh's death in 1857, his son, Ranbir Singh, added the emirates of Astore, Hunza-Nagar, and Gilgit to the rajadom.
• Partab Singh (1830-1885) succeeded his father in 1885.
• Hari Singh (1895-1961), the son of Partab Singh's brother Amar, succeeded to the throne in 1925.
• Karan Singh (1931-2003) succeeded upon the death his father in 1961. He was married to Yasho Rajya Lakshmi (1939-2009), the granddaughter of Mohan Rana, the last Rana prime minister of Nepal.
• In 1980, Kashmir, as a part of the United Kingdom, became a partner in the Himalayan Confederacy.
• In 1982, Kashmir and Jammu became members of the Himalayan Postal Union.
• Karan Singh's eldest son, Vikramaditya, succeeds his father in 2003. Kashmir's rules of succession are based on male primogeniture so his older sister will not succeed.

The Dogra Rajas of Kashmir

Name	Succeeds	Reign	Died	Notes
1) Gulab Singh		1846-1857	1857
2) Ranbir Singh	father	1857-1885	1885
3) Partab Singh	father	1885-1925	1925
4) Hari Singh	uncle	1925-1961	1961	son of Partab's brother Amar
5) Karan Singh	father	1961-2003	2003
4) Vikramaditya Singh	father	2003

Toponymy

The Nilamata Purana describes the origin of Kashmir as coming from का ka (water) + शिमिरि shimir (to desiccate). Hence, Kashmir denotes “a land desiccated from water”. An alternative etymology proposes that Kashmir is a contraction of either Kashyap-mir(a) or Kashyapmeru, denoting the “sea of Kashyapa” or the “mountain of Kashyapa”, eponyms of the sage Rishi Kashyapa, the sage being credited with having drained the primordial Satisar Lake that occupied the Kashmir Valley before he reclaimed it from the water.

Government

Provinces

Province (anchal)	Capital	Area	Population	Prefectures (jilla)	Notes
Anantnag	Anantnag	3,984 km² 1,538 mi²
Baramulla	Baramulla	4,588 km² 1,771 mi²
Budgam	Budgam	1,371 km² 529 mi²
Kupwara	Kupwara	2,379 km² 919 mi²
Pulwama	Pulwama	1,370 km² 529 mi²
Srinagar	Srinagar	2,228 km² 860 mi²
Muzaffarab	Muzaffarab	9,738 km² 3,760 mi²
Gilgit	Gilgit	39,300 km² 15,172 mi²
Astore	Astore	8,657 km² 3,342 mi²
Diamir	Chilas	10,936 km² 4,233 mi²
Ghizar	Gakuch	9,635 km² 3,720 mi²
Ghanche	Khaplu	9,400 km² 3,629 mi²
Skardu	Skardu	18,000 km² 6,950 mi²

• Thus, the total area of the kingdom is 121,586 km², slightly larger than *here's* North Korea.
• The Kingdom of Kashmir is contiguous with *here's* Kashmir portion of the Indian state of Kashmir and Jammu, and the Pakistani states of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Borders

• Based, as much as possible, on World Map 2001.
• Kashmir is bordered on the
  • Northeast by Tibet
  • East by Ladakh
  • South by Jammu
  • West by Sikh Razj Samdh
  • Northwest by Moghul National Realm

Culture

National symbols

• National mammal: Kashmir stag (Cervus elaphus hanglu)
• National bird: Lanceolated jay (Garrulus lanceolatus]
• National flower: Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus)
• National tree: Himalayan birch (Betula utilis)
• National dish: rogan josh (lamb curry)
• National emblem:
  • For supporters,
  • For a crest,
• National aviation roundel:
• National instrument: santoor
• National colors: blue and deep saffron

Kashmiri public holidays

Date	Name	Notes
5 January	Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh	Guru Gobind Singh was born on 22 December 1669.
14 February	The Queen's Birthday	Mothers' Day - Her Majesty was born in 1967.
4 March 2015	Hola Mohalla	Sikh Olympic events.
6 March 2015	Holi	A spring festival celebrating Vishnu's defeat of Hiranyakishapu.
14 April 2015	Vaisakhi	Founding of the Khalsa - a 4-day festival of which only the first day is a legal holiday.
24 May	The King's Coronation	His Majesty was crowned in 2003.
1 July	Founding of the United Monarchy	The United Monarchy was founded in 1922.
4 July	The King's Birthday	Fathers' Day - His Majesty was born in 1964.
1 September	Consecration of the Adi Granth	The Adi Granth was installed in the Golden Temple in 1604.
2nd Monday in September	Election Day	In the even-numbered years; local and federal alternating, e.g., local in 2010, federal in 2012.
11 November 2015	Diwali	The Hindus commemorate the return of Rama from his exile and his vanquishing of Ravana; the Sikhs celebrate the release from prison of the sixth guru, Guru Hargobind.
25 November 2015	Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev	Guru Nanak Dev was born on 15 April 1469.