GODDESS OF THE MOUNTAINS
01 April 2018
My Indian friends insist Sharda was a university in ancient times. I, however, find no reference to a school at the site. Sources only mention the temple. Nor, too, did I find any archaeological trace in the area around the temple compound.
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| The ruins of the Sharda Temple |
Up in the valley of the Kishanganga (duly Islamised to Neelam) River, in the elbow where the Madhumati flows into it from the south-east, the ruined Sharda temple sits on a hill above the village named after the temple.
Read more »Labels: Heritage, Kashmir Diaries, Mountains
posted by Salman Rashid @ 11:40,
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The Rani’s Baoli
19 September 2016
The edifice is unpretentious. But the quality of construction is superior. So fine, in fact, that the building could only have been built for nobility. Nadia, my hostess in Palandri (Kashmir), said it was called baoli – the traditional subcontinental well with steps descending to water level – and I imagined a structure like the Mughals were so fond of building.
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| School in progress in the Rani’s Baoli. The rani’s room is in the background with the utility rooms on right |
As I was driven a few kilometres outside Palandri town, Nadia told me the building is believed to have been a watering place for the animals of passing caravans and nothing more. When we arrived, the fine architecture immediately told me that the structure was much more than what they believed it to be. Ell-shaped with the rooms fronting an open courtyard formed by a low wall on two sides, the building comprises six rooms of various sizes.
Read more »Labels: Heritage, Kashmir, Kashmir Diaries, TNS
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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The real Sharda
21 May 2014
The tourism department of Azad Kashmir bills it ‘the great university of Sharda’. Their brochures and several other write-ups on the internet attribute this report to Abu Rehan Al Beruni, the 11th century scholar.
Now Al Beruni visited Kashmir circa 1020 and when he was in Srinagar, he wrote, ‘In Inner Kashmir, about two or three days’ journey from the capital in the direction of the mountains of Bolor, there is a wooden idol called Sarada, which is much revered and frequented by pilgrims.’
Read more »Labels: Kashmir Diaries
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Travels Through Kashmir
14 May 2014
Mirpur Britain
There is Great Britain and then there is Mirpur Britain where you can, especially in winters, meet young folks who speak with all sorts of British accents from the deep south to Yorkshire and even up into Scotland. Everyone you meet in this Kashmiri town has close relatives in Britain. And the young college boys I met were all a-raring to head off to ‘Eng laand’ with the accent heavy on the second syllable.
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| Mirpur houses built with British money. Most houses are either empty or occupied by relatives of those who toil at menial jobs in Britain |
Tradition has it that from sometime late in the 19th century, men from Mirpur joined the Royal Indian Navy and merchant marine in large numbers. These were days of coal-fired steam boats and the men were mostly stokers manning the grimy innards with the blazing furnaces and the huge pounding engines. Even when diesel and furnace oil burning ships became usual, the men of Mirpur continued to work in the engine rooms. It is said that they had a knack for working around large machinery.
Read more »Labels: Kashmir Diaries
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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