By DR.ABDUL AHAD
Internally, it was equally and essentially innate Kashmiri inquisitiveness: their unquenchable thirst for knowledge; their relentless urge and striving after perfection, and above all their burning desire of sharing skills, experiences and other innumerable benefits accruing from a frequent, vibrant and lovely cultural give and take; that prompted Kashmir to interact more widely and enthusiastically with the world beyond Zojila, Burzil, Tosamaidan, Banihal and Uri and, thereby, develop requisite acumen to fathom the complexities of Universe and become more and more objective and moral to launch a protracted struggle against ignorance, superstition, backwardness, poverty and injustice.
Externally, nothing but a huge and ever-growing spiritual and intellectual acquisitiveness induced grand propagandists and dedicated zealots of the Hindu and Buddhist civilizations to undertake, successively, a systematic voyage to explore fairly adequate and socio-religiously temperate zones for bringing them within their fold and sphere of influence. Kashmir being the most highly developed Asiatic esse; a cordial and peaceful entity and ; a picturesque land with bewitching beauty and too enticing a climate appealed them more than other places, notwithstanding its geographical hitches and topographical complexities.
Being fairly appreciative of human nature and its egocentric tentacles and self-seeking dispositions and over-conscious of the bewitching influence their sagacity and hospitality and also the scenic beauty of their land had the potential to exercise on non-locals and over-possessive of their habitat the Kashmiris made arrangements to overcome any eventuality that might arise in the never ending process of their cultural assimilation-to jeopardize their indigenous complexes”.
These arrangements, admirably elucidated in the Nilmatpurana, the earliest available source on ancient Kashmir, were quite adequate and competent to guard the Kashmiri interests against their slipping into the burrow of foreign termites that were there to swallow them up undetectably. They enabled the Kashmiris to deal effectively with those elements who showed propensity for securing a monopoly over native resources, including land, women and wealth.
But the avarice of outsiders was so top-heavy that these measures finally messed up to persuade them assume a bossy attitude and exploit the society to the hilt, and, thereby, build up its heterogeneity to generate a pattern of relationships characterised by caste system – the most awful feature of Hindu civilization entirely hostile to the essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, which says
Muktir hitvan yatha-rupam
Savarpena vyavasthiteh
(It means total liberation from consciousness of this material world and situation in pure consciousness where acquisitiveness and veranas (castes) become absolutely redundant).
This was the most despicable component of Hinduism which engendered unpleasant and antagonistic social barriers in the society and overshadowed its harmonious panorama horribly. It resulted in dehumanizing and disintegrating the achievements of this civilization; compelling the Kashmiris to opt out of it to entreat the Buddhists to awash their land with the monasteries, vihars and stupas, and a platoon of Bikshus with the hope of obtaining common good and enriching their ethos. But the louder claims of Buddhism to rectify the wrongs and change the social milieu proved mere hoax. Instead of any makeover it converted the Valley into a hideout of a whole lot of recluse bent upon not only spoiling our collective image but also accelerating the schismatic movements of Hiyana and Mahayana Buddhism, It botched to ensure any societal renovation or take tangible steps to replenish its spiritual stocks with humanism, simplicity, compassion, moral ascendancy and philanthropy which were badly needed by the Kashmiris to get through the complexities bequeathed to them by its precursor. Nor could it be in command of the unbridled disposition of its servants, cohorts, monks and Bikshus whose characteristic behavior and corrupt practices ultimately dragged this civilization out of Kashmir leaving behind the Valley to rot, once again, under the nasty hands of murderers and ruffians who in the garb of Purohits, Kayasthas and Sadhus exploited its resources heartlessly to become more wealthy, powerful and influential to the detriment of society; undermining, thus, the whole fabric of Kashmiri civilization overwhelmingly.
The wheels of both these civilizations completed full circle finally to pave the way for Islamic civilization to enter Kashmir and reshape its ethos on healthy basis by massive overhauling of its spiritual, cultural, economic and intellectual institutions, and by rectifying the snags it had developed over a period of time owing to waywardness of its Kings and Queens, the drunken revelries and compulsive gambling errands of its nobility and landed aristocracy and a life of gross self-indulgence of its self-seeking and self-proclaimed gods’ and goddesses’ and their intermediaries: the Purohits, who had spread, almost like spiders, the web of their languid sensuality, debauchery and sin to trap their prey for fulfilling their carnal desires and, thereby, turn the Valley into a sinkhole of depravity; a gigantic brothel, steeped in animal lust with syphilis as its offshoot.
……concluded
Dr. Abdul Ahad is a well-known historian of Kashmir. He presents a perspective on the Kashmir issue and talks about Kashmir’s history and individuality and personality.
