Kashmir is a land of fabled beauty and eternal romance. It is blessed by nature with beauteous scenery, wondrous fertility and salubrious climate. Writers describe it as "One of the finest countries upon which the sun shines" and "The Sub-Alpine region of Asia's Italy" and the "The unsurpassed land for its scenery." Kashmir is verily "the terrestrial Paradise of the indies", a fairy-land, where each curve presents a grand picture, and every horizon a new scene, each leaf a distinct lesson and each flower a new look. The poets have described Kashmir as a garden land of picturesque scenery, lovely landscapes, unrivalled vistas, majestic forests, green pastures, shimmering waters of vast, silent and transparent lakes and rivers, perennial snows, mighty chains of snow-clad mountains, rumbling cataracts and roaring waterfalls.

This is the first full-length history of early Kashmir locating it beyond its regional context, from pre-history to the thirteenth century. Drawing on a variety of sources—including conventional archaeological and literary sources, as well as non-conventional sources like philology, toponym and surnames—it presents a connected history of early Kashmir over the longue duree. It challenges tendencies towards nationalist historiographies of the region by situating it in the context of the shared histories of humanity. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, archaeology, anthropology and South Asian studies.

Increasing accessibility of Tibet has provided important new insights on the history and context of Tibetan art. This book discusses the impact of Tibetan patronage on Buddhist artistic monuments from both the heartland of Tibet as well as its far (cultural) borders. A score of experts here explore the dialectic between local and “foreign” traditions. Thus the role of Indian artistic traditions, the merging with Chinese, Kidan and Turkic artistic features come to the fore, while at the same time Central Tibet gets ample attention. Recent field research and the study of previously neglected primary literary (inscriptional) evidence make clear that the study of Tibetan art is still in its infancy. This edited volume is the first comprehensive guide to emerging new insights on the intricate context in which Tibetan art emerged and flourished.

This book traces the historical identity of Kashmir within the context of Islamic religious architecture between early fourteenth and mid-eighteenth century. It presents a framework of syncretism within which the understanding of this architectural tradition acquires new dimensions and possibilities in the region. In a first, the volume provides a detailed overview of the origin and development of Islamic sacred architecture while contextualizing it within the history of Islam in Kashmir. Covering the entirety of Muslim rule in the region, the book throws light on Islamic religious architecture introduced with the establishment of the Muslim Sultanate in the early fourteenth century, and focuses on both monumental and vernacular architecture. It examines the establishment of new styles in architecture, including ideas, materials and crafts introduced by non-Kashmiri missionaries in the late-fourteenth to fifteenth century. Further, it discusses how the Mughals viewed Kashmir and embellished the land with their architectural undertakings, coupled with encounters between Kashmir’s native culture, with its identity and influences introduced by Sufis arriving from the medieval Persianate world. The book also highlights the transition of the traditional architecture to a pan-Islamic image in the post-Independence period. With its rich illustrations, photographs and drawings, this book will interest students, researchers, and professionals in architecture studies, cultural and heritage studies, visual and art history, religion, Islamic studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful to professional architecture institutes, public libraries, museums, cultural and heritage bodies as well as the general reader interested in the architectural and cultural history of South Asia.

Kashmir is renowned throughout the world for its beauty- for the girdle of snowy mountains which surrounded the lovely valley, for its rivers and lakes and its primeval forests, and for its moderate temperature. Kashmir was a centre of knowledge and education since the time of its habitation by humans. With the advent of the Aryans, ancient Kashmir produced scholars of the Vedas, and once Sanskrit emerged as the literary language, Kashmir’s took its study and learning to great heights, producing mature and renowned scholars of Sanskrit. Kashmir has a tradition of recorded history dating back to the times when history as an organized study was unknown in most of the civilized nations of today. There has been no serious attempt to delineate the economic life of people of Kashmir in the early period. The overemphasis by earlier scholars on political history had led the neglect of social history in general and economic life in particular. The aim of the present study is to give a comprehensive picture of economic life of Kashmir prior to medieval times. The information for this work has been derived from, literary works, epigraphical evidence, sculptural and archaeological data, and accounts of foreign travellers and historians.