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and untouchability. While the impact of this counter-

revolution led to unprecedented and almost inhuman

rigidity in certain regions, there was no revival of the

caste system in Kashmir. For one, the Brahmin

community of Kashmir appears to have cooperated

with the spread of the Buddhist faith, for many

Kashmiri Brahmins travelled to China and the Far

East as missionaries of this movement without

rejecting altogether their Brahminic past. Then came

Islam to the valley, first through missionaries of this

new aggressive foreign faith and later in the form of

rulers in the fourteenth century A.D. The proselytizing

zeal of Sultan Sikander, in fact, led to a crusade of

total suppression of the Hindu religion and destruction

of its places of worship. With this onslaught, while

the lower Hindu castes altogether disappeared from

the scene, only a small section of the Brahmin caste

refused to submit to this holocaust, preferring death

or voluntary exile from their homeland. But human

history is dotted with numerous surprising

developments. In the history of Kashmir, a new

movement was marked by the benign era of

Sikander's son and successor, Zain ul-Abidin,

popularly still remembered as Badshah or the Great

King, who ruled over Kashmir for half a century and

most zealously pursued a policy of reclaiming and

rehabilitating the Brahmin community as a value-

based section of the population. So, in the absence of

any lower Hindu castes for several centuries, the

Brahmins of Kashmir have traditionally remained

immune from the worst absurdities of the Hindu

caste system.

  Apart from the tolerant phase of Muslim rule first

firmly inaugurated by Zain ul-Abidin and later

zealously revived by Akbar, the history of Kashmir

was marked during this era by the emergence of other

harmonizing factors among both the Muslims and

Brahmins of the Valley. While some scholarly and

saintly Brahmins evolved a new universal aspect of

Hindu ethos in the form of Shaivism, the Muslims

were deeply involved in a tolerant aspect of Islamic

Sufism marked by the rise of what is called the Rishi

cult in Kashmir. These new developments came to

be personified in the careers and utterances in native

Kashmiri of Lal Ded (a Hindu wandering woman

saint) and Saint Nur-ud-Din Noorani whose tomb is

still venerated both by Muslims and Hindus as a seat

of pilgrimage at Chrar, a hillside village, west of

Srinagar, and recently vandalized by non-Kashmiri

militants.

   It is true that the Kashmiri Brahmins belong

basically to the main stream of the centuries-old

Indian Brahminhood. Nevertheless, because of their

comparative geographical isolationism the Northern

Indian plains and the disappearance of the lower

castes under the impact of Buddhism and later of

Islam, they evolved a distinct pattern of social

behaviour. For one, they were not obsessed by a

"touch-me-not" policy, so characteristic till recent

times of the Brahmins in some other region of India;

and, in fact, they were willing to accept uncooked

eatables even from Muslims. Moreover, in their

cuisine, they had no hesitation in taking to flesh

foods like lamb and fish, while they rigidly avoided

till recent times consuming poultry products, both

flesh and eggs. Following the consolidation of Muslim

rule, while they retained their attachment to Vedic

Sanskrit as the medium of their religious scriptures,

they easily took to learning Persian when it got

confirmed as the principal official language for

transacting official business and later even for their

private correspondence.

   In the context of what has been already observed,

with the evolution of Shaivism as a distinct religious

philosophy, the Shiva worship assumed special

importance along with the continuing veneration of

other gods of the Hindu pantheon and the various

aspects of the worship of the Goddess as the Supreme

Divine Mother. It is thus not surprising that, with the

ascendancy of Shiva worship, the observance of

Maha Shivratri Festival in the first dark fortnight of

the month of Phalgun (corresponding to February in

the international Christian calendar) came to be

observed as the principal religious festival in the

annual calendar of Kashmiri Brahmins. In the

traditional Hindu pantheon, Shiva is represented in

various forms, as the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity

comprising in addition Brahma (the Creator) and

Vishnu (the Preserver). But later Shiva is represented

also as the Nataraja or the Supreme representative

and inspirer of dance and music. Moreover, in

Kashmir Shaivism, Shiva is projected as the abiding

revelation of cosmos and of all life, both visible and

invisible. This amounts to a projection of some

modification of the ancient Upanishidic presentation

of all the universe, as we see it or perceive it

intellectually, as Maya, an illusion or play show as

projected by the Eternal Divine Creator of time and

space. Traditionally, among Kashmiri Brahmins the

festival of Shivratri was spread over the major part of

a fortnight, with special distinct religious and social

rituals marking each day of the period and culminating

obviously in thc night-long worship followcd by

feasting on the night of the thirteenth of the dark

fortnight of Phalgun. Incidentally, in the Valley of

Kashmir this festival period was also expected to

prepare the people for the oncoming of the spring

season marking a renewal of all life in the mountain

girt and snow-bound Valley. As an example, the

Festival of Durga Puja in Bengal has provided a

parallel in its religious and social dimensions to

Shivratri as celebrated in Kashmir through centuries

past. With the recent dispersal of the terrorised

minority Brahmins of Kashmir over the Indian

subcontinent and abroad in distant lands, obviously

in their vastly changed social and working

environments, our people have not now adequate

leisure and urge to observe this subnational festival

as elaborately as it used to be celebrated back in the

Valley of the gods. Even so, we should observe it all

over the world, may be in abridged versions, with as

much faith and fervour as our forbears celebrated

this festival over several centuries past.

and untouchability. While the impact of this counter-

revolution led to unprecedented and almost inhuman

rigidity in certain regions, there was no revival of the

caste system in Kashmir. For one, the Brahmin

community of Kashmir appears to have cooperated

with the spread of the Buddhist faith, for many

Kashmiri Brahmins travelled to China and the Far

East as missionaries of this movement without

rejecting altogether their Brahminic past. Then came

Islam to the valley, first through missionaries of this

new aggressive foreign faith and later in the form of

rulers in the fourteenth century A.D. The proselytizing

zeal of Sultan Sikander, in fact, led to a crusade of

total suppression of the Hindu religion and destruction

of its places of worship. With this onslaught, while

the lower Hindu castes altogether disappeared from

the scene, only a small section of the Brahmin caste

refused to submit to this holocaust, preferring death

or voluntary exile from their homeland. But human

history is dotted with numerous surprising

developments. In the history of Kashmir, a new

movement was marked by the benign era of

Sikander's son and successor, Zain ul-Abidin,

popularly still remembered as Badshah or the Great

King, who ruled over Kashmir for half a century and

most zealously pursued a policy of reclaiming and

rehabilitating the Brahmin community as a value-

based section of the population. So, in the absence of

any lower Hindu castes for several centuries, the

Brahmins of Kashmir have traditionally remained

immune from the worst absurdities of the Hindu

caste system.

  Apart from the tolerant phase of Muslim rule first

firmly inaugurated by Zain ul-Abidin and later

zealously revived by Akbar, the history of Kashmir

was marked during this era by the emergence of other

harmonizing factors among both the Muslims and

Brahmins of the Valley. While some scholarly and

saintly Brahmins evolved a new universal aspect of

Hindu ethos in the form of Shaivism, the Muslims

were deeply involved in a tolerant aspect of Islamic

Sufism marked by the rise of what is called the Rishi

cult in Kashmir. These new developments came to

be personified in the careers and utterances in native

Kashmiri of Lal Ded (a Hindu wandering woman

saint) and Saint Nur-ud-Din Noorani whose tomb is

still venerated both by Muslims and Hindus as a seat

of pilgrimage at Chrar, a hillside village, west of

Srinagar, and recently vandalized by non-Kashmiri

militants.

   It is true that the Kashmiri Brahmins belong

basically to the main stream of the centuries-old

Indian Brahminhood. Nevertheless, because of their

comparative geographical isolationism the Northern

Indian plains and the disappearance of the lower

castes under the impact of Buddhism and later of

Islam, they evolved a distinct pattern of social

behaviour. For one, they were not obsessed by a

"touch-me-not" policy, so characteristic till recent

times of the Brahmins in some other region of India;

and, in fact, they were willing to accept uncooked

eatables even from Muslims. Moreover, in their

cuisine, they had no hesitation in taking to flesh

foods like lamb and fish, while they rigidly avoided

till recent times consuming poultry products, both

flesh and eggs. Following the consolidation of Muslim

rule, while they retained their attachment to Vedic

Sanskrit as the medium of their religious scriptures,

they easily took to learning Persian when it got

confirmed as the principal official language for

transacting official business and later even for their

private correspondence.

   In the context of what has been already observed,

with the evolution of Shaivism as a distinct religious

philosophy, the Shiva worship assumed special

importance along with the continuing veneration of

other gods of the Hindu pantheon and the various

aspects of the worship of the Goddess as the Supreme

Divine Mother. It is thus not surprising that, with the

ascendancy of Shiva worship, the observance of

Maha Shivratri Festival in the first dark fortnight of

the month of Phalgun (corresponding to February in

the international Christian calendar) came to be

observed as the principal religious festival in the

annual calendar of Kashmiri Brahmins. In the

traditional Hindu pantheon, Shiva is represented in

various forms, as the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity

comprising in addition Brahma (the Creator) and

Vishnu (the Preserver). But later Shiva is represented

also as the Nataraja or the Supreme representative

and inspirer of dance and music. Moreover, in

Kashmir Shaivism, Shiva is projected as the abiding

revelation of cosmos and of all life, both visible and

invisible. This amounts to a projection of some

modification of the ancient Upanishidic presentation

of all the universe, as we see it or perceive it

intellectually, as Maya, an illusion or play show as

projected by the Eternal Divine Creator of time and

space. Traditionally, among Kashmiri Brahmins the

festival of Shivratri was spread over the major part of

a fortnight, with special distinct religious and social

rituals marking each day of the period and culminating

obviously in thc night-long worship followcd by

feasting on the night of the thirteenth of the dark

fortnight of Phalgun. Incidentally, in the Valley of

Kashmir this festival period was also expected to

prepare the people for the oncoming of the spring

season marking a renewal of all life in the mountain

girt and snow-bound Valley. As an example, the

Festival of Durga Puja in Bengal has provided a

parallel in its religious and social dimensions to

Shivratri as celebrated in Kashmir through centuries

past. With the recent dispersal of the terrorised

minority Brahmins of Kashmir over the Indian

subcontinent and abroad in distant lands, obviously

in their vastly changed social and working

environments, our people have not now adequate

leisure and urge to observe this subnational festival

as elaborately as it used to be celebrated back in the

Valley of the gods. Even so, we should observe it all

over the world, may be in abridged versions, with as

much faith and fervour as our forbears celebrated

this festival over several centuries past.