After Asoka’s death the country was harassed by various lechhas (foreigners) a prominent one being the Kushan dynasty. The latter built up an extensive empire under Kaniska, whose territories covered all land from Central Asia to Bengal. But perhaps the most glorious period of Kashmir’s history ended with the reign of Anavtivarman(A.D. 9^th century), followed by court intrigues, famines, poverty of the masses, heavy taxation, popular uprisings, civil wars, and destruction, Rinchin, a fugitive prince from Tibet, who came to Kashmir with a few hundred armed men, and who embraced Islam, became the first Muslim ruler (Rinchin Shah or the assumed title of Sadr-ud Din, 1325-27) of the land. His wife, Kota Rani, ascended the throne after him and is acknowledged as the last Hindu ruler. After pitiless misrule, the harassed people seemed ready to accept Islam, which did not meet with violent opposition.

The benevolent Shahi Khan, better know as Zain-ul Abidin (1423-74), among them, who reigned peacefully and moreover led a saintly life, is known for his high sense of toleration, reforms to protect the tillers of the soil against revenue officers, patronage of scholars, education and craftsmen, and his reconquest of Punjab and western Tibet. First and foremost, he exercised freedom of conscience for all and maintained, as a patron of learning, a good many Muslim and Hindu scholars at his court. He got some books translated from Sanskrit and Arabic into Persian and Kashmiri, and built a library that included copies of rare works extinct elsewhere in India. Sheikh Noor-ud Din Wali, “Alamdar-e Kashmir” (The Standard-bearer of Kashmir), commonly known as Nund (Pious) Rishi, was a saint, patriot and poet of Zain-ul Abidin’s time, whose thoughts moulded the minds of generations. Zain-ul Abidin was among the pallbearers in the huge procession of mourners when Nund Rishi passed away(1438).[9] Also as a supporter of public works, Zain-ul Abidin Built a dam from Anderkot to Sopor and ordered the Nalla-Mar canal to be dug, Judging by the great number of Hindus who gained favour under this Muslim Badshah (ruler), the tradition says that “a Hindu spirit had entered into his body which moved his feelings towards the Hindus”.[10]

Kashmir was threatened by invasions during  the  regions of the Turgo-Moghul[11] sultans Babur (Babar), Humayun and Akbar. Having brought Delhi under gis sway, Zahir-ud Din Muhammad Babur(1526-30)[12] planned to occupy the strategic land of Kashmir. His armies, which had defeated the last of the Afghan rulers, Ibrahim Lodi, in the battle of Panipat (1526), also subdued the forces of Ghazi Khan of the Chak dynasty and entered Kashmiri territory. Babur’s son Humayun (1530-56) [13] took Srinagar without a fight, but withdrew a month and a half later. Finally, the invasion of Srinagar by Akbar’s (1556-1605) [14]general Qasim Khan on 14 October 1556, and the flight of the last Chak sultan made Kashmir province of the mighty Moghul Empire. Akbar’s conquest marking the beginning of the country’s modern history, the Moghul rule lasted close to two centuries. Akbar encouraged religious debate and cultural exchange in Srinagar as well as in Delhi. He tried to win loyalty to the Din-e Ilahi, an eclectic belief of his own drawing ideas from all the current religions. When Akbar had breathed his last (1605), he had already occupied Baltistan and  Ladakh. Jahagir (1605-27), [15] who succeeded his father, and his resourceful queen visited Kashmiri several times. Not only did he utilize the many hills coming down to a spring to plant a pleasure garden, including the legendary /Shalimar, he was also moved by the suffering of human beings, and therefore prevented a number of in human practices such as burying women along with their dead husbands or killing girl babies at birth. It was Jahangir who systematically planted Char Chinar or a plane tree at each of the cardinal points in order to produce shade wherever the sun may be. When Jahangir who dying, he was asked whether he wanted anything; his reply was: “Only Kashmir!” [16] His son, Shah Jahan (1627-58),[17] as an eminent builder among the Muslim emperors, constructed a network of roads in the Valley apart from laying gardens such as Gulshan, Hassanabad and Chasma Shahi. The Moghul gardens had remained one of the Valley’s tourist attractions until the outbreak of contemporary terrorism in Kashmir. The Hazratbal Mosque on Lake Dal, built by Shah Jahan, has a special sanctity for being the repository of Moe-e Muqaddas, i.e., an hair of Prophet Muhammad. It is one of Kashmir’s most treasured relics.[18] While Shah Jahan gave his daughters in marriage to hindus, his governor Zaffar Khan abolished the taxes on saffron, wood, sheep and boatmen.

Although Aurangzeb (1658-89)[19]  was scrupulously honest, his practice of communal discrimination signified the beginning of the end. He almost undid what his forefathers had done. While some of his governors gave relief to the suffering people during famine, fire and folds, Iftikar Khan was a tyrant especially over the Brahmins for four years (1671-75). The martyrdom of Tegh Bahadur, a Sikh guru (the preceptor who gives life direction),[20] took place then. During Aurangzeb’s time and after, Kashmir witnessed outbreaks of religious fanaticism as well as revolts. The Sheikh-ul Islam of Kashmir gave instructions (1720) for hostile, even slaughterers measures against  the Hindus. The Bomba and the Gujjat tribes revolted, and there were times when anarchy reigned in Kashmir. The religious intolerance of those who propagated a pure faith was generally “the product of competing factions of the nobility seeking to promote their self-interest”.[21] The population of the Valley grew to be predominantly Sunni Muslim while the Hindus moved southwards, and the Buddhists retreated to Ladakh. But Abd-ul Samad, a governor who came (1722) from Lahore with a huge army, put the fanatical Sheikh-ul Islam (Mulla Sharaf-ud Din) to death and removed all the restrictions formerly placed on the Hindus.

The early Muslim sultans had not tampered with the religious beliefs of the people. Zain-ul Abidin was a monument of toleration and equity. But the spread of Islam was not always peaceful. The society being basically a feudal one, there were frequent clashes for power among the princes and others, their conflict encouraging feuds between the Sunni and the Shi’a Muslims. For instance, during the long-drawn struggle (1484-1516) for the throne between Muhammad Shah and Fath Shah, the former captured power three times and the latter as many as five times. Such unstable administration and recurrent chaos were accompanied by heavy taxation and misery.

From the Afghanis to the Dogras

Kashmir easily fell into the hands of the Afghani King. Some Kashmiri leaders actually invited Ahmed Shah Abdali[22] to invade Kashmir. The force under Abdullah Khan Iskh Aqasi thus brought to end (1752) the Moghul rule in Kashmir. Ahmad Shah, who previously enjoyed governmental prerogatives in the eastern portion of the large monarchy of Nadi Shah of Persia, originally a Turk (Nadir Quli), assumed the  title of “Dur-e Duran” (Pearl of the Age), and hence his clan came to be known as Durrani. Although Ahmad Shah was invited to Kashmir to rid the country of the last cruel Moghul governor, not only his general Abdullah Khan tolerated a reign of terror as soon as he entered the Valley, the Afghan rule of 67 years almost reduced Kashmir to the degree of slavery.[23] Kashmir fell from the frying pan into the fire. When Ahmad Shah died (1771) in Kandahar, the economy of the Valley was in ruins, and there was lawlessness in the whole country. A certain Azad Khan tied up the Hindus two and two in sacks and sank them in the  Dal Lake. When he was succeeded by Madad Khan, the  latter’s performance created now a well-known proverb: “Zulm-e Azad ra rasid Madad” (Madad out-Heroded Azad). More Hindus fled from the Valley. The Cruelty of the Afghani rulers on non-Muslims did not win the support of the Muslims either. A Persian line described the Afghan rule as the worst kind of despotism that the Kashmiris had suffered” “Sar buridan pesh in sangin dilan gul chidan ast” (These stone-hearted people thought no more of cutting of heads than of plucking a flower). [24]

The local leaders, whether Muslim or Hindu, joined hands in inviting Ranjit Singh to invade Kashmir. Not only Raja Ranjit Dev of Jammu in the south had gathered enough strength to plan the conquest of the Valley, the Sikhs, who had beaten back the Afghans, were also rising in the Punjab. While the earlier attempts of the Sikh contingents were unsuccessful, Kashmir eventually fell into Sikh hands, whose army, 30,000 strong, fought at Shupayan (1819).[25] After a period of about five centuries, the country once more came under Hindu rule.

Islam influenced Hinduism is  Kashmir and vice versa to a greater extent than generally accepted. Not only the lower castes embraced it through the Sufi mission arise, and even the Brahmins, who held to Hinduism, were influenced by it, and adjusted themselves in terms of certain beliefs and practices. A distinguished writer of the Muslim period who personified Kashmir’s compound culture was Mulla Mohammad Mohsim Fani, who in his Dabistan-e Mazahib (1645) examined the mythologies and the philosophies of all religions but expressed his liking of some aspects of faiths other than Islam to which he belonged. While even the Muslim rulers wed Hindu women and were influenced by their religion, the new converts continued to observe the old rituals from which they could not break easily. Muslims gave refuge to innumerable Hindus under distress, and the Pandit nobles opposed the Sikh attempt to demolish the sacred shrine of Khanqah-e Moualla, one of the grand edifices of the Muslim period. While Kashmir was too deeply rooted in its traditions to wither away under the Muslim storm, Islam there was necessarily fraternized with local components, perhaps with the exception of the Moghul style of architecture. Even after so many centuries, “one comes across people named Muhammad Ali Pandit, Iftikhar Raina or Rafiq Rishi” who retain their Hindu surnames.[26]

The Sikhs, originally a religious sect, transformed themselves, in due course, into a military force. The British, who were soon to face Tsarist Russian expansion in Central Asia and the extension of the Chinese border to Sinkiang (Chinese Turkistan), concluded (1806)a treaty of friendship with Raja Ranjit Singh which secured the latter from interference in his plans to annex the north of the Sutlej River. When Ranjit Singh crossed to the south of the river, some Sikh chiefs sought the protection of the British who induced the Raja to sign(1809) another treaty once the Napoleonic threat of an alliance with Persia subdued. These moves did not prevent Ranjit Singh however, from taking(1819) Kashmir out of Afghani out of  Afghan hands. The life of the Kashmiris under the new Sikh government did not improve. In fact, while the aristocratic Sikh sirdars (commanders) lived lavishly in magnificent palaces, the average men and women on the streets strolled in rags. This state of affairs did not prevent the British after Ranjit Singh’s death (1839), from granting to his successor Gulab Singh the hilly district of Jammu together with Kashmir and making him outwardly an independent ruler but actually a British vassal. From the Sikh annexation of Kashmirto Ranjit Singh’sdeath the British felt concern over Afghani and Sikh power.  The first Anglo-Afghan war[27]  was a calamity for the British, and the campaigns against the Sikhs were victorious yet enfeebling. The British chose to assist Gulab Singh, the master of Jammu, to establish himself in Srinagar with a new role that would promote the interests of the Imperial Government as well.

The inhabitants of Jammu get their name “Dogra”, a corruption from the Sanskrit “Dogirath”, meaning “two lakes”, from Mansar and Siroinsar, situated to the east of the city. The province of Jammu was given (1820) to Gulab Singh, a Dogra Rajput and his successors with the hereditary title of Raja. Jammu and Doggar, the land of the Dogras, are often but wrongly considered to be synonymous. Doggar extends to three Indian states, namely, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal. Jammu was the “nerve center and most well-known part of Doggar.[28]  “Dogri” is one of the major languages of Jammu and Kashmir, with an alphabet of its own and spoken by a larger number of people than any other language of the state.[29]  

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