Shabeer Ahmad Lone
“Kashmir is more than mere a geographical expression;It is a living, breathing entity through its soul that resonates with its people and landscapes.”-Walter Lawrence “Walking through the valleys of Kasmir , one feels an intimate connection with nature; as if the mountains and streams whisper ancient secrets”-Marion Doughty “Kashmir history is tapestry woven with threads of spirituality, art and resilience, reflected indomitable spirit of its people” -G.M.D Sufi.”A complete study of geography must consider besides plants, animals and men in relation to environment but also human character and methods of thought”-E.Huntington.The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. -W. Whitman.
“Kashmir is not merely a territory/exquisite beauty-but to encounter a soulscape where beauty meets meaning, and nature mirrors spirit that awakens inner vision. From Jahangir’s immortal ode-“If there is a paradise on earth…” to Hugel’s wonder struck confession “In no part of the world have I seen such a combination of grandeur and beauty as in the valley of Kashmir” the land has cast an eternal spell upon emperors and travelers alike.
The poetic vision of Iqbal’s vision of it as a Gulzar-e-Hayat/”My body is from the heavenly lanes of Kashmir, My heart from the sanctity of Hejaz and the grace of Shiraz deepens this enchantment.” And In his poem “Kashmir,” Iqbal marvels at the divine beauty of the land-its mountains, meadows, flowers, and streams-but laments the spiritual decline of its people.The valley has stirred historians, sages, emperors, mystics, travellers and poets across time. Lal Ded and Nund Rishi unveiled its inner light; Bernier and Lawrence marveled at its grace and wisdom. In Kashmir, sorrow births strength, silence speaks truth, and the landscape breathes poetry-a timeless testament to the human longing for harmony, transcendence, and home. The soul of Kashmir is where grief meets grace, and longing becomes light. It is a prayer that bleeds, a poem that waits for transformative encounter “-Lets have an intimate reading where Kashmir becomes revealation /reflection/meaning/sublime grace.And as Urfi Sheerazi echoes:
“Every soul that is scorched cannot enter Kashmir;
If it is a bird of the grill, it must take wing and fly.”
To be truly deep with Kashmir is to enter into a transformative dialogue that transcends the superficial dimensions of travel or cultural observation. This valley-celebrated in Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Arabic, English literatures-is not a mere geographical entity, but a multi-dimensional phenomenon that merges nature, mysticism, memory, and metaphysical insight. Kashmir has, for centuries enchanted seekers, scholars, mystics, and monarchs not simply by its physical grandeur, but by the way it engages the soul in a process of inner unfolding. From Kalhana’s Rajatarangini to Abu’l-Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari, from European accounts by François Bernier and Moorcroft to modern-day observers like Rahul Pandita and Pankaj Mishra, Kashmir has been recorded not merely in words but in modes of perception.
Its meadows and lakes, ruins and sanctuaries, its art and lamentations-each are portals into a deeper knowing. The contemporary traveler, therefore, must transcend the impulse to collect and consume Kashmir and instead cultivate a receptive self that allows the land to mirror, challenge, and reformulate one’s own mode of being. The question is no longer “What is Kashmir?” but “What becomes of us in Kashmir?” That is where depth begins.This readimg about Kashmir is not only a lament, or a light – it is a legacy, livid and inherited through centuries of resonance.
میں فکردرازہستی کا پرستار مری تسبیح کے دانے زمانے
I am a devotee of the vastness of existene
The beads of my prayer are the moments of time
Kashmir is an ecosystem of sensibilities-geographic, aesthetic, ethical, mystical/spiritual, historical, literary/poetical, philosophical/metaphysical, soial and political reflection. To approach it reductively is to commit an epistemic violence; to see it only as picturesque is to betray its soul. Kashmir, as a civilizational consciousness, is shaped by centuries of mysticism, resistance, suffering, memory, and metaphysical reflection. Its beauty is not merely visual but existential. The snow-clad mountains, the mirror-like lakes, the Chinars burning gold in autumn, and the fragrance of almond blossoms in spring are not passive backdrops to a tourist’s lens-they are meditative agents, drawing the observer into silence and interiority. Dr.M.S Naz, In his evocative “ Tasveer i Kashmir”offers ana vivid, portrayal of region’s aesthetic splendour of the region but its civilizationnal and spriritual essence.He writes :
Golden saffron fields, soaring peaks, lush gardens, vibrant life-
and mankind: part sun, part moon.And continues :
“A Paradise on Earth-Kashmir’s flower-laden valleys, snow-capped peaks, melodious lakes, smiling springs, and charming cities form a spellbinding tapestry. Interwoven are the echoes of its mosques, madrasas, and shrines, alongside the soul of Kashmiri language, culture, poets, and Sufi saints.”
Even early travelers sensed this numinous presence. The 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang), in his detailed chronicles, described Kashmir not only as a center of learning but as a spiritual refuge. He noted its monasteries, scholars, and serenity as uniquely conducive to contemplation. Later, the 11th-century Persian polymath Al-Biruni, whose Kitab al-Hind remains foundational, highlighted Kashmir as a land of sophisticated metaphysics and subtle dialectics, describing the inhabitants as lovers of knowledge and deeply engaged with cosmology and spirituality. Their accounts affirm what Kashmiris have long embodied: that this land is a crucible of the intellect and the soul.
This deep current of refletive perception flows through the classial texts that mapped Kashmir’s intellectual and spiritual topography .From the early chronicles of Kalhana in the Rajatarangini (12th century), who documented the land’s political and cultural ethos with remarkable depth and poetic insight, to the nuanced travelogues of Alberuni and later Francois Bernier’s Mughal era travelogues, Kashmir emerges not a stagnant backdrop but a living stage of dharma, conflict, and consciousness.Kalhan’s Kashmir teems with ethical tensions and civilizational vigor; Bernier, the French physician-traveler of the Mughal era, the valley resembled an earthly paradise, but his observations, while marked by awe, were laced with political realism and reflections on governance, decay, and the changing fortunes of the people/ transience of power.
In the 19th-century, this lineage of testimony found new resonane in Tarikh-e-Hassan-a rich Persian chronicle of its history, geography, and culture in elegant persian. Rooted in Bandipora, he wove Kashmir’s spiritual, political, and natural heritage into a lasting testament of identity and continuity.To engage with these classical texts is to glimpse how Kashmir has historically demanded reflective perception-an inner alertness that transcends the picturesque.It demands not consumption but contemplation.
Indeed the social and cultural ethos of Kashmir unfolds like a civilizational symphony grace with faiths, languages, and arts woven across millennia. Kashmiri culture, with its aesthetic richness, mystical inclination, and literary sophistication, is mirrired in Ghani Kashmiri’s form and content.Cradled by the Himalayas, it emerged as a luminous centre of Shaivism, Sufism, and Buddhism, absorbing and transforming diverse influences into a uniquely syncretic ethos. Shankara’s presence in Kashmir signifies the union of Advaita and Trika-two visions of non-duality. His ascent to the valley crowned the land’s legacy as a seat of ultimate wisdom, where the silence of the Self meets the song of the soul.In Rupa Bhawani’s poetry , we can find the influence of both Kashmir Shaivism and Islamic Sufism.
‘Selflessness is the sign of the selfless;
Bow down at the door of the selfless.
The selfless are of the highest authority,
From the ancient Sanskrit intellectualism of Abhinavagupta to the mystical poetry of Lalla Ded’s burning vaakhs and from Sheikh-ul-Alam’s compassionate shruks to contemplative lyricism of Rehman Rahi, Kashmir shaped a metaphysical imagination rooted in compassion, empathy, tolerance, acceptance, pluralism, and transcendence. As Iqbal once envisioned:
“The pearl of true purpose lies hidden in the shell of brotherhood,
Live together in this world, like the letters of Kashmir’s name.”
Kashmir’s culture is not merely preserved in museums or manuscripted -it is lived and breathed in its communal rituals, oral traditions, crafts, cuisine, alligraphy, art and architecture. It is a land where Pheran and poetry meet, where Kangri warms bodies and verses sung in Rouf, where every season becomes a metaphor, and every grief sings of longing for Divine nearness.In this land, architecture is prayer in stone, and poetry is a response to pain.
This valley has witnessed the pain of conquest and exile, yet retained a resilient spirit rooted in hospitality, art, and moral introspection. Despite the scars of modern conflict, the soul of Kashmir continues to whisper truths-of oneness amidst diversity, of beauty rising from ashes, and of faith enduring as fragrance in a storm.To understand Kashmir is to listen-to the silence of its mountains, the sorrow of its songs, and the hope in its eyes. As Pandit Brij Narain Chakbast testified :
“Each speck of my Kashmir is touched by divine hospitality,
Even the stones along my path have offered me their life-giving waters.”
And as Marion Doughty, in A Foot Through The Kashmir Valleys, lyrically observed:
“ One more day we thought the measure
Of such days the year fulfils;
Now how clearly should we treasure
Something from its fields, its rills,
And its memorable hills.”
There is a reason why mystics, poets, saints, and sages have found Kashmir to be fertile soil for awakening. As historian Mohibbul Hasan insightfly noted , the spiritual synthesis of Kashmir-where Shaivism, Sufism, and Rishi thought coalesced-was not a mere syncretic accident but an organic flowering of a landscape that invited silence and sublimity and the sared . This pluralistic ethos formed the soul of Kashmir’s historical evolution, creating a unique moral and spiritual ecology rarely seen elsewhere.Sheikh Yaqoob Sarfi’s emphasis on ethical reform, spiritual renewal, and co-existence reflects the Sufi-Rishi synthesis that defines the heart of Kashmir’s pluralistic tradition.
To immerse oneself in Kashmir is to allow its layered textures-of language, landscape, memory, and pain-to speak to the depths of one’s own intellect but to soul’s hidden chambers. As the philosopher Merleau-Pont reminds us , perception is not just a passive intake of stimuli but an embodied participation. When one walks through the Mughal gardens of Srinagar, designed not just for leisure but for contemplation and divine remembrance, one is not just walking through space but through symbols. The axial symmetry, the flow of water from mountains to garden to lake, the terraced arrangement echoing Persian cosmology-all become metaphors for the inner landscape of the seeker. Architecture here is not inert; it participates in metaphysical disclosure. The Khanqah-e-Moula, with its ornate papier-mâché, Deodar wood carvings, and centuries of supplicants, is not just a monument-it is a living theology carved into form. One does not merely visit it; one enters into its spiritual grammar, is spoken to liturgical stillness.
Above the Dal Lake, Pari Mahal presides as more than an architectural relic-it is a metaphysical vantage point. Built by Dara Shikoh, the mystic Mughal prince and scholar of Sufism and Vedanta, it embodies a convergence of science, spirituality, and aesthetics. The very location whispers an invitation to ascend not merely in space, but in soul.It gazes not just at the lake below, but into the inner ocean of being.
Chashme Shahi, its spring crystal and healing, honors Rupa Bhawani and mirrors Kashmir’s soul-pure, enduring, and life-giving. Shankaracharya Temple, high above Srinagar, echoes Adi Shankara and Kashmir Shaivism’s non-dual light; its ascent a pilgrimage within. These are not just places, but living thresholds to Kashmir’s timeless spirit.
Such engagements demand slowing down. The velocity of modern experience, shaped by screens and schedules, is antithetical to the ethos of Kashmir. To dwell deeply is to resist haste. Martin Heidegger’s notion of “dwelling” as a poetic way of being on Earth resonates profoundly in the Kashmiri context. Here, every cup of noon chai, every walnut tree casting a long shadow in the courtyard, every mehfil of traditional music, every carpet woven knot by knot across months, gestures toward a rhythm that modernity forgets. Slowness here is not delay-it is depth. It is this very depth that changes the texture of experience itself. As Kashmir slows you down, you begin to see differently, hear more keenly, feel more acutely. The valley initiates a contemplative mode of subjectivity-a being-with rather than a consuming-of.
Moreover, this sense of contemplative being has historically inspired outsiders. Sir Aurel Stein, the eminent archaeologist and Indologist, found in the ancient Sharada Peeth texts a window into Kashmir’s intellectual grandeur. He saw the region not merely as a repository of ancient wisdom but as a living civilization of thought. Similarly, the French traveler François Bernier, who accompanied the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, marveled not only at the breathtaking landscapes but also at the region’s refined culture and intellectual depth. In his “Travels in the Mughal Empire”, Bernier called Kashmir a paradise that stirs not only the senses but the mind.This exaltation echoes in poetry too. Iqbal,
In “Sāqī Nāmah,”Iqbal praises the joy of spring and nature’s awakening as symbols of inner revival.
“Joyous the time, blessed the spring-
As if stars have bloomed in the meadow.”
Yet, in the same breath, he warns against the hollow rites of blind mullahs and the wine of passionaless Sufis-reminding us that outer rituals must be ignited by the inner fire
Iqbal finds the mullah blind to inner light and the Sufi’s wine void of fire.
In a similar spirit, Whitman’s jubilant lines-
“Afoot and light-hearted 1 take to the open road-
Healthy, free, the world before me ;
Speak to the transformative and liberating encounter Kashmir’s sacred shrines and natural wonders is to surrender to their silence, prilgrimage , not merely see them but let them see you. These are not destinations-they are thresholds to the eternal. The lakes, gardens, and mountains whisper truths to the receptive; the shrines breathe centuries of devotion into the present. Here, beauty is remembrance, stillness is revelation, and every stone and breeze is a verse in a living scripture. Come not to observe, but to be transformed-by grace, by awe, by the timeless presence that pervades it all.
To truly encounter Kashmir is to offer yourself wholly-mind, heart, and spirit-to its sacred and natural presences. Baba Reshi, Payamuddin Reshi, Baba Shukruddin Reshi, Makhdoom Sahib, Charar-e-Sharief, Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom, the ancient Martand temple in Anantnag, the mysterious caves of Kalaroos in Kupwara-all these are not merely structures but living thresholds into silence, surrender, and sanctity. The Mughal gardens-Nishat, Shalimar, Achabal-flow like verses of paradise, while Dal Lake and Wullar Lake reflect the eternal in their stillness. Jhelum and Sindh rivers carry ancestral memory, and the alpine meadows of Bangus, Doodhpathri, Tosamaidan, and Gulmarg breathe freedom into the soul. The highland pastures of Lidder Valley, Lolab, and Gurez whisper ancient prayers in the wind. To walk among them is not to collect experiences but to let them dissolve the boundaries of self. Let the land, the shrines, the waters read you. Let Kashmir transform the way you experience yourself.
Yet to receive the gift of Kashmir’s spirit is also to acknowledge the gravity of its grief. The land’s beauty, so achingly sublime, exists not apart from its sorrow but within it. The scars of conflict, the silence of loss, the fractured narratives of exile, migration, and memory-these are not marginal details but integral to its identity. To engage with Kashmir deeply is not to bypass its pain but to bear witness with humility and attentiveness. Political instability, disrupted education in earlier times, and intergenerational trauma echo through the streets and the quietude of the valley alike. Still, even in this crucible of suffering, the dignity of life, the poetry of resistance, and the resilience of daily existence shine with luminous clarity. Kashmir teaches not merely through what it offers, but through what it endures. Its beauty is not separate from its sorrow-they interpenetrate, giving rise to a poignant aesthetic that both breaks and blesses the heart.
From this confluence of splender and sorrow emerges art in Kashmir, thus, offerring transcendence through form. The pashmina weaver, the papier-mache artist, the namda embroiderer, the calligrapher-all participate in a tradition that is not merely economic or decorative but sacred. These are not crafts but meditations. They embody what Islamic aesthetics call ihsan-beauty aligned with excellence, skill infused with sincerity. As Hamid Dabashi and Seyyed Hossein Nasr have noted, Islamic art is not representational but participatory; it reveals rather than depicts. Kashmiri artistry, then, is a metaphysical act, an invocation, a quiet act of rememberance. To observe it patiently is to be inducted into a way of seeing that transforms the observer and sanctifies the seen.
Kashmir’s art and architecture are where spirit meets form. From the grandeur of Martand Sun Temple to the grace of Sufi shrines like Baba Reshi, Makhdoom Sahib, and Charar-e-Sharief, every structure breathes devotion. Wooden mosques like Jamia Masjid and Khanqah of Shah Hamdan blend Persian, Central Asian, and local aesthetics, with intricate carvings and sacred geometry. Mughal gardens-Nishat, Shalimar, Chashme Shahi-translate paradise into space, where water, symmetry, and silence speak. Crafts like papier-mâché, walnut carving, and Pashmina weaving echo the valley’s soul. In Kashmir, art is remembrance in pigment and pattern in wool and architecture is prayer in stone and wood.However concerned certainly need guided interventions/empowerment by state and central governments to sustain and flourish localy and globaly.
Kashmir’s spiritual and cultural legacy is vividly voiced by scholars who illuminate its plural soul. Prof. Mohammad Ishaq Khan revealed the Rishi-Sufi synthesis as a lived moral tradition of interfaith harmony. Dr. Abdul Qayoom Rafiqi interpreted sacred architecture as contemplative spaces of shared heritage. Dr. Nyla Ali Khan emphasized memory and inclusive identity as keys to reclaiming Kashmir’s plural past. Prof. Shafi Shauq upheld Kashmiri language and poetics as vessels of metaphysical depth. Zareef Ahmad Zareef preserved folk spirituality through verse and oral tradition. Prof. Fida Mohammad Hassnain envisioned Kashmir as a mystical confluence-a “spiritual university where sages, seekers and storytellers converge. “Remembering the Unforgettable : Kashmir as She made me” as deep nostalgic gem-like reollection in “Kashmir” book stand as moral bulwark against magritarian simplifications. His humanistic critique defends Kashmir’s syncretic ethos and cultural autonomy and unwavering clearity and his tribute poems like Mauj Kashir/My Bulbul Calls/Lal-Ded/Retrirving The Lost Paradise/Raj Begum/Joan Baez/ etc in “Stout and Tender” poetic collection by Prof. Badri Raina all shimmering with affection and ritical depth.
It is Mridu Rai’s inclusive and interdisciplinary scholarship weaves history, law, theology, and politics in “Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects” into a profoundly enlightening account of Kashmir’s enduring struggle for dignity and self-definition. Mridu Rai unveils how Dogra rule, sanctified by Hindu ritual and colonial law, politically marginalized Kashmir’s Muslim majority. She shows how religion became a mechanism of control, not identity, exposing the deep roots of disenfranchisement and the historical construction of rights and resistance.Together , these voices affirm that Kashmir is not a periphery but a sanctuary of spirit, beauty and coexistence -a civilizational memory resisting the violence of forgetting.
However, Kashmir cannot be known without acknowledging its wounds. The scars of conflict, the silence of loss, the fractured narratives of exile, migration, and memory-these are integral to its identity. To engage with Kashmir deeply is not to bypass its pain but to bear witness with humility and attentiveness.Political instability , disrupted education, and intergenerational trauma echo through the streets and silence of the valley.Yet, even within this crucible of suffering, the dignity of life, the poetry of resistance, and the resilience of everyday living shine with luminous clarity. Kashmir teaches not merely through what it offers, but through what it endures. Its beauty is not divorced from its suffering-rather, the two interpenetrate to form a unique aesthetic of poignancy.
This transformation echoes globally. Indigenous philosophies from Maori to Navajo traditions emphasize that land is not owned-it is kin. In Buddhist epistemology, the concept of inter-being (coined by Thich Nhat Hanh) implies that we do not simply live in a place-we live with it, as it lives through us. In the Christian mystical tradition, Thomas Merton noted that “the geographical place becomes a sacrament of the interior journey.” Kashmir, in this sacred cartography, is not a destination but a mirror. It reflects, refracts, and reshapes the soul of the one who dares to behold it with reverence.
And yet, in our contemporary obsession with collecting experiences-be they Instagrammable moments, curated itineraries, or bucket-list conquests-falls short of the ethical and existential engagement Kashmir calls for. The valley does not reward the hurried visitor. It opens itself only to the one who arrives empty of ego and full of wonder, who listens without demanding, who gazes without conquering. To be changed by Kashmir is to learn a new and deeper grammar of being-where presence matters more than possession, and resonance outlasts record. As Iqbal profoundly reminds us:
“This is the mark of living nations through time,
That their destinies shift with each dawn and dusk.”
“In the soil whose conscience carries the fire of the chinar,
It is impossible for that earth to ever grow cold or desolate.”
In the final reckoning, to encounter Kashmir deeply is to accept a kind of initiation-an aesthetic, ethical, and ontological transformation. Kashmir is not a souvenir, a landscape to be domesticated through photographs, or a conflict to be politicized from afar. It is a presence that reveals more about the observer than itself; a mirror that demands stillness, humility, and surrender. As historians like Chitralekha Zutshi and travelers like Walter Lawrence have shown, the region has long resisted reductive narratives and instead offered itself as an evolving palimpsest of cultures, faiths, and identities. Its Sufi shrines and Shaivite texts, its Buddhist relics and Mughal gardens, its embroidered shawls and resilient poetry all invite us to inhabit a consciousness that is plural, wounded, luminous, and alert. The soul of Kashmir is best known not by adding it to one’s list of places visited but by allowing it to reform the structure of one’s perception, values, and awareness. In Kashmir, beauty and sorrow walk hand in hand, and only those willing to walk beside both can hope to know its truth. In Kashmir, beauty and sorrow walk hand in hand, and only those willing to walk beside both can hope to know its truth. To be deep with Kashmir, then, is to learn to be deep with oneself, with history, with the sacred, and with the ineffable to truely sustain and flourish across. .
Author can be mailed at shabirahmed.lone003@gmail.com