Srinagar (Pravarapura)

01Two Srinagars

Kalhana tells of two cities. The first, Srinagari, he says was built by Ashoka near the present Pandrethan, whose name comes from Puranadhishthana, the old capital; a small stone Shiva temple of the 10th century still stands there in a pool. The second was Pravarapura, founded by Pravarasena II on the right bank of the Vitasta under the hill of Hari Parbat, which grew into the Srinagar of today. Sharika Devi, the presiding Devi of the city, is worshipped on that hill as a rock smeared with sindoor. The Shankaracharya temple stands on the other hill, above the Dal.

02Sultans, Pandits and exile

Jonaraja, who continued Kalhana’s chronicle, records that Sultan Sikandar (1389–1413) broke the temples of Kashmir and pressed the Brahmins to convert or leave; his son Zain-ul-Abidin let them return and rebuilt some shrines. Akbar annexed Kashmir in 1586, the Afghans of Ahmad Shah Abdali took it in 1752, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army won it in 1819. By the treaty of Amritsar in 1846 it passed to Gulab Singh Dogra. In October 1947 tribal raiders from Pakistan reached Baramulla; Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession and Indian troops landed at Srinagar on 27 October. In January 1990 most of the city’s Kashmiri Pandits fled under threat, and few have returned.

The life of this place