Kashmir’s Descent into Hell

BY AMIT  AGARWAL

In 1320, Zulcha Khan, a ferocious Turk, raided Kashmir with 70,000 ghazis and plundered the valley. This created a political vacuum in the region

In 1315, Rinchan, a Buddhist prince from Ladakh, revolted against his uncle who was the king of Ladakh. Angered by such revolt, The king attacked Rinchan who fled to Kashmir. He was given asylum by Suhadeva, the reigning king of Kashmir. On the basis of his talent, he had a meteoric rise in the darbar and became a powerful minister. In this episode, Rinchan was immensely helped by Ramchandra, then prime minister of Kashmir.  In the meantime, he became good friends with his colleague Shah Mir (a Turk) when the latter was also a minister.

Rinchan wanted to become a Hindu but Devaswami, a prominent Kashmiri Brahmin, foolishly denied him entry due to his lower caste. From this moment onwards, Rinchan became a staunch enemy of Hindus. In 1320, Zulcha Khan, a ferocious Turk, raided Kashmir with 70,000 ghazis and plundered the valley. This created a political vacuum in the region and making the most of the opportunity, Rinchan killed his friend Ramchandra and became the king of Kashmir.

To show his assimilation into Kashmir society, Rinchan married Ramachandra’s daughter Kota Rani and made his brother Ravanchandra the commander of the army. A few years earlier, Bulbul Shah, the third foreigner and a Sufi preacher, came to Kashmir to preach Islam. He influenced Rinchan – who was anyway angry with both Buddhism and Hinduism – to convert to Islam.  Subsequently 10,000 of his subjects, together with his dear brother-in-law Ravanchandra, converted along with him to Islam. He took the title of Sultan and adopted a Muslim name ‘Sadruddin Shah’ and became the first Muslim king of Kashmir. Taking a cue from the king, many Hindus and Buddhists started converting to Islam. After conversion, he renamed Srinagar to Rinchanpora and built the first mosque in Kashmir named “Bud Masheed” on the site of a Buddhist temple after demolishing it. He also built a khanqah (community centre for Muslims) and a langarkhana known as Bulbul Langar, in honour of his spiritual mentor Bulbul Shah where the poor were fed free food. Islamization of Kashmir started in earnest and soon its pace accelerated. Hindus also began to be prosecuted under the advice of Sufi Bulbul Shah and they were given 3 options: Convert or flee or die. However, there was a ray of hope for Hindus when Rinchan was murdered by his own rebel ministers in 1323.   

Udayanadeva – the brother of Suhadeva, the former king of Kashmir – became the king. He married Kota Rani to gain the acceptance of the people. As the Islamic juggernaut was rolling furiously, she agreed to marry to stem the Islamic flow and to ensure that Muslims did not usurp the power and Hinduism survived in the Valley.  However, he could not perform his royal duties well as he remained engrossed in the spiritual work and Kota Rani became the de facto leader.  Seeing the perilous situation in Kashmir, a Turk named Achala attacked the valley. Kota Rani was able to ward off the attack successfully and became the queen of Kashmir in Udayanadeva’s place and proved to be a competent leader, military strategist and administrator. Srinagar used to be ravaged by the floods in the monsoon. She then got a canal constructed in Srinagar to keep the floods at bay.  The canal was pertinently named Kute Kol after her.

In this entire melee, Shah Mir gained immense popularity when he lent his support to Kota Rani in defending Kashmir against Turk Invade Achala.  The Queen rewarded Shah Mir by appointing his two sons Jamshed and Allauddin as ministers. Unknown to the queen was a major conspiracy being hatched by Shah Mir to dethrone Kota. When she got wind of his ambitions, she shifted her capital to Andarkot from Srinagar. She also made his trusted advisor Bhatta Bhikshana, the prime minister of Kashmir to thwart the evil designs of Shah. This move made Shah Mir angry and gave him a strong reason to snatch the throne.  To take his conspiracy to the logical end, one day he feigned sickness. Kota then sent Bhatta Bhikshana to enquire about his health.  Shah Mir and his soldiers had already laid the elaborate trap for him. Bhatta’s bodyguards were engaged deliberately in conversation by the Shah’s bodyguards outside the house of Shah. As soon as Bhatta was ushered into the Turk’s chamber, he was killed mercilessly by the Shah. Kota was enraged hearing this news but was prevented from taking immediate revenge by her ministers against Shah Mir for sedition. This was going to be a crucial mistake for her, her family and Kashmir.

Emboldened Shah Mir now asked Kota to marry him but she promptly refused. Shah Mir could not take the insult and attacked the queen’s palace in Andarkot. He laid the elaborate siege on the palace. Seeing that the Hindu queen was outnumbered severely, most of her soldiers defected to Shah Mir to avoid certain death.  Kota had no other option than to surrender and make an offer to marry him. However, her marriage proposal was now rejected this time and she along with her two sons was captured and imprisoned where they died miserably.  Shah Mir became the sultan of Kashmir in 1339.

She was the worthiest of all women rulers of India and used both tact and bravery to keep the Hindus safe in Kashmir and her multiple marriages amply indicate this. Barring one mistake of letting Shah Mir go scot-free, her reign was a model administration. In pre-Islamic Kashmir, women had almost equal rights and enjoyed much freedom, which they lost subsequently.

An excerpt from the book “Swift horses Sharp Swords”authored by Amit Amit Agarwal. You may buy the book at following link:

https://www.amazon.in/Swift-Horses-Sharp-Swords-Medieval/dp/B08KH3R4MN