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Sometime back the Jammu & Kashmir government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the state's Chief Minister to work out the strategy for safeguarding the religious shrines of Kashmiri Pandits. Though there has been little headway in the committee's work, the local people have welcomed it because it is expected to generate employment. There are reports that a number of temples and shrines in the Valley will be renovated.
When the question of renovating/restoring the temples was raised, the state government issued an order at the district level to collect information regarding the condition, area, etc. of the Hindu shrines. The order was passed on to tehsildars and patwaris. When the temple assessment work was in progress, the Sikhs also raised their voice and asserted that their gurdwaras were also subject to damage. Subsequently, the Muslims too came up with the demand to restore their mosques and tombs.
The whole exercise has been started afresh. The temples of Kashmir have a distinct character and identity, such as double pyramidal roof, the triangular pediment with openings on four sides, trefoil niches, fluted columns, cellular peristyle, etc. Due to constraints in finding skilled manpower, it may not be feasible to reconstruct the same but the characteristic features could be incorporated in order to retain the unique Kashmiri character.
Rajatarangini tells us about thousands of shrines which, with the advent of Muslims, were either converted into mosques or tombs or fell into disuse with passage of time. It was only during the Dogra rule that the Pandits could recover their identity and with the help of oral traditions and scriptures, were able to identify some of the ancient shrines and relate them to the Hindu past.
The iconoclastic zeal of the invaders had already left our ancient architectural heritage in a shambles. Most of the monuments are built of wood and stone. Wood being a perishable material, we may not attribute its damage to man but the lofty stone structures were razed to rubble and nothing noteworthy of ancient architecture remains, except for a few stone temples at Pandrathen, Payer, Mamal, etc.
Although there was state patronage during the rule of the Dogras, the regime was not as powerful as that of the Karakotas or Utpalas. The temple activities during the Dogra rule started afresh but on a comparatively small scale. Most of the temples we see in the Valley are built on the remnants of ancient structures and the superstructure was built of bricks. The temples built during the Dogra rule have a curvilinear superstructure which is found in the north Indian plains. In these temples were also placed sculptures/idols excavated from the surrounding places. These sculptures are very valuable and throw important light on art and iconography of ancient Kashmir. There hasn’t been any attempt or survey to document these and there are reports of some unscrupulous elements trying to make big money by smuggling these out to collectors and museums abroad.
A temple or a shrine is an object of faith and without the faithful, who have been forced to migrate, the upkeep and the sanctity of these shrines remain doubtful.
The temple was an integral part of the Pandit society and was the hub of all socio-religious activities. All the ceremonies, from birth to death, were held in the temples. Most of the temples are built on the banks of rivers or canals, since water plays an important role in all rituals and religious practices.
Away from our home and hearth, we identify ourselves with the shrines in Kashmir. It is very difficult to forget our motherland and at the same time the temples, which are for us the deities personified, haunt us and we cannot ignore this hard fact of our attachment to them. Right from infancy to adulthood we hold innumerable memories connected with the shrines. The functions, which were organised in the temples, infused a new life into them whenever there was a celebration. The mighty chinar tree in most of the shrines had a distinct personality and gave a spiritual ambience to the temple complex.
We may build similar kinds of shrines outside the Valley but the fact is that sanctity lies not in the structure, but in the place. If we want to keep the shrines of Kashmir alive, we should try to collect the photographs, sketches, and related memories so that information can be passed on to the younger generations.
We hope that peace will be restored
in the Valley and one day, when we return, the temples/shrines will be
intact as reminders of our past.
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