KASHMIR CULTURAL TRUST

Cultural Heritage of Kashmir
Dr.Roop Krishen Bhat

According to Sir Aurel Stein who translated Rajatarangini the celebrated book of history of Kashmir from Sanskrit into English ,”Kashmir has distinction of being the only region of India which possesses an uninterrupted series of written record of its history”. The archaeological excavations of Bourzahama 15 kms from Srinagar establish its antiquity to beyond 3000 BC. It has been established as mentioned earlier that Nagas were the original inhabitants of Kashmir and Kashmiris built their cultural traditions on the habits and customs of Nagas. The traditions and customs of Nagas are prevalent in modified forms in various regions of the State even now. Abhinav Gupta the eminent Kashmiri philosopher, claims the primacy of agamas-religious texts of ancient Kashmir dating between 1st and 5th century AD-over the Vedas both in point of time and performance of rituals.