by Jia Lal Kilam

CHAPTER V
Pandits during the latter Salatins

HAIDER SHAH now mounted the throne. Though he ruled for a brief period of a year and a few months, yet he upset the base which provided strength to his father's rule. Himself he was a man of weak temper, easily inflamed and addicted to drinking and other evil habits. His drunken orgies lasted for days together. Culturally degraded and with no education worth the name except some knowledge of music, Haider avoided the company of cultured people, and got himself surrounded by a coterie of uncultured people who egged him on his disastrous course of drinking and other debaucheries, by mean flatteries. A barber by name Purni ( or Luli as Muslim historians call him ) became a great favourite of the king. He amassed huge power in his hands and played a prominent part in the drama of what was to be enacted in very near future. In Haider's reign the Pandits suffered immensely. The reason for this is not far to be sought for. During his father's reign the Pandit was resurrected and resuscitated and placed on a high pedestal. They were in constant attendance on the late king and influenced him very greatly. The result of all this was that a group of upper class Muslims who failed to share the spirit of times, came to look with very great disfavour upon the policies that were adopted and pursued by the late king. But as long as Zainulabdin was there, they felt powerless, much though they may have deplored in the words of Mulla Bahauddin that the king "re-imported practices of infidels which had once become extinct." With his passing away these forces of wickedness which had been kept in check for long got unleashed now, and attention was focussed on the Pandits. The barber Purni became the mouthpiece of the opposite forces and kept on poisoning the mind of the king against the Pandits. Various measures were adopted against them. For long they tolerated all this. But even the tolerant Pandit found his patience at an end. It is recorded by the Muslim historian Hassan that "the patience of the Pandits having reached the breaking point they rose in a body and set fire - to some mosques which were built with the material of the Hindu temples once demolished by Sikandar. The rising was quelled by the sword; many more were drowned in rivers, and loot and plunder was practised with unbridled license." Shri Vara the Hindu historian also describes the barbarous methods with which the Pandits were dealt with. Says he, Nona Deva and Jaya and Bhima Brahmana and others were maimed and they struggled and threw themselves in river Vitasta to be drowned there. The arms and noses of many people were cut off, even of those Brahmans who were king's servants." Loot and arson of the sacred places remained the order of the day for a long time. The pressure exerted on the Pandits was so great that in order to save themselves from further troubles - at least those of them who could not withstand the onslaught and the oppression, according to Shri Vara who is a contemporary historian, "gave up their caste and dress and exclaimed ' I am not a Bhatta,..I am not a Bhatta'." But it should be understood clearly that the Muslim masses did not participate in any large numbers in this orgy of brute force and passions. The struggle was at the top meant only to oust the Pandit from the seat of power. True that the common Pandit in the city of Srinagar suffered, but in the country side, the relations continued in a considerable measure in the same cordial manner, as in the reign of the late king Shri Zainulabdin. There the Pandit pursued his course unmolested in his usual routine manner, and the Pandit and Sheikh lived as brothers.

Haider Shah was not destined to rule for long. He died after a brief rule of a year and a few months. Hassan Khan the son of the late king now ascended the throne in 1475 A. D. A great lover of music and himself a skilful musician who handled many instruments, Hassan Khan started with promise and "revived the laws and practices which were in vogue during the time of Zainulabdin." For some time the things went on smoothly. But by this time powerful factions had come into existence. These took advantage of the king's too much addiction to wine and music and started intrigues which bore their fruit in a terrific civil war; and which weakened the State so much that the country fell an easy prey to the Moghul Emperor Akbar. But Hassan Khan had his own virtues. The seed of cultural unity sown by Zainulabdin "had borne enough fruit in him". Hassan Khan was a great Sanskrit scholar and well-versed in the Hindu Philosophy. It is said about him that " the king freed of envy had learnt the six Schools of philosophy, and the different works of these six Schools became one in him." Making allowance for the poetical exaggeration of the poet historian, it can safely be inferred that Hassan Khan had drunk deep from the fountain of Sanskrit learning and his hatred for Hinduism was at the lowest ebb or had none at all. Shri Vara says that he made a good use of his wealth by building Mathas and endowing villages in favour of Brahmans." The Pandits performed a big Homa on the day of his coronation. The mere fact that the king permitted such a ceremony to be performed on the auspicious day of his coronation shows that he possessed a fair measure of religious toleration. No wonder that the Pandits succeeded in getting gifts from him as the endowment of villages etc. on them. Describing his own relations with the king Shri Vara the historian says " What has not king Shri Hassan given to me Shri Vara for beyond my worth ? He has issued a proclamation about me which as it emanates from the king is a source of great happiness to me. He has given me strong and swift horses and thick holy thread and other articles beset with gold and jewels, and he has also given me beautiful boats with sails, and robes from his own person, and wealth. After paying a homage to " Shri Jainulavadina" (Zainulabdin) as a lover of all branches of learning Shri Vara says that " King Hassan is a master of music." Shri Vara himself was a musician of great skill. He held his own against the Indian musicians who were always in attendance upon the king. There were also Indian dancing girls, by name, Ratnamala, Dipmala, and Nripmala who " danced charmingly displaying emotions and gestures." With what poetical beauty does Shri Vara describe Ratnamala may be gathered from the following account of this dancing girl. " The king praised the beautiful actress Ratnamala, her forehead marked with Tilaka and he praised her dancing and owned that she had melted the hearts of all by her steps and her movements, by her tremor and action. How she commenced the expected dance: How her gestures, her movements, the expression of her passions and the swelling songs which flowed incessantly from her throat inflamed all men. The vaunt of the skilful is worthless as the straw in comparison with her. Her song was without a fault, her person was decorated with jewels, her beauty was great and she was possessed of merit. The creater made her face like the full moon. The beauty of her face was nectar and a drop of nectar hung from the nose in the form of a pearl pendent ... Thus the youthful king praised the woman in presence of his boon companions and took cups of wine from them." The king became addicted to such orgies. The affairs of the State were neglected which paved the path for a civil war which continued for a number of years. The Pandits had approach to the person of the ruler. Some of them participated in his drunken orgies. The musicians were mostly Indians with whom the Pandits could very easily mix, but in the administration and in the politics of the country they had very little say. Yet they fared better than in the previous rule. They were left in peace to their develop arts and literature. They were left so much in peace that they could build a vihara and a temple, a thing that could not be possible during the rule of Sikandar or Ali Shah. But this did not last for long.

Hassan Khan became more and more addicted to wine. He neglected the affairs of the State. Powerful factions with a definite class basis now came to the forefront. Each tried to amass as much power in its hands as it was possible. The most powerful faction was that of the Sayyids. It has been noticed in the foregoing pages as to under what circumstances the Sayyids came into the country. They started their career as preachers of Muslim religion whose main job was to secure as many converts as possible. They were treated with great consideration by the rulers. It has been recorded by Shri Vara that "knowing that Sayyid Nasira and his people were born of the family of Paigambra and that they were men of great accomplishment and had come to adorn his kingdom and were deserving of honour, the king Jaina ( Zainulabdin ) had given them very high seats in the court, had shaken hands with them and had shown them unusual favour of bestowing his own daughters on them and assigning to them estates in the kingdom.'' It was but natural that under such unlimited royal patronage and favour they should have as a class become very powerful. Having cast off the robes of religious friars they gradually began freely dabbling with politics and in the reign of Hassan Khan they had become a force to reckon with. The Sayyids were one and all foreigners, but with the people they had the prestige of being the descendants of the Holy Prophet. They got in a very large measure the homage from the Kashmiris. As long as the Sayyids kept their class prejudices hidden they remained in power because it was after all the support of the people that kept them in harness. But then class prejudice cannot be kept hidden or suppressed for long. It manifests itself in hundred and one ways. The Sayyids now gave expression to their feslings of hatred for others in an unbridled manner. Hassan Khan was married to a Sayyid girl and as Shri Vara says "it was owing to the good luck of their daughter ( the queen ) that the Sayyids obtained wealth and greatness but they regarded the people of Kashmir scarcely even as grass. The king bent upon furthering the interests of Sayyids acquiesced in orders whatever they were, that were issued by them for their own selfish ends. They were busy in creating factions and the king was forebearing...'' Haughty and arrogant the Sayyids began to create enemies and thereby an organized opposition for themselves. The Kashmiri notables could not brcck their high handedness for long. They became restive and even vociferous. But the Sayyids had isolated the king from them. They could scarcely get an audience with him. But somehow or other Jehangir Magre, a great Kashmiri general whose power was sought to be broken by the Sayyids, gained an audience with the king. He spoke to the king in unreserved terms that "these Sayyids O ! king, were once exiled but have been brought back. You have yourself brought this curse on this peaceful country......... The Sayyids have further been encouraged by the Turshkas with hopes of support and they should always be feared. They are eager for the kingdom as vultures are for meat. It is not fit, O my master! that you who have many ends to accomplish should devote himself exclusively to one... I am going away for the safety of your kingdom as well as of myself. The country is ruined and you ought to save yourself somehow. Reference to Turshkas (Turks) shows that the struggle was taking the hue of foreigners versus the indigenous population. Jehangir who had now assumed the leadership of the Kashmiris collected a small force and went away from the capital - in wait for better times. There was yet another group and that was of the Chaks a tribe of war-like people whose ancestor Lankar Chak had come into Kashmir during the reign of Suhadeo. The Chaks were not heard very much during the previous reigns excepting once during the reign of Zainulabdin, when they rose against the king and were suppressed with great severity. But now when factional politics became the order of the day they with their warlike habits came into prominence and the contending factions sought their co-operation and help. The Chaks partook of the characteristics of both - they were foreigners but their long stay in the country had obliterated most of the differences, physical and racial, that existed between them and the Kashmiris. So it was very easy for them to gain the confidence of one or the other. But for long they kept themselves in the background and sometimes they sided with the one group and sometimes with the other. This shows that their group consciousness had not become very pronounced in the beginning. It was only when after same time the whole tribe accepted the Shia creed that they appeared on the scene as a distinct group to play their own part on the political stage of the country.

The Pandits as a group were nowhere heard in this drama. They were in strict seclusion and moved with great caution. They avoided strife and never participated in any controversy. Even their historians were cautious. Describing the defeat of the royal army in Bhutta war Shri Vara says "I have abstained from giving even a brief account of this defeat in consideration of the present unsuitable times." But in the closing year of Hassan Khan's reign when the power of the Sayyids had grown very greatly - which was further augmented by the arrival of bands of their outside helpers the Pandit was sometimes witnessed on the scene, though only as a victim of the high-handedness of the groups in power. It is recorded that the Sayyids were very fond of hunting and did not spare even those places which because of their sanctity were treated as sanctuaries. A Muni by name Vaisharana who was held in high esteem lodged a mild protest against trespass on his land. The result was that not only he but all the Pandits residing in the locality were made to pay a heavy toll of suffering. An idea of the measure in which their religious susceptibilities were wounded can be gathered from the following: "The Turshkas were powerful and strong archers. They seated themselves in the house of Brahmans who had devoted themselves to the performance of the six duties, they ate from the vessels of the Brahmans the cooked meat of fowls killed as if in sacrificial ceremonies and they gave themselves up to the pleasures of drinking. The inhabitants of this place were robbed of their domestic animals and rice and other things, and some of the avaricious servants of the Sayyids killed the people in their own houses." This gives in brief the description of the plight of the Pandits. How trespass could be committed on their lands and houses with immunity ? How they could be robbed of all they possessed ? And how the king much though he might have wished to do so felt himself powerless to render them any relief ?

The embers of the struggle between the foreigner Sayyids and the indigenous Kashmiris were smouldering under an external surface of seeming peace, when Hassan Khan died in 1487 A.D. On his death-bed Hassan Khan had expressed a desire that in preference to his minor sons one of the two other princes of the royal blood should be installed on the throne with this condition that his son Mohammad Shah should be nominated as his heir by the prince so succeeding. By this means he expected the establishment of a strong rule and also the minimization of chances of the civil war. But fate ordained otherwise. Kashmir was dragged into the vortex of a deadly civil war which ended the rule of Salatins for all time. And what was in store for the Pandits during the next century will soon be seen.