Mendhar (IoK News): / Disappointed with the poor road connectivity in different areas of border towns Mendhar, Balakote, and Mankote the residents have urged urgent action.
Dr. Shazad Malik, former Vice-Chancellor of University and Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Border Area Development Conference, JK-BADC strongly condemned the government agencies responsible for the construction of these roads.
In a statement issued here, the BADC Chairman has said that during his tour of over 30 Panchayats and hundreds of villages of Mendhar, Balakote, and Mankote in last over a month, one of the main problems apprised to him by the inhabitants of these villages was of poor Road connectivity.
Dr. Shahzad also informed that the people of these areas had complained as there is no coordination between the Department of Rural Development, Public Works Department (Road and Building), and PMGSY.
Therefore it is difficult to fix the responsibility of the concerned department that is responsible for the construction of roads with substandard material as all these departments construct roads in these areas without any coordination and information sharing with each other.
BADC Chairperson also alleged that every year 100s of crores of rupees are provided by the government of India and J & K government under different schemes to these departments for improving road connectivity in border areas but other than paperwork, negligible is done on the ground.
He has urged the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to formulate a coordination committee of heads of these departments to fix responsibility and avoid overlapping of road projects and funds besides conducting a quality audit of road constructions.
Bagh AJK (IoK News): Poverty and lack of economic opportunities are common in remote villages of Azad Kashmir.
Majority of people in the mountainous region struggle to make ends meet due to the lack of basic infrastructure and financial resources.
Every year, aid of millions of rupees is distributed in food packs amongst the poor and needy of these area. Still, there is a growing concern that more and more people are facing hardship challenges.
There are hundreds of local and international organisations that support local people in catering their needs of food, education, healthcare, and other necessities of life.
One such organisation is Million Smiles Foundation. Though, recently setup, the charitable organisation has quickly raised a dedicated team of volunteers to support its activities.
The foundation is helping local people in many districts of Azad Kashmir. It is helping many local schools to provide education for the children who cannot afford to pay the cost of uniform and stationery and providing skills training to local youth.
The organisation has been actively collaborating with local NGOs, support groups and volunteer teams to extend help and support to rural communities.
Recently, the foundation opened schools in remote villages of Neelum Valley and Bagh districts.
A First Aid Training was arranged in Muzaffarabad by Million Smiles Foundation and Pakistan Red Crescent to help People learn to be more conscious of safety in the work place, leading to
The Million Smiles Foundation was founded in early 2019 by a young patriotic Pakistan woman Ms. Umme Muhammad. She moved back from New York with a vision to foster the 130 Million Youth of Pakistan by equipping them with a basic level of skills. She wants to maximize their success in life & encourage to develop their fullest potential in spirit, mind, and body.
Zeshan Afzal is the Co-Founder of Million Smiles Foundation, He also left his corporate job in Manhattan, New York while working at the wall street.
He is also a dreamer of making a tangible difference for the 130 Million Youth of Pakistan with special focus on their development.
His dream is to inculcate a core set of values revolving around personal development, experimental learning, travel, patriotism, and religious harmony.
The Rathores have clear traditions of migrations from the Marwar region of Rajasthan. They were originally the rulers of Jodhpur, historically called Marwar and latter extended their rule over Bikaner. Reference can be made to “khyats” (traditional accounts) written down in the seventeenth century, which refer to the fact that the Rathores were originally feudatories of the Ujjain based Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, and may perhaps have been domiciled in the vicinity of Kannauj in the heyday of that dynasty.
Pratihara-ruled Kannauj was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1019 CE, which ushered in a chaotic period for that area. A family known to us as the Gahadvala gained control of Kannauj and ruled for nearly a century; their best-known ruler was Raja Jaichand, their last king. The Gahadvalas were displaced from Kannauj by the invasion, in 1194 CE, of Muhammad of Ghor. It is said that Sheoji, a surviving grandson of Jaichand, made his way into the western desert with a group of faithful followers, finally settling in the town of Pali in Marwar, which was ruled by another branch of the Pratiharas.
Sheoji is regarded as the patriarch of the entire Rathore clan and all Rathores trace their patrilineage back to him. The tradition finds supports from a number of inscriptions found in the vicinity of Kannauj that mention several generations of a Rashtrakuta dynasty ruling there for two centuries. A very similar account is also mentioned in the “Rashtrayudha Kavya” of Rudrakavi, finished in 1595, who was the court poet in the court of the Rathore king, Narayana of Mayurgiri.
The Rathores gradually spread across Marwar, forming a brotherhood of landowners and village chieftains, loosely bound to each other by ties of clan and caste. An epoch in the history both of Marwar and of the Rathores was marked by Rao Jodha, a warrior who founded a kingdom that grew to encompass all of Marwar. He also founded the city of Jodhpur in 1459, and moved his capital from Mandore. One of his sons, Rao Bika, with the help of his uncle Rawat Kandhal, established the town of Bikaner in 1488, in the Jangladesh region lying to the north of Marwar; that town was to become the seat of a second major Rathore kingdom. The various cadet branches of the Rathore clan gradually spread to encompass all of Marwar and later spread to found states in Central India and Gujarat. The Rathore were actually recruited as soldiers in the Mughal Army.
In 1596, one such soldier of fortune, Raja Siraj-Ud-Din Rathore, the descendant of Rao Jodha and Rao Suraj Singh, was made by the Mughal emperor Jahangir the new ruler of Poonch. The establishment of the Rathore state led to the migration of several Rathore in the Poonch region. Not all the Rathore however converted to Islam, and there are several villages of Hindu Rathore Rajputs found mainly in Bhaderwah and Kishtwar areas of Jammu Province.
Siraj-Ud-Din had two wives, from his first wife’s son Raja Fateh Mohammad Khan (ruled – 1646-1700), descend the Rathore rulers of Poonch. From a second wife, who was a Chauhan Rajput had two sons Noor Mohammad and Khan Mohammad. His successors included Rajah Abdul Razak Rathore (1700-1747), on his death the throne of Poonch was usurped by Latifullah Tarkhan. With the help of Islam Yar Khan Kishthwaria, the Tarkhan was defeated and killed and Baqa Mohammad Rathore was made ruler of Sarhon and Kahuta. Meanwhile the throne of Poonch passed to the Kishtwaria chieftain. On his death in 1760, the throne returned to the Rathores, with Raja Rustam Rathore becaming next Raja (ruled – 1760-1787).
Rajah Rustam Rathore was born as Ali Gohar, and his period was considered a golden age of the Poonch principality. The territory of the Rathore then covered all of Poonch, including the what is now Haveli district of Azad Kashmir. He was succeed by Raja Shahbaz Khan who ruled from 1787-92, Raja Bahadur Khan who ruled from 1792-1798, who was overthrown by his vizier Ruhullah. The Rathore chiefs of Sarhoon, under Rajah Sher Baz Rathore expelled Ruhullah and assumed the thrown of Poonch. Sher Baz ruled from 1804-1808, when his state was conquered by the Sikhs. This put an to the main line of the Rathore, but two branches continued as jagirdars until the end of the Jammu and Kashmir State in 1948.
The territory of Sarharon and Kahuta is located north of Poonch city, and now lies largely within Pakistani Kashmir in what is now Haveli District. The Rathores of this chieftainship descend from the second son of Rajah Fateh Mohammad by the name of Mohammad Moazam Khan. This occurred in 1667, and the chieftainship lasted till 1787, when last chief Rajah Azamatullah Khan was defeated by the Sikhs. In 1846, the territory became part of the Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir. Raja Sarandaz Rathore, the then ruler was granted a jagir within the Dogra state. His descendents maintained this position until the end of the Dogra state in 1948.
This branch of the Rathore claims descent from Raja Noor Mohammad Khan, who was the son of Siraj-Ud-Din Khan. He was granted the jagir of Shahpur, that lies just south of the line of Control in Indian administered Kashmir. The Rathore of Shahpur descend from the eldest son of Raja Noor Mohammad Khan, while those of Mandhar, also located close to the line of control, descend from the younger brother. These two minor principalities were never independent, but were feudal states loyal to the rulers of Poonch. When the Poonch State was annexed by the Sikhs, they continued as jagirdars until the end of the Dogra State in 1948.
The Rathore are now divided by the Line of Control, with Kahuta branch now found in Haveli District of Pakistani Kashmir, while those of Shahpur and Mandhar now found in Indian Kashmir.
In Haveli District and neighbouring Kotli, there are several Rathore villages such as Budh, Barengban, Chapa Najl, Jokan, Halan, Werha Khas, Padr, Palan Chaudriyan and Kalali.
Large number of Rathore are also found in Nakar Bandi (about 60 km East of Bagh) in Azad Kashmir.
The article was first published here by New Pak Historian website.
A narrative from a partitioned borderland of Poonch.
Malvika Sharma
Both the borderlands of Poonch are under siege and live with violence every day: iss paar and uss paar. Perhaps they are under siege now, with the sound of the shells pounding in and out growing louder as I write this, somewhere deep in the middle of the night.
Jagat Ram (as seen in the picture), my great-grandfather was displaced during the partition from his native village Kalote-Hajira (now across the LoC) in October 1947. Along with my grandfather, Lakhmi Chand, his only son, had to relocate to the present day town of Poonch, in Jammu and Kashmir on the Indian side.
Jagat Ram (author’s grandfather) Photo & Article credit : The WireHajira Town
What have we done to Urdu and the essence of language as a binding force in general? With divided lands we have divided so much that once was our collective heritage and pride. Irony, however, is we are not willing to stop here yet!
The nature of the partition here was such that the erstwhile fiefdom of Poonch under the monarchy of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was bisected into two halves. The minority Hindu-Sikh population in the fief ran towards the town on the Indian side, while Muslims were pushed out of the township towards the other side across the LoC.
The present day town of Poonch-Haveli was probably one of the few city habitations of the fief that fell on the India side, with majority of the other parts of the fief today lying with Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) – contested by India as a disputed territory.
Those were the times when belongingness in a religion suddenly became a threat for those who witnessed the carnage, or has it always been so, even in the post-partition times in India and in South Asia at large?
With religion and its shrinking diversity, what have we done to a language as plural as Urdu, a language that knew no barriers. It flowed like silk through its immaculate words, touching hearts of millions who identified with it, beyond this madness and absurdity of excluding people and communities by religion, language, food, attire.
To put it differently, what have we done to a world where language signified acceptance, coexistence, tolerance and richness?
Pir Panjal
Jagat Ram, my great-grandfather was a sergeant based in Hajira – one of the four tehsils of Poonch district on the other side of LoC into the contested territory of AJK, barely 20 kms from the Poonch headquarter Haveli on the India side. So the family, like the other 40,000 displaced persons, referred to as ‘refugees’ in the local parlance, moved from one part of the erstwhile Poonch fief into the other.
He donned a safah/headwear and neat collar rolled into a knot out of a silk cloth, typical of a decorative policeman (as seen in the picture). This is not an on-duty picture from his pre-partition life in Hajira. This is a picture from his initial years in Poonch on the Indian side – years that were tough on many such families who had to survive the food scarcity in a township that was suddenly converted into a camp, housing 40,000 refugees, with the first war between the two nation states of India and Pakistan being on, on all its fronts between October 1947 and January 1949.
The town and its neighbouring villages were under siege for more than one year that halted with the UN intervention and its declaration of ceasefire. The ceasefire line sealed the fate of the erstwhile united fief by dividing it into two parts. With the line being drawn, the rich heritage of Poonch on both the sides was lost forever. People on both sides still live with horrendous memories that continue to haunt them. However, nothing much has changed today – 70 years after the siege.
Both the borderlands of Poonch are under siege and live with violence every day: iss paar and uss paar. Perhaps they are under siege now, with the sound of the shells pounding in and out growing louder as I write this, somewhere deep in the middle of the night.
Jagat Ram was indeed a decorated sergeant, as he was addressed in Hajira. Not only was he the most sought after sergeant in times of trouble in Hajira, but the police in Rawalakot, which is hardly 30 kms from Hajira, sought his help when needed.
One such anecdote from the pre-partition days passed down as memory in the family goes like this:
‘There once was a Pathan thief, whose notoriety had terrorised the people in the region. He would move like a thug, stealing goats and hens apart from other similar pilferage that he indulged in. Tired of his mischief, people wanted him arrested as soon as possible. The station house officer at Rawalakot personally asked his forces to get Sergeant Jagat Ram from Hajira appointed on this case immediately. Jagat Ram usually handled cases with one of his acquaintances. They both set out to finish the task, looking for the thief in every village day after the other. After a few failed attempts, they finally captured him. Jagat Ram handcuffed him, and just to be safe he attached the other end of the handcuff with his acquaintance’s leather belt. But the tales of horror unleashed by the thief were not famous without a reason. While crossing a bridge on Jhelum, the thief suddenly jumped into the strong waves, taking Jagat Ram’s acquaintance down with him. Both of them were saved after moving a few miles downstream in its heavy currents.’
During the carnage in 1947, while running for life towards Poonch, Jagat Ram protected the kafila he and his family were a part of with his strongly cut out wooden sickles locally referred to as gupti and a walking stick that had a hidden weapon in it. His attire in the picture along with his walking stick (as seen in the picture) with a sharp lethal tip, speak volumes about how he left his land and house in Hajira with his most prized possessions: his weapons.
Culture shock
Both my great-grandfather and grandfather were fluent in reading and writing Urdu – the language of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir they belonged to as its state subjects. The language of majority of Poonchies (people of Poonch) was Pahari, a dialect of Pothowari group of languages as discussed in a recent article here.
But Jagat Ram, my great-grandfather had somehow picked up Punjabi, courtesy; his innumerable duty calls out of Hajira, with fiefdom of Poonch being a neighbour of undivided Punjab. My father recalls how my grandmother would ask my father to serve tea to him, and Jagat Ram would remark, ithe rakh de glass…main pi laanga…maa nu kahyin phulke hor na banayin… (Keep the glass here, I will take it in a while, please tell your mother not to cook more rotis, I am full).
He was the only Pahari-Poonchi refugee who would speak Punjabi without anyone to converse it with in return. My father, an erudite reader of Urdu, is an educationist whose life has been a gift of Urdu. Six students from the same graduate batch got appointed as teachers in 1986. My father was one among them.
Interestingly, all six of them were appointed without any higher degree but with one thing in common; they graduated with Urdu as a subject. A scheme launched by the education department recruiting Urdu-knowing persons exclusively came as a blessing for them. The recruitment opened with a meagre 2% intake, accommodating all six of them, two Sikh boys among four Hindus.
My father retired last year in April 2019, and has been a fine educationist. His life as a teacher with innumerable postings around some of the most hostile border villages has been an inspirational archive I have often written about. His first posting was inter-tehsil, and he was appointed in a notorious border village of Balnoi, Balakote, Mehndhar. The world often reads about the unfortunate news of heavy ceasefire violation and casualty in this sector.
Stories from his two-year tenure here are filled with tales of plurality, communal harmony and peace amidst a conflict zone, given how the minority Hindu-Sikh paharis constitute hardly 7% of the population. The fraternity and brotherhood of this multi-religious ethnic-group is exemplary.
He has been teaching in Urdu medium for a long part of his career. Recently, he visited a local bania’s shop for groceries. The shop is an old and famous one with several boys employed as helpers. The customer provides them with a glossary of items written on a piece of paper. It was another routine purchase for my father that day, and the boy who took paper out of my father’s hand, said, “Uncle, yeh Urdu main hai, Hindi main likh kar lao… (This list is in Urdu…come back with the one in Hindi).”
My Dad calmly approached the owner of the shop sitting behind his desk and added, “Shahji, Urdu state language abhi bhi hai, aur apki dukaan shehar ki mashur bania ki dukan hai, paanch ladkon main se ek toh rakhlo joh urdu padh sake, business strategy sahi nahin hai aapki… (Yours is a famous grocery store in a town where the state language is still Urdu, please employ one of your five boys who can read Urdu, how else are you going to run a business if customers who come to you with glossaries written in Urdu had to return.)”
Disappointed, he did not purchase groceries that day, but he was more shaken when he realised that Shahji won’t employ a boy who can read and write Urdu, because more than language it is the religious identities that have hijacked the whole narrative. Being a Hindu, this must have confused him about his own plural identity. The dawn of this social reality on someone like him who had earned his bread and butter because of Urdu must have been shocking.
His father Lakhmi Chand could only read and write in Urdu and speak in Pahari dialect, his great-grandfather Sergeant Jagat Ram could read and write only in Urdu, but spoke in Punjabi, being a Pahari. He could not buy groceries anymore with an Urdu glossary.
What have we done to Urdu and the essence of language as a binding force in general? With divided lands we have divided so much that once was our collective heritage and pride. Irony, however, is we are not willing to stop here yet!
Malvika Sharma is a senior Ph.D. research fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The narratives shared here are a part of her ongoing work. She works in the field of borderland studies.
Sabz Ali Khan and Malli Khan are two heroes of the Kashmir freedom movement. We have heard many accounts of their bravery against the tyrannical rule of the Ranjit Singh darbar. Yet, very few people know that there were many others who laid their lives in the path of martyrdom along with Sabz Ali Khan and Malli Khan.
The brave companions of Sabz Ali Khan and Malli Khan are the unsung heroes of freedom movement in the Poonch region of the Jammu and Kashmir. They laid their lives against the despotic rule of Ranjit Singh and his regime’s policies of repression, exorbitant taxes and forced labour.
Shams Khan and Rajwali Khan
During this revolt, Sabz Ali and Malli Khan along with many companions were flayed alive in Mang (Palandri, Sudhnuti).Hundreds of Kashmiri children and women were taken to Jammu as prisoner. Shams Khan and Rajwali were killed by a traitor Nur Khan Terola in the Daigwal village. The heads and Skin of all the rebels were hung of a tree located in Mang( palandri, Azad Kashmir) which is still present there;
Located in Mang this monument reminds of the henious events of 1832 when the local people of Mang rebelled against the Sikh rule of Ranjeet Singh. At the time, Ghulab Singh was a General in his army and was responsible for supressing any descent. In 1832 there was a rebellion in and around Mang by the local people and Ghulab Singh was sent to deal with it. M L Kapur in his book ‘the history of jammu & Kashmir’ mentions, “to quell the rebellion in Poonch and Chibbhal territory Ghulab Singh returning from Peshawar and after some desultory warfare, the rebels were completely routed.
Many of them were captured, and treated with vengeance; their hands and feet were severed by axes, while skins of Sardar Mali Khan and Sardar Sabaz Ali Khan, two of the close accomplices of Shams-ud-Din, were peeled off their bodies, and their heads were hung on gallows in a crossing as a warning to others. Hands were ultimately laid on the chief rebel as well, and his head was cut off.” The rebels were hung on this very tree featured here and skinned alive. The practice of skinning alive rebels continued for some time.”
The article is based on information taken from two sources :
Fatehpur Thakiala and the present day Nakyal city of Mirpur Division in Pakistan Administered Jammu and Kashmir were part of Mendhar sub-division of the state of Poonch before the partition of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. The current town of Nakyal lies along the Line of Control (boundary between Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir).
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The 1947-48 war between India and Pakistan divided the border Thakiala into two parts. One went to Pakistan and the other became part of India. After the separation from Mendhar it became a tehsil of Kotli District.The old name of this area was Thakiala, named after the Thakial Rajputs who live here since ancient times but it was renamed Fatehpur Thakiala to honour a veteran politician and local elder Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Karelvi. It is also the birth place of the former president and prime minister of Pakistan Administered Kashmir, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan.
Thakyal Rajputs are of the Suryavanshi lineage and legend claims they are descended from Rama, a mythical king of Ayodhya. Thakial tradition links them to Jamwal and Raja Agnigarba who came to Ayodhya and founded a small state on the banks of River Tawi. The Dogra Maharajas of Jammu and Kashmir belong to Jamwal clan. Minhas or Manhas Rajputs are also an offshoot of this clan. It is said that one Raja Malan Hans took up agriculture and left the throne to his younger brother, Raja Suraj Hans. Since that time Rajputs who took up agriculture are styled Minhas, whereas the name ‘Jamwal’ is confined to the royal branch.
The Thakials are named after a Raja Jothar Singh Thakial who established the Bhimber state in the northern Punjab at the foothills of the Himalayas. It remained an independent state for thousands of years under the Thakial rule until the fourteenth century.
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The last Thakial Maharaja of the State was Siripat. It was at this time that Partab Chand, a prince of Kangra started his journey from Kangra to Bhimber. When he reached the hill tops near Bhimber, Partab Chand observed that it was very difficult to capture the state. He set a camp there and named this hilltop as Kangra and the village still exists by the same name even today. Partab Chand stayed for a long time with his troops on the hilltop waiting for a suitable opportunity to attack and capture the state but this did not arise as he had run short of supplies for his men.
Partab Chand sent his soldiers in disguise with his own jewellery to go down to the markets of Bhimber to get the much-needed supplies. His men went to a jeweller who was astonished when he saw the royal jewels. The Maharaja of Bhimber, Siripat Thakial learned about the men with the royal jewels and found out about the deployment of the Kangra troops on hill top. He sent his ambassador to Partab Chand which resulted a friendly meeting between the Partab Chand and the Maharaja of Bhimber. Maharaja Siripat Thakial had a daughter but no sons. He married the princess with the oldest son of Partab Chand, the Raj Kumar Chib Chand. On the death of Maharaja Siripat, the Raj Kumar Chib Chand became the Maharaja of Bhimber. From this union, of the Thakial princess(rani) and Raj Kumar Chib Chand, the Chib Rajput clan emanates. Raja Dharam Chand was the seventh Raja of the Chib Chand line. He converted to Islam and was named as Raja Shadab Khan of Bhimber. He was killed by Ibrahim Lodhi and his tomb still exists on the hills of Bhimber by the name of Baba Shadi Shaheed.
After Chib Chand became the ruler of the state, some Thakials conspired to overthrow Chib Chand which resulted in Chib Chand executing some leaders and driving others out of the state. The Thakials who were driven out of the Bhimber state by Chib Chand settled in the area north of Bhimber, currently known as Fatehpur Thakiala. This area was ruled by the Jayrah clan. Among the Thakials was a man of great stature and resolve named Rusmi Dev. Rusmi Dev lived in a place called Thakar Dhooli in the village Dhuruti in Fatehpur Thakiala. There are many stories about Rusmi Dev; among them being the one where he fought and killed an evil jinn. It is said that he was travelling across the Pir Panjal mountains when he met an old holy man who told him to return to his home for he would one day will become a ruler and also told him that he will convert to Islam. The relationships between the Thakials and the Jayrah were not good and war broke out between the two clans. The Jayrah clan was defeated and Rusmi Dev became the ruler. Islam was spreading all over India during this time and under growing influence of Islam in the Subcontinent Rusmi Dev converted to Islam and changed his name to Rustam Khan. On his death Rustam Khan was buried in Dhuruti, a village in Fatehpur Thakiala and every year a gathering is held at his shrine where people in their hundreds go to pay homage.
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As with other Muslim Rajputs, they hold the title of Raja, which is the ancestral title of the Rajputs since the times of the Mahabharata and some have additional titles like Sardar, which was conferred upon them by the rulers of latter days.
Rustam Khan had four sons and their decedents are the modern day Thakials. His oldest son was called Sangi Khan, whose decedents live in Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Azad Kashmir, Abbotabad in the North West Frontier Province and Gujarkhan, Muree and Rawalpindi in Punjab. The descendents of other three sons, Bagh Khan, Kangi Khan and Kaloo Khan live in the Mendhar area of Jammu and Kashmir. Bagh Khan’s descendents are known as Baghal. The Tehsil Fatehpur Thakiala in the Kotli District is named after them. Around 150 Thakyal Rajput are also residing in Charri Panchayat of Kangra District in Himachal Pradesh. They are Hindu Rajputs and living in Charri Panchayat since around 1850. For more information on Thakyal Rajput tribes please visit here
Meditating inside a Cave was prevalent in ancient Kashmir. Hindus believed that mountain caves more specifically Himalayan caves were the abode of Shiva. Many Yogis , Saints , Hermits, Sadhus and later highly revered holy men of Reshi cult practiced it . Shaiva scholar Acharaya Abhinavgupta along with more than 1200 followers is believed to have marched insidethe Bhairva cave in kashmir for meditation and never returned thereafter .
Nund Rishi or Sheikh Noor Ud Din Alamdaar e Kashmir of Tsraar Sharif or Baba Zain Ud Din Wali of Aishmuqaam also meditated inside caves .Baba Shukar Din ( His shrine overlooks wular lake in Kashmir ) is also reported to have meditated inside a cave. During Buddhist period, Monks meditated inside caves. Cave meditation was also practiced by Buddhist Monks in Ladakh and Tibet. Rishis believed in peaceful coexistence, humanism and non violence. The evolution of a Khraav or wooden sandal in Kashmir is a proof if it. The lower surface of the Khraav had minimum contact with ground so that no creatures would be put to harm upon it’s use.The followers of a Reshi would give due respect to the Khraav or wooden sandal of their Guru. No Reshi walked with bare feet.Even to this day, the Khraav of Reshi Peer (Ali Kadal) or Swami Ram Ji of Fateh Kadal is preserved and revered by his followers.
Insight on Kashmir // Danidhar fort in Rajouri district of Jammu Kashmir attracts less visitors than any other place of attraction in the area perhaps because of its dilapidated condition. However, its grandeur and loftiness is still worthy to be viewed particularly when one is inside the huge building. The Rajauri government describes that this historic fort was built during the reign of Mian Hathu- the then governor of Rajouri. He ruled this small governorate from 1846-1856 AD under the rule of the Lahore Darbar. In this very period, the governor started the construction of Dhannidhar Fort. The Fort was completed in 1855 AD. The main intention for the construction of the Fort was to keep Dogra Forces in this safer place because from this place, the whole Valley of Rajouri could be viewed. Apart from this during the Dogra regime, the revenue was collected from the farmers in the shape of grains and the grain was dumped in the fort which was sold later on.
Dhanidhar Fort in Rajouri
The fort has been constructed utilizing the remains of the Jarral Rajas buildings. Lt Nawang Kapadia describes that before the advent of the Muslims, Rajouri was ruled by Hindu Kings belonging to the ‘Pal’ dynasty who claimed to be descendants of the Pandavas. Dhanidhar Fort is believed to have been built by one of the kings of this dynasty. The fort commands a complete view of the Rajouri town. The name Dhanidhar was given to this highest elevation of land portion overlooking Rajouri town and the valley below, on the basis of a village called Dhanidhar in its close proximity.
A view from Dhanidhar fort
Rajouri”‘ is situated to the south of the Pir Panjal mountain range. Poonch is in its” west while Bhimber lies in the south.
Being on the Imperial route it was the halting place of Mughal Emperors during their visit to Kashmir. The fort was built by the Mughals with the help of stone blocks and baked bricks. There were mosques, gardens, rooms, assembly halls and hammams. All the structures, except the ruins of a small mosque in the market’ (Gujar Mandi) were once occupied by the cixil Hospital and forest department. Therefore it was not possible to trace out and prepare plans of the structures. Only the fortress wall towards riverside is standing there perhaps due to strong ‘ built of huge stone blocks and bricks. These could have been part of a riverside summer palace which used to be a common feature of the Mughal buildings on imperial route leading to Kashmir.
Insight on Kashmir 