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YOGINDER SIKAND
Introduction
The events of the last decade and more have occasioned a veritable ood of writings on
Kashmir. Some of these are genuine scholarly works, but most of them may be
considered little more than pure propaganda. A particularly tragic victim of this sort of
historiography has been the early history of Islam in Kashmir. Efforts have been made
to attempt to prove that the mass conversion to Islam in this region was the result of
political patronage extended by Muslim kings or even their alleged mass persecution of
the Hindu and Buddhist populace. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
As Bukhari rightly points out, It is an irrefutable fact of history that the people of
Kashmir accepted Islam perfectly voluntarily with their hearts and souls [dil-o-jan se],
without any force or pressure.1
This article deals with the rst known Islamic missionary to Kashmir, a Su from
Turkistan popularly remembered as Hazrat Bulbul Shah. Little has been written about
him, although scattered references to him and his work are found in most of the
medieval chronicles about Kashmiri history. Hazrat Bulbul Shah is, however, of central
importance in any study of Islam in Kashmir, for not only did he play a pioneering role
in the spread of Islam here, but he is also thought to have made bold efforts to bring
about a transformation in the caste-ridden Brahmin-dominated society of the Kashmir
of his times, no doubt seeing this as part of his own religious mission. The success of
Hazrat Bulbul Shahs missionary endeavours therefore needs to be understood in the
context of the Brahminical social order of early medieval times, and to that we now
turn.
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Yoginder Sikand
treatise on the history of Hindu rule in Kashmir, writes that Brahmin offenders were
treated with leniency, while offenders against them were treated with ten-fold severity.4
Protest against Brahminical hegemony took many forms in pre-Islamic Kashmir. The
most forceful expression of this protest was the rapid spread of Buddhism in the region,
starting from the third century BCE. Buddhism remained the dominant religion of the
non-Brahmins of Kashmir until around the eighth century CE. The Chinese Buddhist
traveller and scholar, Hiuen Tsang, who visited Kashmir in the mid-seventh century,
observed some 100 or more Buddhist temples in Srinagar alone.5 From the sixth
century onwards, however, the in uence of Buddhism in Kashmir gradually began to
decline at the hands of Brahminical revivalism, which saw egalitarian Buddhism as a
major challenge to its supremacy. By the end of the eighth century, Brahminism had
clearly emerged as the triumphant victor.
The Brahminical campaign of exterminating Buddhism from Kashmir is one of the
darkest chapters in Kashmirs history. The ferocity and hatred that red many Brahminical revivalists is clearly brought out in the works of several early medieval Kashmiri
Brahmin writers. Jayaratha, in his Haracharitachintamani , attributes the destruction of
the Brahminical ritual sacri ces to the Buddha, and calls the Adi Buddha (The First
Buddha) a demon. He writes that the Sravakatmanah Buddha is bent on destroying
the world, by which, of course, he meant the Brahminical system of domination. In the
same vein, Kalhan declares in his Rajataringini that the Buddhists are the enemies of
the agamas, and showers invectives on them for putting an end to the rites and
sacri ces prescribed by the Nilamata Purana, which consisted largely in propitiating the
Brahmins as gods and upholding the caste order.6
Violence on a large scale accompanied this tirade against the Buddhists. The Hindu
king Mihirakula, whose name, says Baig, is synonymous with the restoration of
Shaivism in Kashmir, mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of Buddhist monks, destroying
their temples and ordering the massacre of thousands of families.7 Numerous Buddhist temples were captured and converted into Hindu shrines, the most prominent
being the temple of Pas Pahar atop the Takht-i-Sulaiman in Srinagar, which was
renamed after Shankaracharya, the leader of the Brahminical revivalist crusade, and
was dedicated to Jyeshteswara or Shiva.8 Likewise, the Hindu king Nara is said to have
burnt down thousands of [Buddhist] viharas.9
With the rapid decline of Buddhism, protests against Brahminical hegemony now
began, from the ninth century onwards, expressing themselves within certain strands of
Kashmiri Shaivism, bitterly critiquing the empty ritualism and idolatry associated with
the Hindu priesthood. This, however, failed to make a major dent in the power of the
Brahminical establishment, because, as Nazki argues, the reformist effort was stif y
opposed by the Brahmin priests, who, accordingly, plotted to trap it in the maze of
philosophy, and branded it, as indeed Kalhan also does in his Rajataringini, as open
heresy.10 According to Hangloo, over time even these reformist efforts within Kashmiri
Shaivism were tamed, and it now became the established position that salvation was
possible only through the learning of the Brahminical scriptures. This, he says, inevitably put the masses beyond its reach and limited its appeal to the select who had the
leisure for intellectual pursuits. He writes that with their concern for philosophical
speculation, the Shaivite leaders did nothing to relieve the masses from their age-old
suffering, while the latter were increasingly burdened with cumbersome rituals and
ceremonies.11 Thus, by the time Islam found its way to Kashmir, Kashmiri society was
ripe for a new philosophy of life, one that would appeal to the downtrodden lower
castes and the Buddhists, both victims of Brahminical revivalism and orthodoxy.
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Consequently, when the rst Muslim missionaries arrived in Kashmir, the Kashmiris
converted to Islam in a ood.12
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Ra qui, in his treatise on Su sm in Kashmir, tells us, on the other hand, that Hazrat
Shah Nimatullah Wali Farsi was a disciple of Hazrat Shaikh Shihabuddin Abu Hafs
Umar bin Abdullah (d. 1234), nephew and successor of Shaikh Ziauddin Abdul
Suhrawardi. 21 He is said to have been equally pro cient in the religious [dini] and
worldly [duniyavi] sciences, and in the exterior [zahiri] as well as the esoteric [batini]
disciplines.22 As a wandering dervish, Hazrat Bulbul Shah travelled extensively in west
and central Asia before nally arriving in Kashmir in 1295 CE, in the reign of the last
Hindu king of Kashmir, Raja Suha Dev. It is believed that he stayed in Kashmir for a
short while on his rst trip and returned to central Asia, but later came back in 1324
CE in the reign of Kashmirs rst Muslim king, Rinchen Shah, in whose conversion to
Islam he played the central role. This time, it is said, he was accompanied by some one
thousand disciples, including leading Islamic scholars.23 According to another source,
however, he came alone.24
Hazrat Bulbul Shahs Missionary Endeavours
The role of Hazrat Bulbul Shah in planting the seeds of Islam in Kashmir is inextricably
linked with the political developments of his times, and here a slight digression is in
order. Kashmir in the twelfth century was racked with political intrigue in the courts of
the Hindu Rajas and considerable mass unrest. Jonaraja, the noted fteenth century
Hindu Pandit historian, writes about Raja Suha Dev, the last Hindu ruler of Kashmir,
that he was a rakshasa [demon] of a king, who devoured Kashmir for nineteen years,
three months and twenty ve days.25 Already tottering under the weight of its own
contradictions, the death-knell for Hindu rule was sounded with the invasion of the
Tartar hordes led by the Mongol warlord Zulchu, grandson of the dreaded Hulagu in
1319. He laid Kashmir waste in a campaign of mass slaughter that lasted some eight
long months, in which thousands of Kashmiris lost their lives. Zulchu ordered all
able-bodied Kashmiri men to be killed, for the women and children to be taken as
slaves and for entire towns to be razed to the ground.26
Shortly before Zulchus invasion, Rinchen Shah (whose Buddhist name was Lhachen-rgyal-bu-rin-chen), son of the Ladakhi Buddhist king Lha-chen-dngros-grub, had
ed to Kashmir after his father had been slain in a battle with the Baltis. The then
Hindu ruler of Kashmir, Raja Suha Dev, welcomed Rinchen and gave him an estate in
the region of Lar. At around the same time, another man who was to play a key role
in the establishment of Muslim rule in Kashmir, Shah Mir, arrived in Kashmir from
Swat. During Zulchus invasion Rinchen remained at Lar and played a heroic role in
defending the people against the Mongol marauders, because of which he emerged as
a popular leader with much mass support.27 Shah Mir, too, joined in leading the
struggle against the Mongols. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Mongol invasion Raja
Suha Dev ed to Kishtwar, and were it not for Rinchen Shah and Shah Mir, the
Kashmiris would have been left completely defenceless.
With Raja Suha Dev hiding in Kishtwar, Rawanchandra, his commander-in-chief,
took over as king of Kashmir, but his rule did not last long. Encouraged by the popular
support that he had won in resisting the Mongols, Rinchen deposed Rawanchandra and
ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1320 CE as the rst Buddhist king in Kashmir after
several centuries of Hindu rule. Since Shah Mir had played a key role in bringing him
to power, Rinchen appointed him as his chief minister. He also appointed Rawanchandra, son of Ramachandra, as governor of Lar and gave him the province of Ladakh as
an estate.
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Yoginder Sikand
history of Kashmir, puts it, Rinchen, now subjected himself to the teachings of the
religion of Mustafa [the Prophet], and the right principles of the truthful path of
Murtaza [Imam Ali], and embraced the Islamic religion with sincerity and conviction.
He gave up once and for all the false and corrupt religions.30
Following the conversion of Rinchen and his family, several other leading Kashmiris
also followed suit, most notably Rawanchandra, son of the Hindu king Ramachandra
who had been deposed by Rinchen. Many low castes and Buddhists, too, now began
to embrace the new faith, seeing in it a source of liberation from the shackles of the
Brahminical system. It is said that, in all, Hazrat Bulbul Shah succeeded in making some
10,000 converts to Islam through means of peaceful missionary effort, although this
gure seems considerably exaggerated.31
Conclusion
Being a devout Muslim Su , Hazrat Bulbul Shah led a life of complete self-abnegation
and cast an enormous in uence on the people amongst whom he worked and lived.32
He preached against the popular superstitions that were widely prevalent amongst the
Kashmiris of his day. Belief in the power of ghosts and evil spirits was particularly strong
and widespread among the people. Hazrat Bulbul Shah, it is said, organized a special
religious service at which he recited the Surat al-Jinn, a chapter of the Holy Quran, after
which he no longer heard complaints from the people about jinns troubling them.33 His
close involvement with ordinary folk in their times of need is evident from the story that
once, at the height of a particularly severe winter when all the lakes had turned to ice,
the people of Srinagar, having no access to water, came to him for help. Hazrat Bulbul
Shah, so the story goes, looked up towards the sky and called out, Where is the sun to
melt all the ice? All at once, it is said, the sun appeared from behind a thick blanket
of clouds and the ice on the lakes began to melt.34 Although this may well be a later
hagiographic legend, the story clearly suggests the understanding that ordinary Kashmiris have of the Su being deeply concerned about the plight of the poor.
Hazrat Bulbul Shah took up residence on the banks of the Jhelum where Rinchen
Shah set up a khanqah or Su centre at Ali Kadal in the heart of Srinagar. Close to the
khanqah, Rinchen Shah constructed two mosques, including a Jamiah mosque for the
Friday congregational prayers. Attached to the khanqah was a large langar khana or
community kitchen, now known as Bulbul Langar where the poor were fed free of cost
twice a day. The credit for introducing the institution of the langar in Kashmir, which
is still to be found in several Su centres all over the region, thus goes to Hazrat Bulbul
Shah. At the khanqah he would deliver regular sermons and provide spiritual instruction
to his followers who, in turn, carried the message of Islam to various other parts of
Kashmir.35
Hazrat Bulbul Shah carried on with his mission of spreading Islam from his khanqah
until he breathed his last in 1327 CE. Although the mass conversion of the Kashmiris
to Islam had to wait for at least a century later, his role was crucial in planting the seeds
of Islam in the region.
NOTES
1. Sayyed Muhammad Faruq Bukhari, Kashmir main Islam: Manzar Aur Pasmanzar (Islam in
Kashmir: Historical Context), Srinagar: Maktaba Ilm-o-Adab, 1998, p. 4.
2. Ved Kumari, The Nilamata Purana, Vol. II, Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art,
Culture and Languages, 1994.
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