Summary of this article:
·Excavations of archaeological sites in Kashmir has raised fears about the acquisition of people’s land
· Authorities have declared the newly excavated site of Zehanpora in Baramulla a treasure, but locals could lose the grazing land
·Reconstruction of temples has also received a push, which has, however, been welcomed by members of the Hindu community
On a routine day, Abdul Rehman Ganie herds his flock of sheep for grazing on a small hill that lies across a row of water channels of a power project in North Kashmir’s Baramulla, around thirty miles from the line of control that separates India and Pakistan. Now, a blast from the past is threatening to disturb the peace in this idyllic meadow in the lap of nature. The Jammu and Kashmir government’s Archives and Archaeology department has discovered a Buddhist site on the grazing land. The Ganie family doesn’t have any Buddhist or Hindu ancestry, which is also the case with the other people in the hillside village of Zehanpora.
Ganie is anxious that restrictions on grazing the cattle at the place would deprive him of the means of employment. “I will be forced to sell off my cattle,” says Ganie, as he points to the shards of brick that were excavated by the authorities before the earthen mounds were sealed off, and a sheet of blue tarp and spools of barbed wire covered the site that is believed to possess monasteries and stupas of the Buddhists who lived here. A steep trek along a winding road leads to the place where people primarily engage in farming or fishing for a living.
The Zehanpora site is a rare discovery in the Kashmir’s landscape, which is dotted with protected sites of both Muslims and Hindus, which have helped unravel the past life of people and the rulers. In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked about Zehanpora in his monthly radio talk, Man Ki Baat, programme, stating that the Buddhist complex dates back nearly two thousand years, which highlights the region’s role in the spread and development of Buddhist culture in ancient times. “Such findings underline the fact that Kashmir has long been a centre of learning, spirituality, and cultural exchange. The rediscovered site stands as a strong reminder of Kashmir’s rich identity and historical legacy,” he said.
After the fall of the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir in June 2018 and under the rule of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, preserving past Hindu sites has received a vigorous push in Kashmir. To speed up the excavation further, last year on October 31, Kashmir University signed a memorandum of understanding with the J&K government’s Archives and Archaeology department to share its expertise for joint surveys.
However, people have increasingly become sceptical about the restoration projects and have voiced concerns that these would deprive them of their livelihood.
For example, an excavation work done by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Central Kashmir’s Chadoora has raised livelihood concerns as people have been told that their houses and shops have come up in violation of rules and lie closer to the neglected Mughal Sarai. On the second day of Eid, a stream of people visited the Khanpura Sarai with children bursting crackers inside its park that remained littered with rubbish. Some people were seen sitting on the roofs of the Sarais, which are made of fine bricks and served as inns for Mughal rulers, and are so weak that they could crumble under heavy weight. Only at a distance of nearly half a kilometer from the Khanpura Sarai, in 2024, the ASI officials carried out heavy excavation work in what some locals and officials believed was a repository of a pre-Islamic settlement of Buddhist or Hindu rule. A new site would mean that the land would be acquired for it, and prohibitions would also remain in place for the construction activities.
Signboards at the Khanpura Sarai note that these structures were raised during the reign of Mughal emperor, Jehangir, and also cite the Ancient Monuments Act under which an area up to 100 meters from the protected site remains prohibited for constructions, while beyond that limit and up to a distance of 200 meters, approval of the government is required for construction purposes.
Local residents of Khanpora don’t see a need for another protected ancient site when one of the Muslim rulers of the Mughals lies in ruins, even as it was declared as a monument of national importance under the Ancient Monuments Act, 1958.
Bilal Ahmad Sofi, 22, who worked on a digging job at the land for a Buddhist site in the area, says, “Once we started to dig the land, we came across some pottery pieces at the site, and the excavation work continued for several months.”
Sitting on an iron bench inside the Khanpura Sarai, Bilal, however, says authorities should first preserve the existing sites before new ones are notified. Asif Farooq, a resident of Khanpora, says that the ASI should have repaired the Mughal era site, which lies in shambles. “These structures could cave in any time,” he says.
Mohammad Abdullah, an official working with the ASI at Khanpura Sarai, says that they carried out excavation work for several months in 2024, while noting that they have written to the police to help control the crowds to prevent damage to the ancient site. Another ASI official posted at the place adds that the digging was carried out for the excavation of Buddhist-era structures.
Kashmir is full of monuments of Hindu period as well as temples, some of which are thousands of years old. Historians have noted that the Muslim rule began only in the fourteenth century, while the origin of the name of the place is also cited to a widely held Hindu belief that a sage Kashyapa drained the place of abundant water before settlements began here. “There were Muslims who worked as traders in the Hindu period, but Islamic rule began from the reign of Rinchan Shah,” says Sheeraz Ahmad, an assistant professor in the department of history at Kashmir University.
An ASI official says that they have both done the excavation of old sites that trace the history of the region to thousands of years old and as recent as that of 18th century. The central agency maintains 56 sites in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 41 exist in Kashmir.
Along the road to Zehanpora in the market in the Pattan area, large stone structures remain conspicuous. In an iron-fenced garden, steel boards raised by the ASI note that the Sugandesha temple was built by King Sankaravarman, who ruled from 883 to 902 AD, and named it after his queen Sugandha. The shrine resembles a stone portico and appears to have been built with a peristyle and fluted columns.
Apart from pushing the preservation of old structures, J&K’s Archives and Archeology department is also rebuilding old temples or those that were damaged during the thirty years of militancy in Kashmir. The temple reconstruction appears aimed at sending a political message that the government was committed to protecting the rights of local Hindus even as the majority of Kashmiri Pandits have migrated to different parts of the country.
In Baramulla, the old temple of Shailputri that lies on the banks of the Jhelum River and which is over 1000 years old, is among several religious sites which are being reconstructed. The spring of the temple has dried up, and in its place, loose mounds of soil exist, while the old structure has been demolished to make way for a new one. The priest of the temple, Raman Kumar, says that it was being renovated by the government, and work has started recently. The idol of the goddess has now been shifted to a newly constructed small room, which has been festooned, and the few police personnel have been deployed there for security. There are not many who come for prayers at the place due to the migration of Kashmiri Pandits from Baramulla town. “This is a very sacred place to us, and its renovation was required, and we feel thankful to the government for doing that,” says Kumar. A signboard depicting the information about the site says that Shailputri is one of the many names of goddess Parvati .
An official working with the Archives and Archaeology department says that, besides the temples that were declared of historic importance, the government is also renovating those that were gutted in the last thirty years of militancy. “The repair of temples was done based on the list that has been forwarded to us by different Deputy Commissioners who got the requests from Kashmiri Pandits,” the official said.
Director Archives and Archaeology, K K Sidha, however, says that the Jammu and Kashmir government has restored not only the temples, but mosques and churches as well in Kashmir. “There are committees at the district level which select the sites for restoration, and the aim is to preserve Kashmir’s heritage,” he adds.
An official of the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department in Baramulla says that they have reconstructed several temples, while the project reports have also been formulated to restore those that fall in the protected sites category due to their heritage value.
In Zehanpora, people, however, questioned the policies of the government that prefer preserving the historic sites over the cost of the livelihoods of local people. Rehman Ganie, who foresees that the local grazing land would be lost permanently to the Buddhist site, says that his daughters dropped out of school as he couldn’t afford their education, while he has to borrow money for the medication of his ailing mother and for fulfilling the daily livelihood needs of his family. “We have a small patch of some 2 kanals of land which is mostly barren, and grazing of the cattle is the only means of our survival,” he says.
Khurshid Ahmad Mir, a Baramulla resident, says that after the revocation of Article 370, the BJP government was pushing with the policies to promote Hindu culture. “These excavations are happening because the government wants to promote Hindu culture,” alleges Mir.
Mohamad Ajmal Shah, an assistant professor in the Central Asian Studies of Kashmir University, however, says that the discovery at the Zehanpora site would help “unlock the history of Kashmir in a better manner. “
Ajmal says that he had first come across the photographs of the site in 2023 at a museum in France, where he had gone on a fellowship, before the excavation work commenced in Kashmir. “The mounds were big, but their size has reduced over a period of time. The area is a great historic place and a huge site in the whole of the Himalayan region, and is one of the biggest Buddhist sites in Kashmir. The structures date back to the Kushan period,” he says.
Ajmal adds that the Zenhapora site has also been a route to the road that connects with Kandahar. “We are also working on some more sites, and we have found some important and old ones. There are a number of sites which have been discovered at several places, including Anantang, Tral and Kupwara. Our new excavations will help redefine the way we have been approaching the history of Kashmir,” he adds.
But in 2024, it was an unusual sight for the people at Khanpora in Budgam. ASI officials carefully removed the soil to dig trenches as part of the survey to find the Buddhist or Hindu remains, which only compounded the worries of people who have been receiving notices about constructions that were raised in violation of rules in the vicinity of Mughal Sarai.
Masroor Ahmad Yatoo, a Khanpora resident, says that the prohibitions on the construction of new houses or business establishments have come even as they own the land.
“We are getting notices even for raising constructions on our ancestral land and also for the old structures that have been built by us. The government should give us alternate land, then we will leave the village and settle there. There are restrictions on the construction of structures within a distance of 300 metres from the Mughal SaraI when the entire village is spread over an area of 100-200 metres only,” he says.
Imtiyaz Ahmad, a local resident, adds that the prohibitions on land use would only leave them deprived of limited avenues of employment. “Notices received on the construction of shops would only hit our livelihood,” he adds.
Ghulam Mohammad Lone, a resident of Zehanpora, says that people feared that their residential land would be acquired if more such sites were discovered in the area. “There are at least 40 households that depend on the current site for grazing, which we have learnt was a Buddhist site. We have been told not to do grazing here. Where will people go once the restrictions are permanent?” he asks.