Bharistan-I-Shahi - A Chronicle of Mediaeval Kashmir

Bahåristån-i-Shåhi is a Farsi manuscript of mediaeval Kashmir written by an anonymous author (now identified as Muhammad Ali Kashmiri) in AH 1023 corresponding to AD 1614. A manuscript copy of the history is in the State Archives of J&K but, somehow it has remained inaccessible to researchers.

For four centuries, this significant chronicle of Kashmir remained unknown to or unaddressed by the students of Kashmir history though sparse references were not missing. Bahåristån can be considered the first and so far the only history of mediaeval Kashmir that reflects the dynamics of a profound social transformation of millennia- old indigenous society to a culture geographically, socially and philosophically springing from an alien origin.

Dr. Kashinath Pandit, originally from Baramulla, has a PhD in Iranian from Tehran University. He retired from Kashmir University as Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies. He has won the President of India’s Award for Classical Studies and was also awarded Padma Shri by the President of India in 2017. He has authored about ten works on Kashmir and the region.