HISTORY OF JAMMU & KASHMIR EARLY BUILDINGS (CIRCA A.D. 200 TO 600) First six centuries A.D. are very meagrely represented; the only monuments which

can with certainty be assigned to the Kushan period being the Buddhist structures at Harwan and Ushkar.

Indo-Greek, Parthian & Saka kings of north-western India were found until recently in Kashmir points to the existence of considerable commercial connection between the valley and the principalities of Peshawar and Kabul in the last two centuries B.C. and the first century A.D. It is also certain that in the second century A.D. Kashmir formed part of Kanishka's empire and that, for at least some generations after the death of that emperor, the country remained attached to the kingdom of Gandhara. This long connection with the north-west of India has left an indelible mark upon the character of the Buddhist and Hindu architecture of the valley.

At Ushkar, for instance, the abundance of local quarries ensured a plentiful supply of stone chips, which the builders turned to excellent advantage

At Harwan the most easily available building materials are the round boulders and pebbles brought down by the Dachigam Nala. Here accordingly we find the chip-masonry of Ushkar replaced by walls built of small pebbles

HARWAN STRUCTURE

USHKAR STRUCTURE

MEDIAEVAL PERIODBUDDHIST BUILDINGS ARCHITECTURE (A.D. 600 TO 1300)

Buildings which represent this style may conveniently be divided into two classes - namely, the Buddhist and the Brahmanical. In point of materials, ornament, and technique, there is no difference between the two, but the religious needs of the two communities being in certain essentials different, they differ widely in plan and elevation.

The material brought into use was a beautiful grey limestone, which was easy to carve, and presented a very smooth surface when properly dressed. The plinth of the old stupa, which was a simple rectangular structure with a single flight of steps, offsets on each side projecting far into the courtyard and flanked on either hand by side walls adorned with sculptural reliefs.

THE ART OF GANDHARA The name Gāndhāra, though recorded in Avestan as Vaēkərəta, is not recorded in 

Vedic Sanskrit. It occurs later in the classical Sanskrit of the epics. However, the Gandhari people are a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, and later texts. One proposed origin of the name is from the Sanskrit word gandha, meaning "perfume" and "referring to the spices and aromatic herbs which they [the inhabitants] traded and with which they anointed themselves.

The Gandhāri people had settled since the Vedic times on the banks of Kabul River (river Kubhā or Kabol) down to its confluence with the Indus.[citation needed] Later Gandhāra included parts of northwest Punjab

A unique style of Buddhist sculpture called Gandhara art developed in ancient times in the Gandhara region of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now northwestern Pakistan. The region also extended into eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara art was produced between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD.

HINDU BUILDINGS The second and far most numerous group of buildings belonging to this style are Hindu

temples. The temple of Martand which is the greatest and one of the most fine Kashmir temples. However, it must not be inferred that the mediaeval Hindu architecture of Kashmir was born like Athene

The first transformation and the similarity pointed out between the "angular roofed" vihara (le Vihara d toit anguleux) of Gandhara and the temples of Kashmir, particularly the larger temple at Loduv is specially interesting and instructive. The latter is an extremely plain structure, circular in plan internally, square externally, very simple in construction, and almost devoid of decoration. It has a single opening, the entrance, which is arched at the top. The arch is semi-circular and built of horizontal projecting courses. The few stones of the roof which still exist prove that it was steep, straight, and slope d. The stones of which it is built are comparatively small in size.

A structure of which the date has caused much controversy is the Sankaracharya temple on the Takht-i-Sulaiman hill.

The one most like it that I am acquainted with is that erected by Chait Singh of Benares (1770-1781) at Ramnagar at the end of the eighteenth century. I know of no straight lined pyramid of much older date than that, and no temple with a polygonal plan combined with a circular cell, as is the case here, that is of ancient date. The ceil itself with the linga is undoubtedly modern, and the four pillars in the cell with the Persian inscription

Sir Aurel Stein is inclined to accept the opinion of Fergusson, at least so far as the superstructure is concerned. He states that " the circular cella, which contains a modern linga, was undoubtedly built in Muslim times. The imposing polygonal base, consisting of remarkably massive blocks and without mortar, must belong to a much earlier period

MUSLIM ARCHITECTURE Rinchana, who was the first non-Hindu to occupy the Kashmir throne, was a Tibetan, and

became a Muslim by accident. He and his immediate successors depended upon the support of the indigenous who were mostly Hindus, for the stability of their rule.

The most characteristic examples of this style are the mosque of Madin Sahib, outside the Sangin Darwaza of the Hari Parbat fort and its adjacent ruins, the ruins of the mosques on the roadside at Vitsarnag, and Zain-ul-abidin's mosque on the island in the Wular lake.

Another structure belonging to this period, and fundamentally different from all other buildings in Kashmir, is the tomb of Zainul-abidin's mother. The plinth originally belonged to a Hindu or Buddhist shrine, and does not seem to have been tampered with by the Muslim architect, who simply followed the lines laid down by his Hindu predecessor. A peculiar feature of the brick buildings of this period (there are only three: the tomb of Zain-ul-abidin's mother, Madin Sahib's tomb, and the anonymous tomb on the island in the Wular) is the glazed tile-work with which they were decorated.

The mosques and tombs of the modern Kashmiri style are so similar that their features need not be separately discussed. The tombs are square in plan. The walls are constructed sometimes of bricks and mortar, sometimes of logs laid across each other, the space between logs being in some cases filled with brick-work. Piers are constructed of timber in the same way.

In large chambers where the timbers of the roof or ceiling require intermediate support, modern columns are used with very good effect. Sometimes these columns are elaborately ornamented, and there is a tendency in modern restoration

The Mosques Of Madani