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KASHMIRI PANDITS OWE THE DOGRAS || A HISTORICAL GRATITUDE || By V.K. Wattal || LIVE IMAGE |
By – Pt. Badri Nath, Pt. Sarwanand , Pt.Vish Nath. ( FORWARDED IN ORIGINAL)
If history
is to be believed then all places of the present-day major sites of
Hindu worship in Kashmir were re-claimed and rebuild by the Dogras. Every bit of their
infrastructural asset came from the Dharmarth Trust. This includes places of
worship like Parbat, Shankracharya, Tulmull, Raghunath Mandir, Ramchandrun,
Ghadhadhar, Ganpatyar etc in Srinagar .
Worship sites of sacred monuments
like Avantipur, Martand, Pattan, Payar, Bhunyar, Wangath etc where no
worship was carried out for centuries were brought to light by the Dogras and
subsequently looked after for preservation by the Dogras through their
Department of Archaeology, Research and Libraries, that subsequently became the
affair of Archaeological Survey of India with greater introduction of Indian
laws post 1947.
If truth be said, Kashmir woke up to modernity in all
walks of life from healthcare to education to scholarship, Hindu religious
revival, agriculture, horticulture, irrigation , land settlement,
communication, road infrastructure, telegraph and telephone; all came with
Dogras but mainly because of the administrative dispensation controlled and
influenced by the British colonial setup. In fact all modernity to
Kashmir came under the Dogras and Kashmiris of all denominations particularly
Battas heaved a sigh of relief from the dark ages of all kinds of woes and
sorrows of the tyrannical Afghans in the immediate past.
Technically,
after Gulab Singh obtained Kashmir from the British after the 1845 Anglo-Sikh
War against the payment of war indemnity of 75 lacs all Kashmir with its entire
population and land along with its resources on as is where is basis became the
Dogra asset.
Though it sounds feudal and cruel medieval, it were the Dogras
that reestablished the semblance of Hindu worship in Kashmir. Battas were
too poor and helpless to maintain and up keep these revived places of worship.
They didn’t have enough to eat or cover their bums after having suffered
persecution for several centuries in the past.In the later part of Dogra Rule
when Bhattas breathed greater freedom for religious worship, they build here
and there neighbourhood temples that were looked after community support and
Government maintenance. Same is true about temples in Jammu
region..
Prior to the ascent of the Dogras on Kashmir throne there were only
two temples for worship in Jammu; Katra and Purmandal. All the temples like
Raghunath Mandir, Ranbeshwar Temple, Shiv Temple , Ved Mandir etc are the
creation of the Dogras. It was Ranbir Singh who created the first organized nucleus
of Temple Foundation for maintenance and up keep of all temple bodies in
Jammu and Kashmir. It may be true that all this is abhorable in modern sense to
give Dogras the divine right of claim on Hindu worship institutions, but Battas
too have no divine inheritance to such assets.
Being matter of faith, it is
better left to modern take on such matters as long as the system in vogue is
workable without hurting religious sentiment and without denying Dogras the
credit of salvaging the vestiges of old Hindu religiosity in Kashmir.
Even
the great Kashmir Saivism and everything about it Bhattas claim
today was salvaged by the Dogras from oblivion by ordering systemic
search for its lost literature by collecting every shred of its manuscript record
from every conceivable corner and ignorant possessor. To sum up one
can say with some confidence that Bhattas are Bhattas because of the
Dogras.
They owe them a historical gratitude. Denying that may be a sin.
V.K. WATTAL(M) 09899097197
(Feedback at: vkwattal1234@gmail.com )
The writer is NCR/UP based and a regular contributor to this Website.
Great Haritage was Saved By His Highness M.Gulab Singh at that Time . Another Contribution By DrJatinder Singh in U.N General Assembly A Dogra Vir .A proud Moments for Jammuities.My Heartiest Congratulations to HIM .