The movie – THE KASHMIR FILES has garnered a lot of attention from across the country. Some are appreciating the movie, while some are criticizing the movie and calling it an agenda based movie.

But what really caught my attention was the first 2 minutes of the speech of the central character of the film – Krishna Pandit when he returns to his university in Delhi after visiting Kashmir.

In these two minutes, he describes the wonderful history of Kashmir. In these two minutes he gives facts about Kashmir, which I had never heard. I assume that most of us don’t know about it either. I thought of putting down the pointers in this blog to know why KASHMIR was and is called – HEAVEN ON EARTH!

One obvious reason of it being called Heaven is it’s natural beauty – the snowy mountains, the valley, crystal clear flowing rivers, astonishing greenery, stunning Chinar trees that make the valley yellow and red at the onset on Autumn, lakes that turn golden at dawn, and much more!

Another reason why Kashmir is so special is because of what it has given India and hence the world! Kashmir was a home to best minds in the world. It was called – The World of Knowledge. Ancient Greeks fondly called Kashmir as – The cradle of Civilisation! It is said that – like how we go to various places for higher education, people from various walks of lives used to come to Kashmir to attainment of higher realizations, spiritual aspirations, and various kind of researches.

Here are some well-known ancient Indians who have had a telling effect with their work during their times. Their findings, writings, methods and experiments changed so much about the world in those times. Their work though done years ago is still relevant in today’s world. It is the basis of so much development that we see today.

The common factor and why they are getting a mentioned in this blog is that – all of these were either born in Kashmir or moved there for higher goals. Their work in their respective fields flowered in Kashmir –

Kashyapa – He is one of the Saptarishi’s, the seven ancient sages of Rigveda as well as the author of numerous Sanskrit texts and Indian religious books. He is said to have written most of the Vedic literature that we revere today! Kashmir has got it’s name from Rishi Kashyapa when he composed various scriptures sitting in Kashmir

Shankaracharya – He is supposed to be highest in order of the Hindu religion. No one supposedly knows the scriptures better than a Shankaracharya. The first Shakaracharya walked all the way from Kerela to Kashmir in quest of knowledge and spiritual aspirations

Abhinava Gupta and Utpaldeva  – Both of them have done credible work in the field of philosophy

Varahamihira – He was supposed to be one the best astronomer in the world during ancient times. He astronomy drew accolades from Greek and also find a mention in their literature

Charaka and Vagbhata – Charaka was the brain behind Ayurveda – a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in ancient India. Charaka Samhita has been authored by him. Vagbhata was a disciple of Charaka. He has authored Ashtāṅgasaṅgraha (अष्टाङ्गसंग्रह) and the Ashtāngahridayasaṃhitā (अष्टाङ्गहृदयसंहिता). Together they believed that 85% of the diseases can be cured without a doctor

Sushruta – He was the world’s first surgeon. He is called as – ‘Father of Surgery’, ‘Father of Plastic Surgery’, and ‘Father of brain surgery.’ He developed and invented various complicated surgical procedures even in ancient times. Sushruta, “Father of Surgery” and “Father of Plastic Surgery”, Charaka, a medical genius, and Vāgbhaṭa are considered to be “The Trinity” of Ayurvedic knowledge

Panini – He was a Sankrit philologist, grammarian and revered scholar. He has been labelled as the Father of Linguistics

Vatesvara – He was an Indian mathematician who presented several trigonometric identities. He was an author of Vatesvara-Siddhanta focusing on applied mathematics and trigonometry

Suyya – He is considered to be the mastermind of what we know as hydraulic engineering today. Suyya is credited with draining the water of the Vitasta river and controlling it by creating a stone dam. He is also said to have made Indus and Jhelum river flow according to his will, just like a snake charmer does to his snakes

Kalidasa – He was a classical Sankrit author. He is considered as ancient India’s greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poems are influenced by Ramayana, Vedas, Mahabharata’s and Purana’s.

Sarngadeva – He is called as ‘Father of Music’. Śārṅgadeva integrated music with philosophical context. He systematically presented his ideas on the nature of sound, register, the smallest distinct sounds that humans can hear and musical instruments can produce (shruti), musical scales and modes, 264 ragas, beats and role of time (tala), prosody (Chandas), relation between performance arts and human emotions and sentiments, musical and vocal ornaments, the composition of drama and songs, and the limitless opportunities available to the artist to express and affect her audience

Vishnu sharma – He was an Indian scholar who wrote on moral science. To make those more understandable, he wrote the most popular series – Panchatantra

Bharata Muni – Bharata is considered the father of Indian theatrical art forms. The Nāṭya Śāstra is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts, which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India. It is also notable for its aesthetic “Rasa” theory, which asserts that entertainment is the desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence of his own consciousness and reflects on spiritual and moral questions.

Natya Shastra by Bharata Muni and “Abhinaya Darpana” by Nandikeshvara are considered to be the original sources of Bharatanatyam (an Indian classical dance form).

Isn’t it astonishing that so much contribution has come from one single place called – KASHMIR! No wonder it was referred to as – HEAVEN ON EARTH – a place which ultimately would help humans create paradise on Earth!

Most of the discussion on this movie is about the atrocities, or that it isn’t 100% true as shown in the movie, there were other reasons too for the violence, why similar incidents in other states have not been made movie on, etc. But in the process most people have missed the most important 2 minutes of the movie! Fortunately that’s the thing that got stuck in my head! And hence this blog!

A special THANKS to those of you who read through. The text is long in this blog. One can only imagine the vast richness of India’s heritage, tradition and literature. Yet, most of us have never been told much about this.

 It took me a good 4 days to compose this blog. But it has been one of my most satisfying blogs! I saw/ heard the Krishna Pandit speech on YouTube atleast 20-25 times, if not more. I went through lot of data on internet to verify the facts and gather more information.

 At one end I feel proud of the rich heritage we have; but at the same time I feel it is my responsibility to share it with as many people as possible. I hope that together we can pass on these facts to our next generation and the current youth to know the genes we are born with. Hence showing what are we capable of!

For those who are interested in that speech, can see this video on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjjhGWn7Pns&t=190s

#kashmirfiles #kashmirifiles #kashmiripandits #ancientIndia #India #ayurveda #krishnapandit #krishnapanditspeech #vedas

References –

https://www.greaterkashmir.com/todays-paper/contribution-of-kashmir-to-sanskrit

https://odrageneralknowledgeonindianhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/life-in-age-of-janapadas-and.html

https://learn.culturalindia.net/mahajanapadas.html

http://r2dnainfo.blogspot.com/2009/09/map-of-vedic-india_15.html

https://scroll.in/article/722369/the-changing-map-of-india-from-1-ad-to-the-20th-century

https://astrologergovindsingh.blogspot.com/2019/11/map-of-ancient-india.html