Kashmir IPA: [kaʃmiːr] is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Today, the term encompasses a larger area that includes the India-administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakhthe Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistanand the Chinese-administered territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy or tutelage [5] [6] of the British Crownlasted until the Partition of India inwhen the former princely state of the British Indian Empire became a disputed territory hur mycket kashmir, now administered by three countries: ChinaIndiaand Pakistan.
The word Kashmir is thought to have been derived from Sanskrit and was referred to as káśmīra. An alternative etymology derives the name from the name of the Vedic sage Kashyapa who is believed to have settled people in this land.
Accordingly, Kashmir would be derived from either kashyapa-mir Kashyapa's Lake or kashyapa-meru Kashyapa's Mountain. The word has been referenced to in a Hindu scripture mantra worshipping the Hindu goddess Sharada and is mentioned to have resided in the land of kashmiraor which might have been a reference to the Sharada Peeth.
Kashmir is also believed to be the country meant by Ptolemy 's Kaspeiria. Pāṇini called the people of Kashmir Kashmirikas. Huientsangthe Buddhist scholar and Chinese traveller, called Kashmir kia-shi-milowhile some other Chinese accounts referred to Kashmir as ki-pin or Chipin or Jipin and ache-pin.
Cashmeer is an archaic spelling of modern Kashmir, and in some countries [ which? In the Kashmiri languageKashmir itself is known as Kasheer. In the first half of the first millennium, the Kashmir region became an important centre of Hinduism and later of Buddhism.
During the 7thth centuries, the region was ruled by a series of Hindu dynasties, [22] and Kashmir Shaivism arose. The state of Jammuwhich had been on the ascendant after the decline of the Mughal Empire, came under the sway of the Sikhs in Further init was fully conquered by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Gulab Singh, then a youngster in the House of Jammu, enrolled in the Sikh troops and, by distinguishing himself in campaigns, gradually rose in power and influence. Inhe was anointed as the Raja of Jammu. He became a wealthy and influential noble in the Sikh court.
Inthe First Anglo-Sikh War broke out. According to The Imperial Gazetteer of India :. Gulab Singh contrived to hold himself aloof till the battle of Sobraonwhen he appeared as a useful mediator and the trusted advisor of Sir Henry Lawrence. Two treaties were concluded.
By the first the State of Lahore i. West Punjab handed over to the British, as equivalent for one crore indemnity, the hill countries between the rivers Beas and Indus; by the second the British made over to Gulab Singh for 75 lakhs all the hilly or mountainous country situated to the east of the Indus and the west of the Ravi i.
Drafted by a treaty and Billiga fynd bill of sale, and constituted between andthe Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu as it was first called combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities: [33] to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practised Buddhism ; to the south, Jammu had a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
In the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Muslim —mostly Sunnihowever, there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the brahmin Kashmiri Pandits. To the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to that of Ladakh, but which practised Shia Islam.