Bharistan I Shahi: A Chronicle of Mediaeval Kashmir

Baharistan-I-Shahi, a Farsi manuscript history of Kashmir by anonymous author and brought down to A.S. 1614, has served as an important and reliable source work for historians from the 17th century to the present day. It remained inaccessible to non-Farsi knowing scholars and historians. Its first English translation with annotations was made in 1991 from a collated text of the two extant and reliable manuscripts preserved in the India Office Library and the British Museum. Exhaustive footnotes were added to that translation to make it readable and useful.
The volume in hand is the second edition of its English translation. Some technical modifications have been made in the text with a view to standardize it and bring it at par with international level of translation methodology applicable to works of historical Instead of end chapter notes footnotes have been used to make it more readable; contents of each chapter have been expanded and Errata have been eliminated. Other discrepancies have been taken care of. The chronicle begins with a legendary account of the creation of Kashmir mandala with summary treatment of the Hindu period. It is followed by a detailed account of the Shahmiri and Chak Sultans of Kashmir taking the narrative to the year A.D. 1614.
The historical work gives considerable attention to the Baihaqi Sayyids a group of Sayyids of Iranian origin from the town of Baihaq in Khurasan, who played a significant role in the affairs of the kingdom. Baharistan-I Shahi is essentially a political history of medieval Kashmir though a few aspects of Kashmiri society like its feudalistic character, group and factional alignments, communal tensions and recurrent internal struggles can also be gleaned from it. The concluding portion of the book throws considerable light on relations between the ruling Chak Sultans of Kashmir and the Mughal imperial court and final annexation of Kashmir by Emperor Akbar in A.D 1587 in somewhat confusing circumstances. The chronicle is rich in topographical detail. It is also the first authentic history in Farsi language that gives some detail of how non-Muslim minority in Kashmir was badly treated.

Born at Khwajabagh, Baramulla (Kashmir) in 1927, Kashinth Pandit graduated from St. Joseph's College Baramulla and earned M.A degree in Persian from Punjab Univesity with distinction. After serving in St. Joseph's College for some time as Lecturer in Persian, he joined J&K Government Degree College Poonch as Lecturer. In 1959 he earned a scholarship from the HRS Ministry adjoined Teheran University for further studies. In 1962 he got Ph.D in Iranian Studies from the Faculty of Literature of that University. Up to 1976, he served at the Post Graduate Department of Persian in Kashmir University and then joined the Centre of Central Asian Studies where he rose to become the Director of the Centre. After his retirement the UGC offered him Emeritus Fellowship for two years.
Dr.Pandit's specialization in Central Asian Studies viz. history, civilization and society of Farsi/Tajik/Dari speaking peoples took him on numerous visits to Central Asia particularly the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan. His deep interest in contemporary Tajik society has made him known widely among the Tajik academic circles and his travelogue titled My Tajik Friends won him the Soviet land Nehru Award in 1987. He has also been awarded by the President of India for services to classical language and literature. He has written on a wide range of subjects related to Indo-Tajik studies. His publications include Iran and Central Asia, Hafiz ki Shiari (Urdu), Avicenna-An Introduction, Ladakh life and culture and Tohfatu'l Ahbab or A Muslim Missionary in Medieval Kashmir.