ON HERITAGE

 Iqbal Ahmad

Is Mughal road really a dangerous one!

Is Mughal road really a dangerous one!

No doubt travels can be exciting, stimulating, thrilling and breathtaking.  And discovering new places, meeting new people and experiencing new   locations often requires an effort to break out of your comfort zone, and, in doing so, travel becomes a learning experience. But some times Travel can also be dangerous, and invites trouble, especially if you […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Forgotten Empires of Kashmir!

Forgotten Empires of Kashmir!

There are several glorious empires which Kashmir history has witnessed and recorded in its annals, but the current collective memory of the people seems to have forgotten a large part of it. One of such forgotten empire is of Karkotas. The first people with local origin who ascended the throne of the land were Karkotas. […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Evidences of Grecio-Buddhist art in Kashmir

Evidences of Grecio-Buddhist art in Kashmir

DURING the occupation of Greeks in North-Western regions of India and Kashmir, a famous school of Grecio-Buddhist art got patronized. This school was initially established by Bactrian-Greeks at Gandhara- modern day Khandhar in 1st century B.C- and was a mixture of Indian and Grecian arts which gave birth to indo- Grecian art which later came […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Preserving little known dialects

Preserving little known dialects

Although the linguistic history of the land is very old but very little is known of its ancient languages. Prakrit, Sanskrit, Persian and Kashmiri are started as its major olden languages while as Kharoshiti Brahmi, Sharda and Arabic were the main scripts used in writing of these languages. It was in latter decades of 19th […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Celebrating the ‘International Museum Day’

Celebrating the ‘International Museum Day’

The museum movement in Jammu and Kashmir has, more or less, remained out of fashion and very less has been discussed for a long time now. There exist very few museums in public as well as in private sector and the state has not a single Archaeological Site museum till date. Today (18 May) we […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Why isn’t anyone bothered for an art gallery in Kashmir?

Why isn’t anyone bothered for an art gallery in Kashmir?

Kashmir has historically been highly sensitive about fine arts-paintings being one among them- and has produced some of the finest artists whose works of art are celebrated not only nationally but internationally as well. The trend of producing good artists never seized and we see our young artists experimenting with new art formats and doing […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Heritage painted on canvas!

Heritage painted on canvas!

The painting collection housed in the SPS Museum provides a peep into the socio-cultural as well as political past of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There are some very rare miniature paintings depicting various regions of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and are a visual history of cultural ethos shared by the people. […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Judging a book by its cover!

Judging a book by its cover!

Kashmir has had its glorious days of café’s and book stores as well as reading rooms. The Government libraries used to see a good number of people on a daily basis till late 80’s. But, after the inception of militancy and also with the introduction of modern gadgetry, the trend has gone down drastically. It […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Remembering Baba Zain-ud-Din wali ( R.A)

Remembering Baba Zain-ud-Din wali ( R.A)

Baba Zain ud din Reshi (RA), more popularly known as Sakhi Zainudin of Ashmuqam is one among the most celebrated Reshi Saint of  this land,  who  lived in 15th century AD. He is one among the founders of the Kashmiri Reshi order and is remembered for his openheartedness and generosity (Sakhawat) for centuries together. His […]

 Iqbal Ahmad

Forgotten villages and the architecture!

Forgotten villages and the architecture!

The Kashmiri village architecture was once no less impressive and interesting given its beautiful locals, traditions life styles, wonderful, social, cultural and architectural heritage that remains well documented in the most acknowledged catalogues across the globe. It was quite distinctive and indigenous in nature and presented the finer nuances in the construction patterns as well […]