Bahåristån-i-Shåhi is a Farsi manuscript of mediaeval

Kashmir written by an anonymous author

(now identified as Muhammad Ali Kashmiri) in

AH 1023 corresponding to AD 1614. A manuscript

copy of the history is in the State Archives

of J&K but, somehow it has remained inaccessible to researchers.

For four centuries, this significant chronicle of Kashmir remained

unknown to or unaddressed by the students of Kashmir history

though sparse references were not missing. Bahåristån can be considered

the first and so far the only history of mediaeval Kashmir that

reflects the dynamics of a profound social transformation of millennia-

old indigenous society to a culture geographically, socially and

philosophically springing from an alien origin.

Dr. Kashinath Pandit, originally from Baramulla, has a PhD in Iranian

from Tehran University. He retired from Kashmir University as Director of

the Centre of Central Asian Studies. He has won the President of Indiaís

Award for Classical Studies and was also awarded Padma Shri by the

President of India in 2017. He has authored about ten works on Kashmir

and the region.