The Civilization of Jammu
Table of Contents
Jammu, 1st. March, 1984
[Jammu is the winter-capital of the Jammu-Kashmir state. It has been an ancient seat of Aryan civilization since Aryan. principality was first established here. It was known as Duggar- desh, and had a long and glorious record of cultural expression and blending. Temples of the place depict the influence of Gauriya Tantra in the region. ]
On His visit to Jammu, Baba visited Bagebahu park situated on the bank of river Tawi, beneath the Bahubal fort.
Baba said:
Aryans first came to Kashmir and Jammu on their way to India. It was the oldest seat of Aryan civilization.
They found here stones of the colour similar to blackberry (in local language, Ja’mun) and they named the place Jambu Dwiipa. Tawi is one of the rivers coming out from the Himalayas.
When Aryans came here Takhshila university existed here, Takhshila means the rock of learning. The University existed upto Buddhist and Gupta period.
Thereafter came the period of downfall and no university was founded thereafter, It was only after independence of India that the universities were founded again.
From king Lalitaditya to Shankar Verma, Kashmir extended upto Mansarovar and Kailash. The great poet Kalhan, who lived during the times of Lalitaditya Muktapida, wrote in his book Rajtarangini that Kashmir extended as far as 600 miles. The eastern frontier of Kashmir extended upto Kailash, with Mansarovar in it; today Mansarovar is included in Tibet.
When Aryans came to this land, ‘Kash’, a Mongolian tribe were the inhabitants.
They lived in Laddakh and Kargil as well.
They had flat and pressed nose, while the Aryans had long and moanted nose.
Due to them the land was known as Kash-meru the land of Kash.
Later, it was known as Kashmira; to pronounce it Ka’shmira is wrong.
‘Ka’shmiri’ will mean a woman of the land of Kashmir and ‘Ka’shmir’ means a man of this land.
Kumarayan Bhatt, a learned person of Kashmir, propagated Buddhism in China.
His wife was a Tibetan lady.
His son Kumarjiiva also preached Buddhism. Kumarjiiva was one of the greatest learned men of Kashmir.
- His father was “Kumarayan”
- His mother was “Jilva”
And so he was named Kumarajiiva.
The great philosopher, Jayanta Bhatt, also belonged to Kashmir.
He wrote a famous book Nyayamanjari, on Nyaya philosophy in Sarada script.
Sarada had 3 forms:
- Punjabi Sarada
- Duggar Sarada
- Kashmiri Sarada
Brahmans also belonged to 3 categories:
- Punjabi Brahman
- Duggar Saraswata
- Kashmir Saraswata
Palm tree was not found here. Bhurja-patra was used as writing paper. If research is undertaken, manuscript of Nyayamanjari can be found.
Pahari Punjabi is spoken from Kangara to Simla.
Punjabi is the spoken language of the people from Ropar. From Ambla, the spoken language is Hariyanvil.
Shaorseni Prakrit is the language of Doab or Shursena.
Up to Banihal, the spoken language was Paeshachi Prakrit.
North of it, the language was Pashchatya Prakrit.
It includes Kashmiri, Tazaki languages.
Kashmiri is related with Pashto.
In Pasheatya Prakrit, compound words are formed with the help of ‘sii’ as possessive case.
The language of Sialkot is Dogri while that of Rawalpindi is a blended form of Dogri and Punjabi.
- ‘Pinda’ means food.
- ‘Pindika’ is where food was cooked and taken
The place where Aryans cooked and took food in their nomadic life was called rindika by them.
Gold was found in the river Tawi.
In Vedic language, gold was called Jambunada, Suvarna, Kanaka.
In this area, ripe wheat is also called ‘Kanaka’.
‘Godhuma’ was transmuted to ‘Gonduma’ then into ‘Ganduma’ then into ‘Gohun’ and finally into ‘Gehun’ which means wheat.
Kashmir is the oldest seat of Aryan civilization in India.
Jammu had a university during the days of King Harsh.
Temples were demolished during the Muslim rule. When temples and mosques are demolished history gets destroyed.
Due to the destruction of temples, the history of Kasmir remains unknown.
When the religious places are demolished, it hurts the sentiment of people and also destroys history.
We should preserve them, they reveal the history of people and their society.
Proper research and knowledge of history are essential.