history of pampore

In 1335 AD, legendary mystic poetess "Lala Ded" was born at PADMANPORA now Pampore. Her verses taught universal brotherhood and oneness of God. LALA DED poetry has been translated into various languages and she has thus transcended the boundaries of Kashmir.

Pampore:: Pampore is well know as "Land of Gold (Saffron)". The renowed town is full of historical as well as archeological sites.

Pulwama district is famous all over the world for the saffron cultivation which is mainly grown in the Karewa lands of Pampore, Kakapora and Pulwama blocks.The Pulwama district is also called RICE BOWL of Kashmir for maximum production of rice grains in the J & K state.

Pampore:: Pampore Kashmir, Pampore Kashmiriyat, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar, Kashmiri, Pampore news

Pampore is a beautiful town and a notified area committee in Pulwama district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pampore has many subdivided areas whose name usually ends at "bal", like Kadlabal , Namlabal etc.

Pampore:: Pampore stands for the peace and is taken as the most peaceful area of the state.Pampore is historically important town because here the famous sufi poetess "Lala Ded" used to live.

The town was home to two of the most famous Kashmiri poetesses Lala Ded and Habba Khatoon (commonly known as Zoon), the later lived in a village called Chandhara just outside Pampore.

In the recent years a number of religious seminaries, small and big, owing allegiance to different sects have sprung up in Pampore town. But in most of them the students are mostly from other remoter towns. None has a student strength of more than a few dozen. In fact the modern English medium schools run by one or two of the bigger seminaries, like Baitul Aloom and Darul uloom Shah-e-Hamadan,islamia high school,MEI (PUBLIC) pampore have much larger number of students enrolled in them.

Agriculture is the main occupation of the people in Pampore. The town is famous for its saffron fields, which people say produce the world's best saffron. There is hardly any industry worth mentioning. But people are by and large, as in the rest of Kashmir, not poor - a good number may even be called quite well off by South Asian standards.
Some of the schools in Pampore town are: Government Higher Secondary School (Boys), Pampore; Government Higher Secondary School (Girls), Pampore;Jammu and Kashmir Medicinal Plants Introduction Centre, Bright House Kadalbal; Pampore; Skylight Higher Secondary School, Pampore; Valley Model, Pampore; Muslim Educational Institution, Pampore; Islamia School.

urrounded by fields of saffron plantations and characterized by an air that is laden with the heady smell of spices, the tiny village of Pampore is one of the lesser known but most exotic tourist destinations of Jammu and Kashmir. Just around half an hour's ride away from the state's capital Srinagar, a tour to Pampore is perfect for a weekend getaway from Srinagar.

The lives of the people of the picturesque village of Pampore revolve around the cultivation of saffron, which can be said to be arguably the "most expensive spice on earth". Predominantly followers of Islam, a number of prayers are offered to the Almighty during the season of saffron harvest in Pampore. Most prominent among the shrines in Jammu and Kashmir is the joint tomb of Khwaja Masood Wali, and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin.

A tour to Pampore can also reveal the strong secular fabric which surrounds most parts of this quaint village. Located in the center of the town is a sacred pond known locally as the Lal Ded.

Recently the New York based World Monuments Fund (WMF); a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of endangered architectural and cultural sites around the world included the city of Srinagar and the old town of Leh in its watch list of threatened World Heritage Sites. There are 100 sites all over the world which are on the list issued for the year 2008. The purpose of inclusion of various sites on the list is to invite global attention to the World Heritage threatened by neglect, vandalism, natural disaster, and armed conflict. This declaration is the result of the efforts made by the J & K Chapter of INTACH and CHEK, the two organisations which have been actively involved in mapping and preservation of Kashmir’s Heritage over last few years. The State Tourism Department has been giving total support to these efforts. The details of these efforts were given in a press conference by the Tourism Secretary, which has received wide coverage in the media. However, there seems to be some misunderstanding among some people about this declaration. Even though it is a welcome step as regards recognition to the existence of certain heritage and historic sites of global importance, yet it is also a very serious indictment of the local authorities as well as people about gross neglect and vandalism of the same. Unfortunately the State controlled electronic media highlighted the fact as recognition of our heritage which would attract a large number of tourists here completely omitting the most important operative part about the neglect and vandalism of this heritage both by the state authorities as well as local residents. In Kashmir we have very strange contradictions in all spheres of activity including preservation of our rich heritage. We do not preserve our historical monuments and buildings but try to rebuild these after demolishing the original ones. A living example of this is the ancestral house of Mulla Tahir Ghani in down town Srinagar, the world famous Kashmiri poet who is reputed to have written over a hundred thousand verses in Persian. Sometime back it had been decided to restore this heritage building. Lo and behold our brilliant engineers virtually demolished and reconstructed the same! So much for the efforts to preserve our heritage buildings. This is not an isolated case but a general trend. Kashmir had historically different periods which contributed their unique type of architecture. The Hindu period, the Buddhist period, and finally the Islamic period. The Hindu period had massive stone temples like Martand, Avantipur, Naranag, and so on. There are also smaller temples in different parts of the valley. A detailed description of these ancient monuments is given in Aurel Stein’s translation of Kalhana’s Rajtarangini. In addition, we have the ruins of the city of Parihaspura established by King Lalitaditya. One typical example of vandalism done by none other than the archaeological survey of India is the Naranag Temple. A corrugated iron roof has been placed on a massive stone temple! The temple which is in ruins would have been more presentable without a modern day tin roof. Similar is the fate of famous shrine at Kheerbhawani. It is totally surrounded by modern multi-story flats constructed for housing returning migrants. It is doubtful if any migrants would like to stay in those complexes? Regarding Buddhist period, there is very little trace of so many Viharas constructed during this period which have been described by Hieun Tsang in his travelogues. Most of these were either destroyed or converted into Hindu temples after the revival Saivism and decline of Buddhism. The most extant historical buildings pertain to the Islamic period. After the advent of Islam in the valley in the twelfth century, a large number of hospices, and mosques were built. Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani popularly known as Shah-i-Hamadan was accompanied by 700 Sayyids who spread all over Kashmir and established hospices for preaching of Islam. These Khanqahs were built of wood with pagoda type of roofs. During the Dogra period the British architecture was introduced in the construction of residential buildings in Kashmir. There were a number of these buildings on the Residency Road. The first one is the Government Arts Emporium which was the British Residency. It got burnt down a few years back due to electric short circuit. However, it has been reconstructed as the original one with the expertise of INTACH. The next was the Foreigners Registration Office which has been demolished and a modern building constructed in its place to house the CID Headquarter. The other heritage building of this period still standing is the J & K Bank which was earlier ANZ Grindlays Bank. For unknown reasons it is still untouched! Another heritage building on this line was the Peston Jee Building which has given way to a modern hotel and a shopping complex. There are a number of other heritage buildings which have been “Modernised”. However, a few citizens have maintained their houses in the traditional style and they continue to live in these. Vandalising of the heritage has taken many other forms. Defacing walls inside monuments by writing names is a common disease everywhere in this part of the world. There have been many instances of encroachment of historical shrines, graves of famous people including past Kings of Kashmir especially in down town Srinagar. Another threat during last couple of decades has been the “collateral damage” due to the conflict raging in different parts of the state. Chrar-i-Sharif is a very stark example of this loss due to conflict. There are some other shrines in the valley which have suffered same fate. Apart from these causes, extensive damage has been caused by the care takers of the shrines themselves. They have tried to renovate historical buildings with modern building materials without bothering about the original works of art and craftsmanship. This damage is irreversible in many cases. Recently we had a first hand encounter with the vandalism being done to one of the probably last surviving wooden Khanqah. Mr. Randolph Landenberg, an American expert on architectural heritage who had done appreciable amount of work on mapping Kashmir’s architectural heritage mentioned about Khanqah-i-Khawaja Masood Pampori. This Khanqah situated in Pampore was built by Khawaja Masood Wali in sixteenth century. Khawaja Masood was a leading trader of Pampore who in the latter part of his life became an ascetic totally devoted to God. He passed away in 1612 A.D. (1021 A.H.). The Khanqah is a two storied building with the ground floor comprising a double storey hall. The construction follows the traditional pattern of wooden cribbage construction associated with the Muslim religious architecture of Kashmir. The Convenor of the J & K Chapter of INTACH, Editor in Chief of Greater Kashmir and myself visited the Khanqah which is the last surviving example of Kashmiri Wooden architecture. The first eye sore is a store constructed in front of the Khanqah in brick with a tin roof. The foundation of the building has been painted in gaudy colours. The entire back wall has been covered by coloured fibre glass corrugated sheets. Some of the traditional lattice windows have been replaced by modern windows with glass panes. The main hall has been given a false ceiling to divide it into two stories thereby taking away all the grandeur and awe of the original spacious hall. Wood panelling of walls has been done with inferior wood which has covered the original cedar wood normally considered to be resistant to termites. In brief everything has been done to destroy the original beauty of the traditional construction. All this has been done by the people supposed to be care takers of the Khanqah. This is just a living example of vandalism very near to the city. One does not know what the fate of other historical shrines is. Most of the damage has occurred in last couple of decades. It is true that the situation of conflict wherein the very survival of a human being is threatened does not leave much room for finer values of life like the historical heritage. However, one of the main causes of apathy towards heritage has been the total ignorance of the local people about our history full of a rich cultural past. Had our people not been virtually starved of history, they wood have had full knowledge of these edifices and would have definitely cared for the same. In the present circumstances the first and foremost task is to get a stringent legislation passed by the State Assembly for declaring buildings and other heritage sites as protected and prescribing severe punishment for vandalising and defacing of these. Without a proper legislation with sufficient teeth for the protection of our heritage it may not be possible to preserve the same for our future generations notwithstanding the efforts of the World Monuments Fund to put it on a global watch list!

The town has one of the oldest Jama Masjids in Kashmir, known as Khanqah located at Shaheed-e-Azemat (Martar of Determination) Road, Nambalbal, Pampore (Home Town of Martyar Sheikh Aziz).

HISTORY OF SAFFRON:-

The magnificent saffron fields in pampore 11 km from the Srinagar attract visitors during late October to early Nowember. It is said that Mughals used to celebrate Diwali at saffaron fields. The local tradition has been to watch the saffaron fields in the moonlight. The famous poetess Habba Khatoon used to wander in the saffron fields and sing the melodius poems. J&K Tourism has scheduled the annual Saffron Festival at pampore in the first week of November, when coulourful cultural festivities will add charm to the magnificent saffron fields during the harvest season.

According to Greek mythology, handsome mortal Crocos fell in love with the beautiful nymph Smilax. But alas, his favors were rebuffed by Smilax, and he was turned into a beautiful purple crocus flower.

The word saffron derives from the Arab word zafaran, meaning yellow, and it was mentioned as far back as 1500 b.c. in many classical writings, as well as in the Bible. Further derivations come from the Old French safran, Medieval Latin safranum, and Middle English safroun.

Saffron is harvested from the fall-flowering plantCrocus sativus, a member of the Iris family. It is native to Asia Minor, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years to be used in medicines, perfumes, dyes, and as a wonderful flavoring for foods and beverages.

The red-gold threads were also highly prized by pharoahs and kings, yet large amounts produce deathly narcotic effects.

Saffron has been used medicinally to reduce fevers, cramps and enlarged livers, and to calm nerves. It has also been used externally to for bruises, rheumatism, and neuralgia. (Warning! Do not use medicinally without consulting your physician.) 

About Saffron:

Saffron is one of the few things that truly is worth its weight in gold. This product of the crocus flower adds not only pungent and aromatic flavor to foods, but also a beautiful golden color. It is native to Asia Minor, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years to be used in medicines, perfumes, dyes, and as a wonderful flavoring for foods and beverages.

Kashmiri saffron is said to be the best in the world, a product of the ideal light, climate and soil conditions. It has an unmistakable fragrance and a distinct and unique deep red orange/gold colour together with a full rich flavour. The crocus flower is a lovely shade of pastel purple which is harvested in a two week period in early November.

 The Department of Geology and Geophysics, Kashmir University, on August 31, during preliminary investigations came across an elephant fossil, believed to be at least 50,000 years old at Galandhar, Pampore. The fossil, a skull measures 5 feet x 4 feet with complete upper and lower jaws and a broken tusk 2 feet x 9 inches long measuring about 25 inches in girth at the proximal end and a vertebra.

The experts say it brings the Valley closer to the vertebrate fossil rich Shivalik hills in terms of ancient wildlife and climiate. This is not the first time that fossils of an elephant have been found in Kashmir. In 1931, the skeleton of a mammoth resembling elephant in a semi fossil form was excavated at Somber in Pampore and is preserved in Sri Pratap Museum. It includes full skull and bones that belong to an earlier period than the recently discovered fossil. Besides this at Wapzan, Bijbehara fossils comprising jaws of an elephant, believed to be at least one million year old were excavated.

These fossils point to the type of animal and vegetation before Kashmir was converted into Satisar lake, fifty thousand years ago. According to Mr Gulam Mohiuddin, Director Archeology, Archives and museums, karewas formation in Kashmir valley took place during glacial and interglacial eras in Valley. River jehlum was previously flowing through Banihal into chenab. Due to tectonic activities there was a blockadge in the mountains leading to a massive lake covering entire Valley. According to Mr Mohiuddin, the Valley remained under water for certain periods of history. Again tectonic activities followed leading to crack in the mountains at Khadanyar in Baramulla. The water receded in Valley and found a way out. The life existed even before this conversion, he added.