The Kashmiri Pandits are his descendants and have named the valley after him, in his honour.

The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits, and Sufi saints such as Sheikh Noor-ud-din Wali were thought of as Muslim Rishis.

* Pogrom against Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990

Kashmiri Pandit food is elaborate, and an important part of the Pandits ' ethnic identity.

* Kashmiri Pandits

Birbal Dhar the kashmiri pandit pleaded with Maharaja Ranjit Singh to save Kashmiri Pandits from Pathans when Kashmir governor Muhammad Azim heard of this he ordered his men to abduct Dhar's women who were abducted and sent to Kabul hearing this Dhar committed suicide however furious by this act of Durrani, Ranjit Singh ordered his most able general Diwan Chand to mount the expedition of Kashmir, he was assisted by Raja Gulab Singh Jamwal a Hindu dogra rajput of Jammu.

This script however, is not in common use today, except for religious ceremonies of the Kashmiri Pandits.

The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits.

* History of The Kashmiri Pandits Race

The Kashmiri Pandits (, Hindi: कश ् म ी र ी पण ् ड ि त ) are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.

The 500 years of Muslim rule in Kashmir coupled with the missionary work of sufis led to the conversion of the majority of the population to Islam, leaving only a small population of Kashmiri Pandits

The Kashmiri Pandits, who had stably constituted approximately 4 to 5 per cent of the population of the valley during Dogra rule ( 1846 – 1947 ), and 20 per cent of whom had left the Kashmir valley by 1950, began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s.

The estimated population of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley in 2011 was around 2, 700-3, 400.

Kashmiri Pandits are chiefly followers of Shiva.

Harmukh is traditionally revered by Kashmiri Pandits and in 2009 there was an attempt by them to revive pilgrimages to the site. The Mata Khirbhawani temple shrine in Srinagar, considered one of the holiest Hindu shrines, saw the largest gathering of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley in 2012. The shrine is located in Tullamulla village, 24 km from Srinagar in Ganderbal district.

Some holy sites of Kashmiri Pandits include the Martand Sun Temple at Mattan, Mahakali shrine in Srinagar on the banks of vitasta, & above all the Amarnath cave shrine, the pilgrimage to which is conducted during shravan purnima.

The Kashmiri Pandits share many of their festivals with other Hindu communities. and some with Zoroastrians and Shin of Hindukush, and other Persian and Central Asian peoples, the pre-Islamic elements of whose cultures are derived from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion.

Shivratri or Herath as it is known in Kashmir is one of the major festivals of Kashmiri Pandits.

* List of Kashmiri Pandits

* Official Website of Kashmiri Pandits ' Association, Mumbai

* Indo-American Kashmir Forum – a U. S. based political advocacy group for the Kashmiri Pandits

On May 14, 1923, while in New York City, Valentino made his only two vocal recordings for Brunswick Records ; " Kashmiri Song " ( The Sheik ) and " El Relicario " ( Blood and Sand ).

During his stay in Lhasa, his true identity was discovered by two Kashmiri Muslim merchants residing at Lhasa, but not only did they not report him to the authorities, they lent him a small sum of money against the pledge of his watch.

In 1919 George Abraham Grierson wrote that “ Kashmiri is the only one of the Dardic languages that has a literature ”.

* 8 August-A ceasefire initiated on 24 July between the government and the Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen falls apart after only 15 days after accusations that the government has fired on some of the group's members.

Some people criticised it for being focussed on only one ethnic group to the exclusion of others, although the PJP itself admitted that at least half their votes come from the Birmingham Kashmiri population.

Today, out of 13, only Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lohari Gate, Roshnai Gate, and Shairanwala Gate survive, yet many are in urgent need of repairs and restoration.

Remained Director Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and he only Kashmiri Pandit to serve as Vice-Chancellor, of Banaras Hindu University, B. H. U.

Drafted by a treaty and a bill of sale, and constituted between 1820 and 1858, the Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu ( as it was first called ) combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities: to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practised Buddhism ; to the south, Jammu had a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs ; in the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, however, there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the Kashmiri brahmins or pandits ; to the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to Ladakh, but which practised Shi ' a Islam ; to the north, also sparsely populated, Gilgit Agency, was an area of diverse, mostly Shi ' a groups ; and, to the west, Punch was Muslim, but of different ethnicity than the Kashmir valley.

The martyrdom of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji 9th Guru to protect Hindus from religious persecution, in Delhi, on 11 November 1675 AD, is another example of upholding minority religious freedom ; he gave his life to protect the right of Kashmiri Hindus to practice their own religion when they were being forced to convert to Islam by Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor at the time.

The followers of Hindutva are known for their criticism of the Indian government as too passive with regard to the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus by Kashmiri Muslim separatists and advocates of Hindutva wish a harder stance in Jammu and Kashmir.

Its first major influence was the food of the Kashmiri Hindus and Buddhists.

* Islamist separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir resulting in the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus and massacres against Hindus such as the ones in Wandhama and Kaluchak.

" It combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities: to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practised Buddhism ; to the south, Jammu had a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs ; in the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, however, there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the Kashmiri brahmins or pandits ; to the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to Ladakh, but which practised Shi ' a Islam ; to the north, also sparsely populated, Gilgit Agency, was an area of diverse, mostly Shi ' a groups ; and, to the west, Punch was Muslim, but of different ethnicity than the Kashmir valley.

* Video Documentary ' Lost Paradise ' on RefugeeCamps of Kashmiri Hindus by Deepak Ganju

Even in relatively modern times, Buddha's birthday has been a notable event for Kashmiri Brahmins and well before Kalhana's time Buddha had been accepted by Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu.

The surname is mostly found among Hindus ; however, there are also cases of the surname Pandit used by Kashmiri Muslims who are more recent converts into Islam.

Moreover, at present, the names of Kashmiri Pandits are drawn from the same sources as by the Hindus of northern India, but some of the names of Kashmiri Pandits recorded in earlier literary works show that names drawn from Persian sources were also current among them ( e. g. Aftab Pandit, Balkak Dar, etc .).

The 1998 Wandhama massacre refers to the murder of 23 Kashmiri Pandit Hindus in the town of Wandhama in Jammu and Kashmir on 25 January 1998.

Fearing that India would take over the state of Kashmir, irregulars, scouts and tribal groups entered Kashmir to oppose the Maharaja of Kashmir and Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs in 1947, even though the Maharaja chose to join the Union of India.

Yasin Malik also considers the Hindu Kashmiris, about 400, 000 Hindus who were driven out of Kashmir after violent attacks by the separatists presently staying in refugee camps in Jammu and other Indian cities, to be an integral part of Kashmiri society and has insisted on their right of return.

The district is Kashmiri speaking and Muslim majority, with Hindus constituting 40 % of the population.