AN UNDERSTANDING OF EARLY MEDIEVAL KASHMIR POLITY (original) (raw)
The early medieval period, in spite of being a part of the historiography for quite some time now, still continues to be a matter of debate and discussion among the scholars in the circles of history. The need has arisendue the fact that the study of history of regions has gained momentum and this usually leads to applying of the existing nomenclature of ancient, medieval and modern when studying regional histories without giving much thought to the peculiarities of a particular region. The same lacuna is observed in the history of Kashmir valley. While a lot of works are particularly attributed to its early medieval period, the nature of those works is often boxed on the lines of a nationalist approach which makes political history the centre of study without considering the actual reasons that led to the development of political structures. Various material factors must be at play and they must have affected the power dynamics of the region. The paper therefore, focuses on trying to understand the early medieval polity of Kashmir beyond the juxtaposition of a centralized or a decentralized polity by focusing on its regional specificities and how they influenced the distribution of power.
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