The much-criticised author E. Pococke presented in his book 'India in Greece' three postulates about the naming of a place in the context of the etymology of place names in Greece. He had stated, “ 1. Let it be granted that the names given to mountains, rivers, and towns have some meaning. 2. Let it be granted that the language of the Name-givers expressed that meaning. 3. Let it be granted that the language of the Name-givers will explain that meaning.” It therefore follows that all place names in antiquity, at the time of their naming, had a meaning in the language of their time. Pococke then goes on to pose a question. He states, “As a Greek, let me translate Stympha, - I cannot, Dodona - I cannot, Cambunnei Montes - I cannot, Hellopes - I cannot, Aithices - I cannot, Bodon - I cannot, Chonia - I cannot, Crossaea - I cannot, Corinthes, Ossa, Acaranania - I cannot. Arcadia, Achai, Boeotia, Ellis, Larissa - I cannot... What then can I do?"
This insight is not confined to Greece. Kashmir, too, has witnessed the dissolution of its ancient names. Hundreds of Sanskritic toponyms, once resonant with Vedic and Purāṇic meaning, have over centuries been distorted—first through Islamization in the 1200s, accelerated under Sikander Butshikast in the 14th century, and finally eroded in modern times with the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus. Just as Pococke argued that Greek names conceal older strata, Kashmir’s sacred geography reveals a palimpsest: beneath today’s corrupted forms lie echoes of rishi‑bestowed names, academic pīṭhas, and Shaiva sanctuaries.
The comparison underscores a universal principle: whether in Greece or Kashmir, the survival or loss of meaning in place‑names marks the survival or loss of cultural memory itself.
Hundreds of Sanskrit place names have, with time and the Islamization of Kashmir, taken distorted forms and lost their original meanings. Kashmir had, up to the medieval times, been a land of Vedic rishis. With its academic peethas and sacred sites, it was a thriving centre of Shaivism. The Vedic and Puranic rishis of Kashmir bestowed upon India a vast array of Sanskrit treatises, literature and manuscripts. A host of Vedic-Puranic-Sanskrit place names of those times have existed till recent times and are well recorded.
The process of dissolution of these ancient place names had commenced with the advent of Islam in Kashmir in the 1200s and had accelerated during the reign of Sikander Butshikast a century and a half later in the mid 13-14000s. This process rose and ebbed for many centuries. In the current times, terrorism and violence rose significantly in the 1990s, which resulted in the last exodus, in a chain of seven exoduses of Kashmiri Hindus from the valley, and with that, the custodians of Kashmir's Vedic-Sanskritic past are finally gone. What the future has in store for Kashmir is unknown, but the present remains bloody and violent.
Satisara: The Puranas say Kashmir was built by draining the waters from a lake called Satisara, which occupied the land of Kashmir. Geologists also confirm that the land that came to be known as Kashmir was totally submerged under a lake some 50000 years ago. However, their belief is that the water receded from the valley due to a tectonic shift. No matter what the claims are, the names recorded in the ancient texts tell us that there certainly was human involvement in the reclamation of the land of Kashmir.
The Nilmata Purana dates to a time when people still had a memory of the time when the water was drained out by the engineers of those times. There are some details of this operation in the Nilmata Purana, such as that the draining of Satisara was carried out by piercing a mountain with the help of a tool shaped like a ploughshare.
Legend has it that it was Lord Vishnu who took the form of a boar, Varaha in Sanskrit, to complete the task. As this marvel was being carried out, it is said that a host of gods took up their positions to witness the event from the vantage point on the peaks of the Naubandhana Tirtha, above lake Kramasaras, which is the present-day site of Kausarnaga. Krama (क्रम), Sanskrit for foot or step, alludes to Vishnu's footsteps, and is a reference to Vishnu's presence here. The place where Vishnu pierced the mountain came to be known as Varahamoola (Baramulla). Varahamoola became the site of a tirtha known as Adi Varaha. The name Naubandhana, a name that occurs more than a few times in the Puranas, has a link to an engineering mission every time. For example, in the Matsya Purana, when Vishnu takes the avatar of a Matsya, or a fish, Vishnu saves mankind from the great deluge when the water, it is said, rose to the peaks of the Himalayas. Naubandana was the site where the boats were anchored, nau (boat), bandhana (tie). The same is true of the draining of Satisara, when the devas watched the draining from the peak of Naubhandana.
The word varaha (वराह) is commonly translated as boar. Yaksa, the Sanskrit grammarian and etymologist from the 3rd Century BC, stated that 'varaha' has its root in the word 'vhr' meaning to uproot or 'tear up'. Boars are known for tearing and rooting, hence they are known as varaha. In the Varaha avatar Vishnu is known to have undertaken many feats to protect the earth, which required either digging deep, such as to excavate a linga which had appeared underground and required digging deep to exhume it, or when he started the new eon after mother-earth was taken to rasātalam (in the Ocean) and was saved by Vishnu when he pulled the earth about the surface of the water with his teeth.
The draining of the Satisara lake falls in the list of such projects undertaken in antiquity. The channel that carries the water from Baramulla out of the Kashmir valley was appropriately named Vitasta (वितष्ट), Sanskrit for 'carved' or 'hewn', a river that was carved out from its source at Verinag. The Nilmata Purana states, "Sankara himself named her as Vitasta. Because Hara (Vishnu) had excavated with the spear or a carving or hewing device a ditch measuring one Vitasti, through which the good river – gone to the Nether World – had sprung out, so she was given the name Vitasta by Svayambhu. Then, O king, the people in all the countries heard that the goddess Sati, after assuming the form of a river, had appeared in Kas’mira." (Nilmata Purana 260-262).
Vitasti (वितस्ति) is an ancient unit of measure, and according to the Vayu Purana, one vitasti was equal to 12 angulas (fingers), and 64000 Vitastis make up for a single Yojana. If we consider a single Yojana to be 8 miles (~12.87km), one Vitasti would correspond to roughly 7.95 inches (~20.12cm). This corresponds to the present-day unit called 'span'.
We refer to the Vitasta River today by a relatively meaningless name, Jhelum, incapable of adding any detail to its history. Folklore in neighbouring areas of Jhelumabad says that Jhelum is a corruption of Jala (जल) water, and 'hima' (हिम) or snow, referring to its path through the Himalayas, but the authenticity of such claims is questionable since this is not mentioned in any of the old texts.
As the water drained and the valley emerged, it left in its wake the remnants of Satisara in the form of thousands of smaller lakes, scattered throughout its territory. When Kashmir became habitable, the indigenous Naga (नाग) race became its first dwellers. Naga (नाग) is Sanskrit for 'serpent'. The Nagas were described as a highly intelligent ancient race with serpentine features. Nila was the king of the Nagas of Kashmir. The Nilmata Purana itself gets its name from Nila, the name of this Naga king. The ancient name of Verinag, the source of the Vitasta, was Nilanag, the spring of King Nila. Verinag is a later name which dates to the 1600s when new names were added by Muhammadan rulers.
A few points of note may be made here. First, serpent-like intelligent races are known to have existed around the world and are no longer dismissed as myths by open-minded alternate historians. The Mexican Indians call their shamans ‘nagals’, several Central American deities and culture-bearers are depicted as feathered serpents, there are Snake tribes among the North American Indians, and a gigantic Serpent Mound, 420 metres long, was constructed by the mound-building peoples of ancient Ohio. Obviously, this reverence for the snake comes from the memory of a race with serpentine features, and to dismiss them as myths is a slight on the intelligence of the ancients.
Second, the word 'naga' has more than one meaning in Sanskrit. In the Sanskrit language, there are 2000 root words, called dhatus or building blocks. One such dhatu is 'na', which means water. When it joins with 'ga', which means 'flow' or 'go', it forms naga, 'that which moves in water', hence naga means both a 'serpent' or a 'water spring'. The Kashmiri word 'nag', meaning 'spring', stems from Sanskrit. Not surprisingly, the word 'naga' appears in the names of water bodies around the world. For more such names, click here.
Vitasata: The Vitasta River is known to have at least three sources. The first, of course, is Verinag. Verinag is also known as Panzeth Springs. This name is derived from the more ancient name Panchahasta, which is sometimes translated as five-hundred springs, but more likely has the meaning of 'shaped like five hands.'
The second point where the Vitasta emerged was at Narsimhashrama. This name is related to Panchahasta mentioned above. Narasimha, as an avatara of Vishnu, has to do with fine arts or the shilpashastra. Shilpashastrawhich includes the five principal hand (hasta) gestures of natyashastras- including siṃhamukha-hasta, tripataka-hasta, nrtta-hastas, vardhamāna hasta, and the anjali-hasta.
shilpashastra.
The third spot is called Vitastara. This name is related to the name Vitasata and carries the same meaning.
Mahapadma Lake: Of the thousands of lakes that sprang up after the draining of the Satisara, one of the most important was the Mahapadma (महापद्मा) or the 'giant lotus' lake! It goes by the name Wular today. The Wular, which once extended to what is now known as the Mansabal lake, are both known even today for the abundance of lotuses. Hence the name Mahapadma, though the Nilmata states that a naga took on the name of Mahapadma and the lake is named after him, it just may be the other way round.
We now look at these names in greater detail:
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| Ancient names around the Mahapadma (Wular) lake |
Wular: Neither the word Wular nor its Kashmiri version Volur has any meaning. Wular or Volur is a distortion of one of the earlier names of the lake. The Wular was once also known as Ullola (उल्लोल), Sanskrit for 'with beautiful waves'. How poor and insipid is the name 'Wular' in comparison! The Wular, the largest freshwater lake in Asia until recently, was given to choppy waves during afternoons.
The present district of Wular corresponds to the ancient Holada. Its etymology stems from holaka (होलाक) 'vapour-bath', referring to the mist over the lake. A corresponding word is 'holadhi', 'treasure of vapour' and falls in the same category. The Nilmata Purana also mentions two towns, Chandarpura and Visvagasvapura, near the Mahapadma lake. These correspond to present-day Chandar Gir (in Sonavari) and Viji Pora (also in Sonawari). The nearby town of Khuyasrama, too, is an ancient Puranic site and now goes by the name Khurhama.
What is today known as Bandipura Nala, which flows into the Wular, was once known as the Madhumati River. This name still survives, and in spite of resistance, the Bandipura Nala is also sometimes referred to as Madhumati Nala. But how unfortunate that a river once known as Madhumati (मधुमती) or 'like honey', is referred to as a 'nala' or a 'drain'.
Baramulla: In the vicinity of the Mahapadma Lake was the city of Varahamula, its name derived from, as mentioned above, the Sanskrit Varāhamūla (वराहमूल), a combination of varaha (boar) and mūla (root or deep). According to the Nilmata Purana, it was here that Sri Vishnu assumed the form of a boar and struck a mountain to make way for the water of the Satisara to flow out. This makes complete sense because whoever drained the water from Satisara would have to drain it out at Varahamula or Baramulla. It is here that the Vitatsa moves out of the Kashmir valley. There is no other outlet.
Varahamula is a very ancient place, and the temple of Varaha here is repeatedly mentioned by Kalhana in his Rajatarangini. Its sacred image was destroyed by Sikander Butshikast, who ruled Kashmir between 1389 and 1413. Butshikast has to his credit the tag of having destroyed innumerable temples, including the ones at Parihaspura (City of Laughter), King Lalitaditya's capital. The town today is known as Paraspora, a corruption of its original name.
The modern Baramulla, or Varmul as it is called in Kashmiri, or Varahamula-ksetra or Varaha-ksetra, in the ancient days, was a suburb of Huviskapura, modern Ushkur, also called Ushkara. Huviskapura dwindled to a mere village with time. It is a village that Hiuen Tisang, the Chinese writer and explorer, had spent some nights at. Ushkara is the point till the Vitasta is navigable, after which it enters its mountainous course and becomes unnavigable. The name Huvishka stems from the Sanskrit root word 'vishka' (विष्क), Sanskrit for 'bolt of a door'. Vitasta could not be navigated beyond this point. Hence the name. meaningless.
Sopore: Sopore lies close to where the Vitasta (Jhelum) exits the Kashmir Valley near the Mahapadma (Wular) lake and flows towards Baramulla, Khadniyar and the ancient sacred town of Gingal. The ancient name of Sopore was Suyyapur. Historical accounts in Kalhana’s epic Rajatarangini, composed in 1150 AD, mention a landslide in the second half of the ninth century that blocked the flow of the Jhelum downstream from Varahamoola. Rising waters restrained by this natural dam eventually flooded the Kashmir Valley, not only in the Wular area but all the way up to Vijeshwara (present name Bij Behara), near Anantnag.
The flood waters were abated by breaching the landslide dam by King Avantivarman’s engineer, Suyya. Suyya, who is attributed with the design and completion of numerous drainage and irrigation schemes in Medieval Kashmir, some of which can still be identified, undertook the mammoth task of draining out the water. The details of this whole operation are given in Kalhana's Rajatarangini are given at the end of the post.*
It is said that the city of Sopor (Suyyapur) was named after Suyya. But this appears to be a slight twist of the truth. Suyyapur was built on the land reclaimed after the floodwater of the Vitasta was released by rebuilding the dam and regulating the water. Suya (सूय) is a Sanskrit root word meaning 'extract', 'restrict', 'bind', or 'regulate'. These words relate to the actions taken to restrain the Vitasta. Hence, the town came to be known as Suyapur or Suyyapur (सूयपुर). The engineer came to be referred to as Suyya after his engineering feat.
So, where was this engineering feat undertaken by Suyya? M.A. Stein traces the spot. Stein states, "Close to the western end of Baramulla, a rocky ridge with a precipitous slope runs down into the river bed....At this point, there stood till last year (1897) an old ruined gateway known to the people as Drang or 'watch-station'....Through the structure I had seen....there can be little doubt that it marked the ancient 'gate' of Varahamula.....About two and a half miles below 'Drang', the hill sides recede slightly, leaving room for a small village called 'Naran Thal'. Near it stands a little temple with a spring close by, which is visited by pilgrims and is probably identical with the Narayanasthana of Nilmata (Purana)." This spot is where the river takes a two-way diversion, forming an island. This is where the Eco Park has come up today, obliterating any memory of Narayansthana or the water springs there and replacing them with cafes and tourist huts.
Adds Stein, "About a mile below this point and close to the village of Khadniyar, the river turns sharply round a steep and narrow spur projecting into the valley from the northwest...The road crosses the spur by a deep and narrow cut, known as Dyargul. Kalhana's Chronicle knows this curious cutting as Yakshadhara, 'the demon's cleft'. According to the tradition, there recorded that the operation by Suyya, Avantiramana's engineer, lowered the level of the Vitasta, extended to this point of the riverbed."
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| It was at the spot that was named Yakshadhara (demon's cleft) That Suyya, King Avantiraman's engineer, performed his engineering feat. Suyya (सूय) is Sanskrit for extract, bind, direct or regulate. Hence, the engineer came to be known by the name 'Suyya'. |
Yakshadar later came to be known as Dyaregul, and the stream flowing at Yakshadara is now called Sheen Nallah. That 'sheen' is Kashmiri for 'snow' is well known- it's less common knowledge that 'sheen' (शीन) is Sanskrit for 'ice'. The name Khadniyar too is a corruption of the Sanskrit Khadda (खद्दा), which means a 'gorge'. Two miles below this area is the town of Zehenpur or Zehempur, which was in ancient times a sacred site. So was Gingal, and the ruins of ancient temples still existed during the time of Stein. Further ahead on this route is the town of Boliasa, the Baliasaka of Rajatarangini. The corrupted forms of the above names have no meaning.
In his exploration, Stein had always hoped to discover the western entrance to the Kashmir valley from Muzzafarabad, known as Udhabanda in antiquity. He says that in antiquity, the path from Udhabanda lay along the right bank of the Vitasta, and the crossing of the river could be completely avoided when travelling to the valley. Uda (उद) is water, 'bandh' (बन्ध ) is to 'tie' or 'control'.
The higher ground of the Kashmir Valley consists of peculiar plateaus. Though they are now known as 'karewas', a word which stems from Persian, they were until recently known by their Kashmiri term udar, which originates from Sanskrit uddara, the root word of which is the 'uddhR' (उद्धृ) meaning raised up, and for example, one may note, appears in the name of a village, Damodar Udar.
There are scores of other place names that now bear distortions of their earlier names, some of which are listed below. Each one of these, too, has a story to tell and will be the subject of later posts:
1. Kishtwar - Kashtavata (काष्ठवाट)-city of wood
2. Badravah- Bhadravasaka (भद्रवासक)- splendid abode
3. Chamba - Campa (कम्प) - Vibrate a reference to a flowing river
4. Ballavar- Vallapura
5. Agror- Urasa
6. Karnau- Karnaha
7. Drava tract- Duranda
8. Sardi- Sharada
9. Darad- Daraddesa/Daratpuri
10 Leh - Lohh
11. Kamraz-Kramarajya and Maraj - Madhav Rajya.
Note: Since ancient times, the Kashmir valley has been divided into 2 parts. The part north of Srinagar was called Madhvrajya, and the part south of it was Kramarajya.
13 Pandrethan- Puranadhi-sthana
14. Banihal - Banasala
15. Bichlari River - Visalata River
16. Bahramgala - Bhairavgala
17. Kritshom - Kriti-asrama
18. Drang - Karkota Dranga
19. Konsarnag - Krama-sara
20. Rahjauri - Raja Puri
21. Pusiana - Pusia-nanda
22. Bahram Gala - Bhairav Gala
23. Kakodhar - Karkota dhara
24. Chambar - Sabambara
25. Uskur - Huska Pura
26. Naran That - Narayan Pura
27. Khadniyar -Yakshadhara
28. Dvarbidi - Dvaravati
29. Uskur -Huskapura
30. Pir Panjal Range - Panchala Dharmath
31. Jhelum River- Vitasta
32. Chenab River- Chandrabhaga
33. Poonch - Parnotsa
Most of these names are mentioned in the chronicles of Kalhana with an explanation of how the places got these names. Unsurprisingly, Kalhana, who wrote the Rajatarangini (The Chronology of the Kings) himself, gets his name from the work he did. The name Kalhana has two parts - Kala (काल), time or chronology, and ahaana (आहणा), composition. He composed a book on the chronology of the kings. Kalhana simply means 'historian'. This is a name he earned for himself. Just like Suyya.
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Footnotes:
*The following is a description of Suyya's Vitasta operation as chronicled in Kalhana's Rajatarangini in the words of Prof M.A. Stein:
Quoting from this treatise, M.A. Stein states, "The operations commenced in Kramarajya at the locality called Yakshadhara, where large rocks which had rolled down from the mountains lining both river banks, obstructed the Vitasta. By removing the obstructing rocks, the level of the river was lowered. Then a stone dam was constructed across the bed of the river, and the latter was thus blocked up completely for seven days. During this time, the riverbed was cleared at the bottom, and stone walls were constructed to protect it against rocks that might roll down. The dam was then removed, and the river flowed forth with increased rapidity through the cleared passage. What follows in Kalhana’s account is so matter-of-fact and so accurate in topographical points that a presumption is raised as to the previous statements also resting, partially at least, on historical facts."
"These have shown that while the new confluence which Kalhana knew in his own time is identical with the present junction opposite Shadipur, the old one lay about two miles to the south-east of it, between the village of Trigani and the Paraspur plateau. The latter is the site of the great ruins of Parihasapura... Trigam marks the position of the ancient Trigrami, and a short distance south of it stands the temple ruin, which I identify with the shrine of Visnu Vainiyavamin.
'Kalhana mentions this temple as the point near which “the two rivers, the Sindhu and Vitasta, formerly met, flowing to the left and right of Trigrami, respectively. Standing on the raised ground before the ruin and turning towards Shadipur, we have on our left a narrow swamp about a quarter of a mile broad, which runs north-east in the direction of Trigam. In this swamp and a shallow Nala continuing it towards Shadipur, we can yet recognise the old bed of the Sindhu. On the right, we have the Badrihal Nala, which divides the alluvial plateau of Trigam and Paraspor. This Nala is clearly marked as an old river-bed by the formation of its banks and is still known as such to the villagers of the neighbourhood.....
"By forcing the Vitasta to pass north of Trigam instead of south of it, the reclamation of the marshes south of the Volur lake must have been greatly facilitated."
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