From Kashmir it penetrated to Kandahar
and Kabul,... and thence over Bactria. Tibetan Buddhism also had its
essential origin from Kashmir;... so great is the importance of this
region in the History of Buddhism." (Vassilyev, Der Buddhismus, I. 44.)
In the account which the Mahawanso gives of the consecration of the great
Tope at Ruanwelli, by Dutthagamini, King of Ceylon (B.C. 157), 280,000
priests (!) come from Kashmir, a far greater number than is assigned to
any other country except one. (J. A. S. B. VII. 165.)
It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and the
Lamas with whom he came in contact to regard Kashmir as "the very original
source from which their Religion had spread abroad." The feeling with
which they looked to Kashmir must have been nearly the same as that with
which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon. But this feeling towards
Kashmir does not now, I am informed, exist in Tibet. The reverence for
the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the neighbouring "cradle-lands"
of Buddhism.
It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted by Tod,
uses Marco's expression in reference to Kashmir, almost precisely, saying
that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from Kashmir, "the foundry of
magical superstition." (Rajasthan, I. 219.)
NOTE 4. - The people of Kashmir retain their beauty, but they are morally
one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppression, now under the
Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt aggravated this. Yet it would
seem that twelve hundred years ago the evil elements were there as well as
the beauty. The Chinese traveller says: "Their manners are light and
volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillanimous.... They are very
handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery." (Pel. Boud.
II. 167-168.) Vigne's account is nearly the same. (II. 142-143.) "They are
as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p.
292).
[Bernier says: "The women [of Kachemire] especially are very handsome; and
it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted
to the court of the Great Mogul, selects wives or concubines, that his
children may be whiter than the Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls.
Unquestionably, there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if
we may judge by those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the
shops." (Travels in the Mogul Empire, edited by Archibald Constable,
1891, p. 404.)]
NOTE 5. - In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying in
Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many
Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state; there were
100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 11th century a King
(Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally as a protector of
Buddhism.
