Tapesh Yadav

🛕Kashmir Smast: Oldest Hindu Monasteries 100 AD, Shiva, Goddess Bhīmā-inspired This 🧵 summarizes the great cave, temples and ancient India's monastery-university at Kashmir Smast. Mapped in 1960s, looted since 1990s, studied over 1999–2018, Kashmir Smast is now lost. 🛕Location and Discoveries 1️⃣Kashmir Smast is a vast natural cave site in north Gandhara, in the Sakra range above a scenic valley. After a steep hike to 1,100 m, you reach a 20 m-wide, 20 m-high cave entrance. It is 180 m deep.(Note: "Smast" is likely from Pashto word "smats, سمڅی" which means "cave"). 2️⃣Inside the cave: ruins of ancient temples, aligned east despite the darkness. The deepest temple requires a short crawl to reach, and a small water tank sits mid-cave. Above the cave mouth are extensive Matha (monastery) ruins with North, Central, and South campuses (see photo). 3️⃣Noted in 19th-century field reports, Kashmir Smast was first systematically mapped in 1962 by a Japanese team led by Seiichi Mizuno. The site was largely undisturbed, and their maps record multiple temples in the main cave, a small valley cave temple, and a vast monastery complex. 4️⃣In the 1990s, vandalized art and inscriptions flooded Peshawar’s black market, traced to Kashmir Smast. Over 1999–2018, scholars like M. Nasim Khan documented what remained. 5️⃣Nasim Khan's monographs identify – coins from about 200 BC to about 1200 AD (Indo-Greek, Shunga, Kushana, Gupta, Dakshin Koshala, etc). – Hindu inscriptions in Brahmi, Kharoshthi, Gupta, Sharada and other scripts date from 100 to about 1200 AD, after which the site goes quiet. – crumbling manuscripts (birch bark) locked inside brick cavities, pots. – terracotta and stone artworks from various centuries: Bhima devi (not the Mahabharata Bhim), Lajja Gauri, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Shiva linga, Nataraja, Vishnu, Radha-Krishna, Ganesha, Aditya, and more. – seals with inscriptions, Hindu iconography – lamps, some inscribed – gold ornaments, likely donated to the temples 6️⃣In 1959–62 (and still in 1999), the great cave had “beautiful” temple walls, a water tank, pilgrim stairs, and artwork – all ancient. After 2021, the walls, stairs, and art are gone—looters left rubble across all three sections. 🛕Kashmir Smast inscriptions – what do they say? 1️⃣The site is called “Sita Mahaguha” on Sri Minja mountain. Alternate spellings include Sita-Mahakandara, Munja/Maunja Parvata. These echo sites included is in Vedic texts, the Mahabharata, Siddhanta Kaumudi, and more. 2️⃣Three monasteries at this site, say the inscriptions: Kshayani-matha (central, largest campus), Ahani-matha (southern campus), and Para-matha (northern campus) 3️⃣Five Shiva temples appear in pre-400 AD inscriptions. The oldest (100–200 AD) mention a “pious chaitya for Vardhamaneshvara (Shiva),” donations to a matha, and food for students and visitors; an early Brahmi record names “Saliyaka Vardhmaneshvar.” Later inscriptions echo these gifts, plus pay for water reservoirs, repairs to the mathaka, etc. 4️⃣Kashmir Smast donors included men and women of all classes—royalty, senapatis, merchants, and artisans. 5️⃣Donor names in inscriptions resemble modern Hindu names (e.g., Sitarama, Raja, Krishna, Nandi, Chandra, Jvala). 🛕Significance 1️⃣Gandhara was never exclusively Buddhist. Hinduism and Buddhism co-existed in Gandhara. Kashmir Smast, with rare exceptions, is entirely Hindu from start. 2️⃣This site is northwest of Srinagar (J&K); it is the oldest, farthest north monastery-university complex found so far on the subcontinent. 3️⃣Ancient Taxilla monastery-university was not isolated site for higher learning; Kashmir Smast was another. 4️⃣Findings so far suggest Kashmir Smast was mainly a Hindu monastery-university, unlike ancient Taxila University’s mixed and layered Vedic–Buddhist–Jaina past. Prof. Nasim Khan calls Kashmir Smast the “earliest Hindu university in South Asia” (Open Library 26497362M). 5️⃣Based on inscriptions, Kashmir Smast is likely older than Sharada Peeth site – another historic center of Hindu studies. These became linked later. 6️⃣Bhima Devi and Shiva were established near Kashmir before the 2nd century, in temple context, as donation records show. 7️⃣The oldest Kashmir Smast inscription dates to the early 2nd century, but the site is likely older: coins from 300–200 BC have been found, and Mauryan coins probably wouldn’t still be circulating centuries later in northwest India. 8️⃣The presence of Vishnu, Ganesha, Surya and other art and iconography confirms diverse Hindu traditions participated at Kashmir Smast. 9️⃣Kashmir Smast thrived thru the 11th or 12th century; it is mentioned over the centuries, such as the 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, later by Al Biruni. 🔟Kashmir Smast pilgrims and coins trace origins from Northwest to Central India. Hindu tirtha (pilgrimage) tradition is ancient, and ancient Hindus from central India saw Kashmir Smast a part of their sacred geography.