Kashmir will never be at ease as long as it refuses to look in the mirror. The mirror is bloody, broken, and bitter – but it is the only thing left that tells the truth.

This truth is not found in slogans, ceasefires, or speeches from red-bricked podiums. It lies in tombs without names, in homes without heirs, in temples stripped of bells, and in mothers who outlived all their sons. Kashmir’s greatest ailment is not militancy, militarism, or marginalisation. It is mendacity – the chronic addiction to untruth.

“Truth is the property of no individual, but is the treasure of all.” – Kalhana, Rajatarangini

The Satisar Parable: Cleansing the Lie Beneath the Lake

The Nilamata Purana speaks of Satisar, the primordial lake that covered the Kashmir Valley. Sage Kashyapa, seeking refuge for his people, pleaded with Vishnu to slay the demon Jalodbhava, who haunted the depths. Once the demon was vanquished, the waters receded, and the valley was born.

But even in this myth lies metaphor. The first act of peace in Kashmir required truth to confront terror, for no sacred land can rise where falsehood reigns. The demon was not merely aquatic; it was the lie allowed to fester. What was true of Satisar then remains true today: Kashmir must drain the waters of its own deceit.

Kashmir’s Golden Age: Tarnished by Betrayal

When Abhinavagupta composed his Shaiva sutras and Kalhana penned the Rajatarangini, Kashmir was a beacon of spiritual and literary brilliance. Yet, Kalhana’s own chronicle is not a saga of peace, but of perfidy:

“Kings fell by poison, brothers by brothers, and temples by tyrants who bowed to none but their greed.” – Rajatarangini, Book IV

From King Harsa’s desecration of shrines to internecine palace wars, the very soil that birthed sages also nursed scorpions. Even at its pinnacle, Kashmir chose expediency over ethics, appearance over atonement.

King Harsa (reigned c. 1089–1101 CE) was a tyrannical ruler of Kashmir from the Lohara dynasty, and is best known not for grandeur but for cruelty, temple desecrations, and economic oppression – a reign remembered as one of the most turbulent in medieval Kashmiri history.

The Sword and the Crescent: Islamisation and Amnesia

In the 14th century, the gentle winds of syncretism were replaced by storms of iconoclasm. The........

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