National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

108

Rainchan Shah (Rinchan Bhöti) built the Jami` mosque of Srinagar. I went there on the 18th October, two days after our arrival. The priests said, they knew for certain that the mosque was built by Sikandar But-shikan, a statement which agrees with Mr.. Nicholls' reading of the inscription. When they understood that I was particularly interested in Rainchan Shah, they told me that he was the founder of the Awwal Masjid " The first Mosque " in Maharaj-Canj. We therefore visited the latter which is also-generally known as Rinddn Shah Masjid. (Plate XLV, a). It is a small, insignificant building, and cannot be compared with the beautiful, later mosques of Srinagar. It is empty, has not even a minaret on its roof, and the walls have lost their coating of whitewash. I could not discover in it any kind of works of art. Formerly there had been a stone slab which was inscribed with non-Arabic characters, said to have been a kind of Sastri, which designation may stand for Sarada or Tibetan.' About twenty years ago, so I was told, a European carried off the inscribed slab and took it to England. As this gentleman did not leave his address, there is not much chance of rediscovering this important record. However, a Persian translation of the inscription has apparently been preserved in Haidar Malik's Persian History of Kashmir. It runs thus : " My friend for the sake of gaiety has become the observed of observers ! His face claimed Islam and his hair adorned Paganism. He controls both Paganism and Islam, and takes interest in both." From this inscription it follows, that Rinchan Bhötì had become only half Muhammadan.

Pandit Mukund Rain Shastri says that there is another stone, at or near the Jami' Mosque, lying on its face, which also has a non-Arabic inscription. The Muhammadan priests, however, would not allow him to examine it.

The Awwal Masjid is, according to popular tradition, the oldest mosque of Srinagar and people assert that thousands of Hindus were here converted to Islam. Pandit Mukund Ram Shastri told us Rinchan Bhöti's story, exactly as it is given in Sir Walter Lawrence's " Valley of Kashmir." When I asked him how he came to know it, he said he had read it in the Rajataranginì. He could not, however, produce a passage in that book which contained more than Pandit Daya Rain Sahni's translation of the account of Rinchana's reign.2 He provided me, with extracts from two Persian chronicles which describe the same times, viz., Haidar Malik's chronicle, and the " History of Azrni." In both these chronicles it is plainly stated that Rinehart Shah built also the shrine called Bulbul Lankar, besides the mosque.

This shrine is situated only a few steps from the Awwal Mosque. It is a comparatively plain sanctuary. The fresco flower ornaments on its walls seem to be of more recent date.

People assert that it was built in Rainchan Shah's time, and everybody here knows of the

friendship between king Rainchan Shah and the priest Bulbul. It is interesting that this Bulbul has also found his way into Ladakhi folklore, where he is mentioned in the " Song

of the Bodro Masjid of Srinagar." The Ladakhi poet who wrote this song in times gone by must have known of the Ladakhi :origin of the Kashmir king Rinchana. Bodro

1 sástri is a term commonly used in Northern India to designate Nágari. [Ed.]

2 Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXVII, pp. 18? ff.