Verinag- the love of Jahangir

Author Iqbal Ahmad - Sunday, 29 04 2012 09:06

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Jahangir, the famous Mughal emperor, who expired at Chingas near Rajouri on his return from Srinagar to Lahore, wished, while on death bed, to be carried to Verinag and buried there. This was the charm of Verinag of which its royal founder seems to have been quite sensible; Verinag with its shady trees, cold-water and murmuring streams over shadowed by the somber pine-clad hills is situated in South Kashmir about 74 Km from Srinagar.
It is considered to be the real source of river Jehlum. Abul Fazl, in ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ says of Verinag, “A pool measuring of a Jarib, which tosses in foam with an astonishing roar and its depth unfathomable and is surrounded by a stone-embankment”.
The construction work over the spring was taken under by Jahangir (AH 1014-1073- AH, and completed by Shah Jahan (1037-1068 AH). The developmental work over Verinag included the laying of garden, raising pillared pavilions constructing royal bath rooms and an octagonal arcade around the spring.
Jahangir (1014-1037 AH), while providing a brief account of the spring writes, “It is an octagonal reservoir about 20-yards. Near it are the remains of a place of worship for recluses; cells cut out of the rock and numerous caves. The water is exceedingly pure, although I could not guess its depth. A grain of poppy-seed is visible until it touches the bottom. There are many fish to be seen in it. As I had heard that it was unfathomable, I ordered them to throw a cord with a stone attached and when this card measured in gaz it became evident that the depth was not more than one and a half the height of a man. After my accession I ordered them to build the sides of the spring with stone, and they made a garden round it with canal and built halls and houses about it and made a place such that travellers the world over can point out a few like it”
Of the buildings, that Jehangir ordered to be constructed here, only the range of twenty-four arches round the spring remains partially intact. The rest are either in ruins or completely invisible. The arcade originally formed of stone was repaired by Maharaja Rambir Singh (1857-85 AD) in bricks.
The two inscriptions raised into the wall of arcade one by Jahangir and the other by his son Shah Jahan retain the physical memories of these two monarchs one of the inscriptions that belongs to Jahangir-runs as;
Padshahi haft-Kishtiwar `adalat-gustar’Abu-al-Muzaffar N
urud-ud-Din Jahangir Ibn Akbar Shah Ghazi Batarikhi
Sanah 5 Julus darin Sarchashma faiz-amin nazul ajlal formudand Tarikh.
Az Jahangir Shah-e-Akbar Shah.
Inn bina Sar Kashidah bar aflak
Abani-e-equal yaft tarikhash
Qasr abad-o-chashma-e-Verinag
This inscription carries the foundation date as 5th regional year of Jahangir with Kings higher titles in Persian. The other inscription of Shah Jahan’s period read as:
Haider ba Aukmi Shahi
Jahan padasi dahr.
Shukre Khuda Ki Sakht
Chunin ab shar Jui.
In Jui dada ast Ziju-e-bahish yad.
Zin abshar yafta kashmir abrui.
Tarikh-e-jui guft ba gosham.
Az chashma-e-bikhif birum amadast Jui.
This inscription provides the date of the completion of the work as 1036 AH by one Haider, on orders of Shah Jahan.
Although Verinag, alongwith other tourist sites of south Kashmir,   is receiving some tourists, though lately, a lot remains to be done yet. Steps are needed to be taken to showcase and also boast the tourist potential of this site besides preserving its arcade and inscription as these are the past glories of this historic spring.   Like many other such historical sites, Verinag also suffered human vandalism and utmost neglect.
 Verinag spring , the source of kashmeri river veyth