When archaeologists began excavating the mounds at Zehanpora in Baramulla, few anticipated that the soil of north Kashmir would speak back to history. The first clue had surfaced far from the Valley: An archival photograph preserved in a French museum, showing three ancient stupas standing in Baramulla. The image hinted that the unassuming mounds at Zehanpora might conceal the remains of a significant Buddhist site. That possibility was confirmed by a collaborative excavation led by the J&K Department of Archives and Kashmir University, and facilitated by the Union Ministry of Culture.What emerged were Kushan-period Buddhist remains — stupas, structural foundations, and nearly two-millennia-old artefacts — refocusing attention on J&K’s integral place within Bharat’s ancient civilisation.AdvertisementIt reopens a question that has long been pushed to the margins of popular memory: How germane has Kashmir been to the intellectual, spiritual, and trans-Asian history of Buddhism?For most people, Buddhism is anchored to four sacred sites: Lumbini (birth), Bodh Gaya (enlightenment), Sarnath (first sermon), and Kushinagar (mahaparinirvana). Yet Buddhism did not become a world religion merely through sacred geography; it spread through traditions, ideas, debates, translations, and institutions. In that story, J&K and Ladakh occupy a significant but under-acknowledged place.Buddhism flourished in Kashmir during the Mauryan period, traditionally associated with Emperor Ashoka, who is believed to have founded the city of Srinagar and established monasteries and stupas in the region. Kashmir’s location at the crossroads of the Indus-Gandhara region and the Himalayan corridor made it uniquely suited to act as a conduit between the Indian heartland and the wider Asian world.AdvertisementEarly Buddhist chronicles and later Sanskrit sources consistently refer to Kashmir as a land of learning or Sharada Pitha, symbolising its role as one of the foremost seats of learning in the ancient and early medieval periods. In that sense, the Kashmiri engagement with Buddhism was never merely devotional — it was analytical, dialectical, and intellectually rigorous. While the Buddha’s message was born in the Gangetic plains, its philosophical sophistication was sharpened in the arms of the Jhelum.The Buddhist philosophical tradition reached its zenith in the figure of Nagarjuna, the founder of Madhyamaka (the Middle Way) philosophy. Nagarjuna travelled widely, and Kashmir emerged as one of the most important centres for the study, preservation, and elaboration of his thought.The significance of Kashmir in Buddhist history becomes noticeable during the Kushan period, precisely the era to which the Zehanpora remains are dated. Under Emperor Kanishka, Buddhism received unprecedented royal patronage. Tradition holds that Kanishka convened the Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir, presided over by the scholar Vasumitra, with Ashvaghosha among its luminaries. This council was decisive in the systematisation and spread of Mahayana Buddhism, a form that emphasised compassion, the Bodhisattva ideal, and universal liberation. From Kashmir, Mahayana ideas travelled to Qandhar, Kabul and thence over Bactria. In this sense, Kashmir was not peripheral to global Buddhism — it was one of its crucial launchpadsMaterial evidence reinforces this legacy. The Gilgit Manuscripts, among the oldest surviving Buddhist texts in the world, written in Sanskrit and Prakrit, reveal Kashmir and its neighbouring regions as custodians of Buddhist knowledge.most readBuddhism’s philosophical emphasis on the “Middle Path” — a rejection of extremes — found a striking afterlife in Kashmir’s later spiritual traditions. The Sufi-Rishi movement, particularly the teachings of Lal Ded (1320–1392 CE) and Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani (1377–1440 CE), reflects an ethic of moderation, compassion, and inner discipline that resonates deeply with Buddhist values. It emerged from a shared cultural soil shaped by centuries of Buddhist, Shaivite, and Sufi thought, forming the foundations of Kashmir’s syncretic composite culture — kashmiriyat.For decades, Kashmir has been maligned globally by terrorism and conflict, eclipsing its deeper civilisational identity. The excavation at Zehanpora is an invitation to reframe J&K not as a land that has been struggling to find calm, but as a region that once shaped the moral and philosophical vocabulary of half the world. Buddhism did not pass through Kashmir in silence; it debated, evolved, and radiated outward from here.The writer is an IAS officer posted in the Ministry of Culture, Government of India