Pilgrimage and Temple Economy in Early Medieval Kashmir (c. 625-1012 CE)

This paper looks into the significant role played by pilgrimages in the temple economy of Jammu and Kashmir. There have been many scholarly writings on the subject, but most of them deal with the temples in the southern part of India. The temples, pilgrimage of Jammu and Kashmir and their economic significance were never examined in the historiography. The reason cited for this may be the paucity of sources; the epigraphic records which are available for temples in southern India are not available for temples in Jammu and Kashmir. This study is an attempt to add to existing literature and the study relies on the Kalhana’s Rājataranginī, regional histories and colonial records.