Manan Shah, Author at INVERSE JOURNAL

Manan Shah

Manan Shah was born and brought up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. He has a Honors Degree in archeology and ancient history from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India. As a history enthusiast and a freelance writer, his work intends to revive the historic past and the diverse traditions of the Kashmir Valley. He attempts to bring into notice the old practices and traditions that have shaped the current cultural and political identity of Kashmir.

A Buddhist Monastery of Kashmir Buried in the Past — by Manan Shah

Manan Shah revisits a heritage site that holds the answers to a significant number of questions about the presence and development of Buddhism in Kashmir’s lengthy history. As a student of archaeology and ancient history, Shah offers a core introduction to a site of great importance that was excavated in 1923. Till date, the Buddhist Monastery at Harwan remains a marker of a Kashmiri history that places the Himalayan territory as an important historic location for the convergence of multiple cultures. In its exposition, Shah’s piece also shows Kashmir’s inherent cultural sophistication through a reading of Harwan as an archaeological and historical site that provides a view into Kashmir’s past far beyond the mediatized discourses and reductive narratives that attempt to represent Kashmir within a limited scope of relevance and importance—as a mere socio-political appendage whose place in South Asian and Central Asian history remains posited on shaky ground. Perhaps inadvertently, this essential piece provides an introductory glace into a history where Kashmir is a center and not some territory within the margins set by others—and in that, a place frequently referenced by multiple visitors seeking both knowledge and answers. The piece features the author’s photography of the site that was included in the World History Encyclopedia (republished here via CC-NC-SA).