Parihaspora or Parihaspur or Paraspore or Paraspur was a small town northwest of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. It was built on a plateau above the

Jhelum River The Jhelum River (/dʒʰeːləm/) is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then ...

. It was built by

Lalitaditya Muktapida Lalitaditya alias Muktapida (IAST: Lalitāditya Muktāpīḍa; r. c. 724 CE–760 CE) was a powerful ruler of the Karkota dynasty of Kashmir region in the Indian subcontinent. The 12th-century chronicler Kalhana characterizes Lalitaditya as a ...

(695–731) and served as the capital of Kashmir during his reign.

Etymology

The present name of the place, Paraspore, is derived from the original Sanskrit name of the city, Parihaspur, which loosely translated would mean a city of laughs or a smiling city. "Parihas" means laughter and "pur" means city.

History

It was built by

(695–731) of the Karkota dynasty. He moved his capital from Srinagar to Parihaspur.

Kalhana Kalhana ( sa, कल्हण, translit=kalhaṇa) was the author of ''Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be ...

mentions the construction of the city in his Book 4 cantos 194–204. Lalitaditya according to

built his residence and four temples in this area. The temples included one for

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

(Muktakeshva) where according to

the emperor used 84,000 tolas of gold to make the image of Vishnu. In another temple he used as many Palas of silver for the image of Parihaskesana. He also had made a statue of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

in copper that according to Kalhana "reached up to the sky." The main temple was larger than the famous temple that Lalitaditya built in Martand. Parihaspur lost its status as a capital after Lalitaditya's death. His son moved the royal residence. The

is to the northeast of Parihaspur as it meets the Sind Nallah at Shadpur sangam. In the past this confluence of the rivers occurred closer to Parihaspur. The change in the course of the river is not natural but was engineered by famous Soya Pandit during Raja Avanti Varman's time (855–883 AD). With the river access gone, the city suffered greatly. The real destruction occurred when Avanti Varman's son Shankar Varman moved his capital to the new city of Shankarpur. According to Kalhana he cannibalized all the "good material" from these temples and palaces to build his city of Shankarpur (

Pattan Pattan is a sub-district, town and a municipal committee in Baramulla district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Location Pattan is surrounded by Breng Block towards North, Kunzer block towards the south, Narbal block towa ...

). Parihaspur however survived the pillage because Kalhana mentions that during the war between King Harsha and Uccala (1089–1101 AD), Uccala took refuge in Parihaspur. King Harsha believing that Uccala was in one of the buildings set the place on fire. He broke and melted down the statues of Parihaspur. The final blow to the temples came when Sultan Sikandar destroyed them completely in the fourteenth century.

Present ruins

Only ruins in the form of large boulders, some ornately carved, and ''in situ'' carved footings are left of the old city now, and the place is commonly known as "Kani Shahar" (City of Stones) to local residents. Some of the finest examples of the carved figures of seated and standing atlantes have been taken to the Srinagar Museum. M.A.Stein first visited the place in 1892 and was able to place each of these constructions based on ruins that he found at that time. Stein also thinks that the village Gurdan near Parihaspur comes from Govardhana. Govardhana dhara is one of the names of

. He visited the place again in 1892 and found that many stones that he had seen in 1892 were gone. Apparently Maharaja of Kashmir was building the Jhelum cart road and using the Parihaspur ruins as road material. Stein approached the British resident at that time for help. He was able to convince the

Dogra The Dogras or Dogra people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group in India and Pakistan consisting of the Dogri language speakers. They live predominantly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, and in adjoining areas of Punjab, Himacha ...

king to stop further desecration of the historic temple ruins.

Notable people

References

{{- Cities and towns in Baramulla district Medieval cities Buddhist temples in India 8th-century Buddhist temples