Sikandar Shah Miri

Not to be confused with Sikandar Lodhi, the Afghan Sultan of Delhi.

Sikandar Butshikan
Sultan of Kashmir
Reign	1389–1413 CE
House	Shah Miri dynasty
Religion	Sunni Islam

Sikandar Shah Miri better known as Sikandar Butshikan ("Sikandar the Iconoclast"), was the sixth sultan of the Shah Miri dynasty of Kashmir. He ruled the kingdom from 1389 to 1413 and is remembered for his strenuous efforts to convert the Hindus of Kashmir to Islam. These efforts included the destruction of numerous old temples, prohibition of Hindu rites, rituals and festivals and even the wearing of clothes in the Hindu style. He is known as "Butcher of Kashmir" and among the most hated figures among Kashmiri Hindus.

Rule

Persecution of Hindus

Sultan Sikandar was a Muslim who ruled over a kingdom where the vast majority of people were Hindu or Buddhist. He was an extremely bigoted ruler who perpetrated untold tyranny upon his hapless non-Muslim subjects in a bid to make them convert to Islam. It was under the influence of the Sufi saint, Mir Mohammad Hamadani, that he committed atrocities against non-Muslims in his lands. Large numbers of Hindus converted, fled, or were killed for refusal to convert during his reign.

A rare photo of ruins of Martand Sun Temple taken in 1868 by John Burke

Sikandar won the sobriquet of but-shikan or idol-breaker, due to his actions related to the desecration and destruction of numerous temples, chaityas, viharas, shrines, hermitages, and other holy places of the Hindus and Buddhists. He banned dance, drama, music, iconography and such other religious, cultural or aesthetic activities of the Hindus and Buddhists and classified them as heretical and un-Islamic. He forbade the Hindus to apply a tilak mark on their foreheads. He did not permit them to pray and worship, blow a conch shell or even to toll a bell. Eventually, he went on burning temples and all Kashmiri texts to eliminate Shirk. So unspeakable was Sikandar's tyranny that he even stopped Hindus and Buddhists from cremating their dead and compelled them to bury the bodies using Muslim rituals. He imposed the Jizya, a poll-tax to be paid by non-Muslims living as subjects in a Muslim state, and the levy was a heavy one: each non-Muslim was required to pay an annual tax of four tolas of silver. Notice the strange irony: every single custom of the Hindus, from blowing a conch-shell in the temple to cremating their dead, was forbidden by law, and yet the Hindus were compelled to pay four tolas of silver per head per year for the privilege of living like despicable slaves in the land which was the native land of their own forefathers.

Records of cruelty

Records Baharistan-i-Shahi:

Immediately after his (Sufi Mir Mohammad's) arrival, Sultan Sikandar, peace be on him, submitted to his supremacy and proved his loyalty to him by translating his words into deeds. He eradicated aberrant practices and infidelity. He also put an end to the various forbidden and unlawful practices throughout his kingdom. Thus during the entire period of his rule, all traces of wines and intoxicants and instruments of vice and corruption, like the cord of canticle, lyre, and tambourine were wiped out. The clamor of the drum and the trumpet, the shrill notes of the fife and the clarion no longer reached people's ears, except in battles and assaults.

"Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and were massacred in case they refused to be converted'," writes Hasan, a Muslim chronicler. He further observes, "And Sikandarpora (a city laid out by Sultan Sikandar) was laid out on the debris of the destroyed temples of the Hindus. In the neighbourhood of the royal palaces in Sikandarpora, the Sultan destroyed the temples of Maha-Shri built by Praversena and another by Tarapida. The material from these was used for constructing a 'Jami' mosque in the middle of the city."

"Towards the far end of his life, he (Sultan Sikandar) was infused with a zeal for demolishing idol-houses, destroying the temples and idols of the infidels. He destroyed the massive temple at Beejbehara. He had designs to destroy all the temples and put an end to the entire community of infidels," puts Bharistan-i-Shahi.

In his second Rajtarangini, the historian Jonraj has recorded, "There was no city, no town, no village, no wood, where the temples of the gods were unbroken. When Sureshavari, varaha, and others were broken, the world trembled, but not so the mind of the wicked king. He forgot his kingly duties and took delight day and night in breaking images."

Writes historian Ajit Bhattacharjee, "Sikandar (1389–1413) equaled the most blood-thirsty and iconoclastic Muslim conquerors anywhere in his zeal to obliterate all traces of the Hindu religion and convert its followers to Islam on pain of death. Temples were leveled and some of the grandest monuments of old damaged and disfigured. Thousands of Hindus escaped across the borders of Kashmir, others were massacred." He further records, "Hindu temples were felled to the ground and for one year a large establishment was maintained for the demolition of the grand Martand temple. But when the massive masonry resisted all efforts, the fire was applied and the noble buildings cruelly defaced." According to M.Mujeeb, Sikandar, the iconoclast of Kashmir, made forcible conversions a sustained political policy.

To quote Firishta, "Many of the Brahmans rather than abandon their religion or their country poisoned themselves, some emigrated from their homes while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Mohamadans."

Puts A.K. Mujumdar, "These Sufi Muslim immigrants brought with them that fanatic iconoclastic zeal which distinguished Islam in other parts of India, but from which Kashmir was happily free up to this time." He further records, "Sikandar's reign was disgraced by a series of acts, inspired by religious bigotry and iconoclastic zeal for which there is hardly any parallel in the annals of the Muslim rulers of Kashmir."

Islamization of Kashmir

During the Shah Miri dynasty, Islam was firmly established in Kashmir and his rule has been considered controversial by some due to his rigid policies in Kashmir. In consonance with the customs in Delhi and elsewhere, Sikandar created the office of Sheikh-ul-Islam and more important, decided that the Islamic law should be valid instead of the traditional law. But, as in other places, that may have been restricted mainly to the personal law.

It was during Sikander's reign that a wave of Sufi warriors headed by Mir Muhammad Hamadani (1372–1450) arrived in Kashmir in 1393. Sikandar issued orders proscribing the residence of any other than Muslims in Kashmir. He insisted on all golden and silver images being broken and melted down, and the metal coined into money. Many of the Hindus, rather than abandon their religion or their country, poisoned themselves; some emigrated from their native homes, while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Muslims. After the emigration of the Hindus, Sikandar ordered all the temples in Kashmir to be thrown down and destroyed; among which was one dedicated to Maha Deo, in the district of Punjhuzara, which they were unable to destroy, in consequence of its foundation being below the surface of the neighbouring water. But the temple dedicated to Jug Dew was leveled with the ground; (...) but Sikandar (...) did not desist till the building was entirely razed to the ground, and its foundations dug up. After digging and destroying the Martand Temple, a copper-plate was discovered, on which was the following inscription: "having built this temple, was desirous of ascertaining from his astrologers how long it would last, and was informed by them that after eleven hundred years, a king named Sikundar would destroy it, as well as the other temples in Kashmir. Sikandar was surprised, though vexed, that the Hindu prophet should have predicted the truth, and declared, if they had placed the plate against the wall, he would have preserved the temple to belie the prophet. Having broken all the images in Kashmir, he acquired the title of the Iconoclast, 'Destroyer of Idols'."

"He [Sikander] prohibited all types of frugal games. Nobody dared commit acts which were prohibited by the Sharia. The Sultãn was constantly busy in annihilating Hindus and destroyed most of the temples. He strived to destroy the idols of the infidels. He demolished the famous temple of Mahãdeva at Bahrãre. The temple was dug out from its foundations and the hole (that remained) reached the water level. Another temple at Jagdar was also demolished. Rãjã Alamãdat had got a big temple constructed at Sinpur. (...) The temple was destroyed [by Sikander]. Sikander burnt all books the same wise as fire burns hay. All the scintillating works faced destruction in the same manner that lotus flowers face with the onset of frosty winter."