Can you imagine what Kashmir looked like in the 1930s? Vaihayasi Pande Daniel gives you a glimpse...
Car-free, its alpine countryside of rolling hills, flowered meadows, sheep herds and snowy mountains would have been the only vistas.
Dal Lake, against the backdrop of the Zabarwan mountains, would have had clear water, with not many houseboats moored on its shores.
My grandfather Sheo Sharan Pande loved to travel, flitting between Allahabad, Varanasi, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Gwalior, Bombay...
I stumbled across his Kashmir pictures a few days ago...
Here are his pics along with other pix of Kashmir sourced from the Internet.
Feast your eyes on these glorious landscapes from a long time ago.
The English loved Kashmir's climate, but the maharaja wouldn't let them buy land so the firangs settled for living on boats that evolved into houseboats.
Another version says Akbar was responsible for houseboats when, after seeing lovely Dal Lake, he had a multi-storied extravagant beauty built for his use.
Craft in Kashmir started prospering in the 15th century benefitting from influences from Central Asia and Persia.
This 1867 chromolithograph shows Kashmir's shawlmakers, whose gorgeous cashmere wraps were prized all over the world.
19th century British explorer Sir Francis Younghusband felt Kashmir was like Switzerland, but with much more grandeur.
Younghusband also felt Kashmir had more serenity than other places on earth.