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When The Jhelum Rose: Floods, History and the Lessons for Kashmir

Photo/ Kashmir Images

Every generation in Kashmir believes it has witnessed the greatest flood in the Valley’s history. Yet the Jhelum tells a different story. For centuries it has overflowed its banks, submerged settlements, destroyed harvests, and reshaped human lives. Kings have ruled and disappeared, capitals have flourished and declined, but the river has remained remarkably constant. Floods are not interruptions in Kashmir’s history; they are among its oldest and most enduring chapters.

To understand floods in Kashmir, one must first understand the Valley’s geography. Kashmir is a bowl-shaped basin enclosed by the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalayas. Geological research suggests that it was once occupied by a vast prehistoric lake whose waters gradually drained through the Baramulla gorge. What remained was a fertile intermountain valley nourished by the Jhelum and sustained by lakes, marshes, wetlands, and floodplains. Water created Kashmir’s civilization, but it also made flooding an unavoidable feature of its existence. Kashmir’s history, therefore, has always been shaped as much by its rivers as by its rulers.

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This relationship between society and water was recognized long before modern science. The Nilamata Purana reveres the Vitasta, today’s Jhelum, as the Valley’s lifeline, reflecting an ecological consciousness in which rivers, springs, lakes, and wetlands sustained agriculture and daily life. Kashmir’s earliest historian also recognized nature as an actor in history. In the twelfth century, Kalhana’s Rajatarangini recorded floods, excessive rainfall, and natural calamities alongside accounts of kings and political change. Later historians such as Jonaraja and Srivara, along with Persian chronicles including the Baharistan-i-Shahi and Tarikh-i-Hasan, documented floods that devastated crops, damaged settlements, and disrupted communication. These sources demonstrate that floods were never isolated events in Kashmir; they formed part of its historical rhythm.

These chronicles also reveal how geography shaped governance. Floods affected food supplies,........

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