Presentation short abstract

The springs of Kashmir (known locally as chashmas or nags) are not ordinary; they are special and sacred, spread throughout the region, and not a single one is without an interesting story. The stories surrounding their sacrality reveal different dimensions of state power.

Presentation long abstract

The springs of Kashmir are not ordinary springs; they are special and have long been considered sacred (muqaddas) in Kashmir, transcending religious affiliation. Their significance emerges from ancient Sanskrit traditions that link them to deities, Persianate histories (tārīkhs), and Sufi hagiographies (tazkiras) that imbue them with the barakah of saints. In the Mughal period, they were aestheticised within an architecture of power. Today, oral traditions continue to reveal how local communities relate to these waters as more than hydrological resources; they are storied landscapes through which spatial identity and political belonging are articulated. This talk brings Sanskrit and Persian textual traditions into conversation with contemporary oral ethnography to explore how ideas about the sacred nature of these water sources have been transmitted, reconfigured, and contested. In doing so, it highlights the epistemic gap between scientific studies of water quality and the historic, lived, and ecological meanings that such springs carry. Framing these waters as sites of contested knowledge production, the article asks how local narratives of sacrality complicate the state’s developmental projects and the framing of Kashmir’s ecology within an Indic national imaginary. By foregrounding local and historical perspectives, it contributes to debates on ecological justice by demonstrating how communities articulate alternative ways of knowing, belonging, and relating to these waters through narrative and ritual performance that resist statist framings. The article argues for a transdisciplinary approach that considers the interconnectedness of environment, history, and science in shaping just and sustainable futures