Let’s start at the very beginning- where exactly is the Pir Panjal mountain range located?
To make the location a bit more specific, here’s another:
Right. So much for geography and maps. Although I find maps very interesting, here’s a better view of the Pir Panjal mountain range, as seen from the window of the flight that we took from Delhi to Srinagar.
Photo credits to the very obliging and helpful youngster who was seated at the window. First he offered to change places with me- when he saw me peer across and over his shoulders to get a better view. Since that was impossible- given the limitations of the cramped seating space we were in, I just handed him my phone and told him to click away.
This was my first glimpse of the mountains and from there on it just got better and better. When we got off at Srinagar, when we drove to Pahalgam, when we drove around the winding roads of Pahalgam, when we were at the resort- all I could do was drink in the sight of these spectacularly beautiful mountains that surrounded us. I saw their snow-capped peaks, their rocky, barren slopes at one place or covered with lush green forests of pine, willow and deodar at another, I gazed in awe at them all golden-hued with the light of the rising sun and then again dark and forbidding at night, under a sky that glittered with stars. They mesmerized me at every turn.
Before I proceed with more pictures- this time from my camera; some geographical trivia:
- It is the longest sub-range of the lower Himalayas, about 300 kms and stretches from Jammu & Kashmir to Himachal Pradesh.
- ‘Pir’ means ‘saint’ and ‘panjal’ means valley. This mountain range has both spiritual and geographical significance.
- It is home to several ancient routes of pilgrimage and several holy shrines and temples are located here.
- It is also home to some important rivers of Northern India- the Beas, Ravi and Chenab among them are well-known.
- The Kolahoi glacier which is the source of the Lidder river that flows through Pahalgam is also located in the Pir Panjal.
Photo Dump Alert!!
My favourite view of the mountains was at sunrise. As the sun rose from behind the mountains to the east of the valley, its light fell on the slopes of the mountains across. The peaks were the first to light up and as the sun rose higher and higher, the mountain slopes were bathed in a marvellous display of light and shadow. Soon the shadows dissipated and the sun came out in all its glory as the valley of shepherds or Pahalgam welcomed another day.
Gd bless the inventor of the zoom lens!
DISCLAIMER: I began writing this post on 22nd April 2025. We had returned from our trip to the valley the previous day, my mind was full of images and impressions and I wanted to put them down before they became less vivid. Towards evening the news began coming in- of a terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam. It was unnerving because we had been right there just a couple of days back. More and more details emerged- the number of casualties, the people who had lost their lives in this brutal, senseless attack… it filled me with sorrow, despair, relief and guilt. Sorrow over the number of needless deaths, the trauma suffered by the hapless tourists, despair that violence had returned to this beautiful valley, relief that I was safe and overwhelming guilt because so many others weren’t. More sorrow for the locals who would be the worst affected as they would lose their only means of livelihood.
This is a complex situation that has been going on for several decades. I am not going to offer my views, indulge in whataboutery or take sides. These mountains have stood there for millenia- 2.5 million years or thereabouts. Although they are young in geological terms, they are still evolving and growing. It is unfortunate that their breathtaking splendour is marred by the ugliness of hatred and violence.
We can only pray that wisdom, compassion and empathy will save this region because truly “Gar firdaus, bar ruhe zamin ast,
hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin asto.”
And if not, we will be left with a paradise lost.
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