About

The museum can be walked through or read. Walking through it puts you in a hall with a door to each period and to two halls that run across all of them. Reading it gives you the same material as ordinary pages, which is what search engines index and what a shared link opens.

The Kashmir Valley and, where history requires it, the wider region of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Plain, neutral language. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is described, not resolved. Place names follow common English usage, and territory divided since 1947 is described by who administers it.

Every event and every exhibit carries one of three labels. Only two of them are shown on the page, because most of the collection is simply agreed.

Established, shown without a label

Broadly agreed by historians and supported by physical or documentary evidence.

Contested

The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.

Tradition

Known from tradition, legend or a much later chronicle, without independent confirmation. Shown with a visible 'Tradition' marker.

67 of the 85 exhibits have a freely licensed photograph. The other 18 are shown as text placards. Every photograph names its author and its licence and links to where it came from, and the full list is on the image credits page.

If something here is wrong, say what and where and it will be checked against the sources. Corrections about a specific exhibit are easiest to act on from that exhibit's page, which fills in its name for you.