of Punjab in the south is called Dugar, the

The hilly tracts extending to the plains of Punjab in the south is called Dugar, the home of the Dogras, divided into Hindus and Muslims. They speak Dogri, a mixture of Sanskrit, Punjabi and Persian. The Gujjars, rearing cattle and sheep, migrated from Rajasthan and adopted Islam. Their language is a form ofRajasthani. The Bombas and Khakhas, who were once a source of terror until Maharaja Gulab Singh subdued them, are the inhabitants of the Ihelum Valley. Kashmir has been a stronghold of Buddhism for many centuries. 50 Before conversion to Islam, the Dards, Ii ving in the barren land to the north of the Valley called Dardistan, were followers of Buddhism. Even today traces of Buddhist influences may be found in some of their rituals. Although the preponderant majority of the Baltis inhabiting Baltistan, situated between Dardistan and Ladakh, profess the Shi' a sect of Islam, there are still some villages practising Buddhism. Further to the east is Ladakh, the land of the religious followers of the Dalai Lama of Lhasa. The gompas or monasteries, which own much of the cultivable land, are temporal as well as religious institutions,5l

Kashmir very early came to be affiliated to the cultural world of Sanskritic India. The Kashmiri language as well as Sanskrit were formerly written in the Sarada (Sharada) character, an Indian writing now surviving in the Gurumukhi of Punjab. 52 The Kashmiri language, previously treated as the language of the Brahmins, and therefore, as having grown out of Sanskrit, is now placed in the Dardic branch of the non-Sanskritic languages. ArabiclPersian script has been adapted for its use. Kashmiri, one of the recognized national languages of the Indian Union, appears to be in its bases a Dardic-Aryan dialect, profoundly influenced by Sanskrit.