ANCIENT HINDU TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE OF SOUTH KASMIR FROM 3rd CENTUARY A.D. TO 10thCENTUARY A.D.

Book excerpt: Kashmir is a land of fabled beauty and eternal romance. It is blessed by nature with beauteous scenery, wondrous fertility and salubrious climate. Writers describe it as "One of the finest countries upon which the sun shines" and "The Sub-Alpine region of Asia's Italy" and the "The unsurpassed land for its scenery." Kashmir is verily "the terrestrial Paradise of the indies", a fairy-land, where each curve presents a grand picture, and every horizon a new scene, each leaf a distinct lesson and each flower a new look. The poets have described Kashmir as a garden land of picturesque scenery, lovely landscapes, unrivalled vistas, majestic forests, green pastures, shimmering waters of vast, silent and transparent lakes and rivers, perennial snows, mighty chains of snow-clad mountains, rumbling cataracts and roaring waterfalls.