What is the origin of Kashmir? How did Kashmir get its name? Kashmir is the Northern part of present Republic of India.
Kashmir, the northern Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent got its name from Kashyapa Rishi. The name Kashmir, states Christopher Snedden, may be a shortened form of “Kashyapa Mir” or the “lake of the sage Kashyapa”, or alternatively derived from “Kashyapa Meru” or the sacred mountains of Kashyapa.
Kashyapa Rishi was based in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, and legends attribute the region of Kashmir to be derived from his name.
Kashyapa was one of the seven ancient sages (rishi) considered as Saptarishis in Rigveda, numerous Sanskrit texts and Indian religious scriptures. He is the most ancient rishi listed in the colophon verse in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, and called a self-made scholar in the Atharvaveda.
In ancient texts of Greece, linked to the expedition of Alexander the Great, this land has been called “Kasperia”, possibly a contraction of “Kasyapamira”. The word “Kaspapyros” appears in Greek geographer Hekataois text, and as “Kaspatyros” in Herodotus who states that Skylax the Karyandian began in Kaspatyros to trace the path of Indus river from the mountains to where it drained in the sea. Kaspatyros may be same as Kaspa-pyrus or Kasyapa-pur (city of Kashyapa) in other texts.