download Books on Kashmir for free

Here is a list of must have books on history of Kashmir. Most of these books are travelogues written by early visitors to Kashmir. These books used to be out of reach of common readers and could only be found in labyrinth of some great library. Or, due to antiquity of these books, were priced out of reach of curious readers. Now, thanks to initiatives by Google , many online libraries and Project Gutenberg, these books in .pdf and .text format are available to all for free.

Here are the links:

Francois Bernier (1625 – 1688), French physician and traveler, visited Kashmir in 1664–65 as part of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s entourage. He is regarded as the first westerner to have described Kashmir.

Travels in the Mogul Empire By François Bernier
Translated by Irving Brock
Published 1826
Format: pdf
Size: 10.5 mb
Link, Google books

Another edition of this wonderful book:

Travels in the Mogul Empire,
edited by Archibald Constable,
(1891)
Format: text and pdf
Link, Columbia University Libraries

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Kashmir is also mentioned travels of Marco polo (1254 – 1324), famous trader and explorer from Venice who was one of the first western travelers to walk the Silk route to China.
His two volume travelogue can be downloaded here

The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1, 3rd edition (1903)
Format: text
Download Link, project Gutenberg

The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2
Format: text
Download Link, project Gutenberg

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George Forster, an English traveler in the service of East India Company, arrived in Kashmir in April 1783.

Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, through the Northern Part of India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian Sea
By George Forster
Published 1808
Volume 2: This one covers his travels in Kashmir
Format: pdf
Size:13.6 mb
Link, Google books

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In 1822, William Moorcroft, a British East India Company veterinarian and his assistant, George Trebeck traveled through Kashmir while attempting to reach Central Asia.

Travels in Ladakh and Kashmir
By William Moorcroft and George Trebeck
Volume 2
Published 1841
Format: pdf
Size: 7.8 mb
Link, Google books

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Victor Jacquemont (1801 – 1832), french botanist visited Kashmir in around 1831.

Letter from India: Describing a Journey in the British Dominion of India
By Victor Jacquemont
Published 1835
format: pdf
size: 8 mb
Link, Google books

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Godfrey Thomas Vigne, an English travelers visited Kashmir in 1835.

Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the Countries Adjoining the Mountain-Course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, north of the Panjab with Map.
By G.T. Vigne
Published 1844
format: pdf
size: 10.9 mb
Link, Google books

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Some more books by travelers:

A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil
By T. R. Swinburne
(1907)
Format: text
Download Link, project Gutenberg

Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet
By William Henry Knight
(1863)
Format: text
Download Link, project Gutenberg

Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir
By Mrs. Percy Brown
(1921)
Format: text
Link, archive.org

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Perhaps the most important book in its field, a book by Reverend J. H. Knowles, The founder of modern missionary schools in Kashmir.

A Dictionary Of Kashmiri Proverbs and Sayings
(1885)
J. H. Knowles
Link, archive.org

The book ( in pdf and text) there is not complete. It list proverbs only up till K.

Updated with a link pointing to the complete book.
For some more proverbs, you can check out the previews of same book at Google books

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Walter Rooper Lawrence visited Kashmir in 1889 as the Land settlement officer and wrote an exceptionally informative book on Kashmir.

Valley of Kashmir
by Walter Rooper Lawrence
[Link, archive.org (may slow down your browser, wait for couple of minutes for the book to load)]

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update 1/2/09

Travels in India and Kashmir.
by The Baron Erich von Schonberg.
1853.
London: Hurst & Blackett
Volume 1, Last few chapters of the book deal with his travel to Kashmir
[Link, archive.org,.txt ]

Volume 2, deals more extensively with his travels in Kashmir  
[Link, archive.org, .txt]

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update 9/2/2009

Kashmir 
Described by Sir Francis Younghusband
Painted by
Major E. Molyneux
1911
London, Adam and Charles Black
[Link, archive.org, .txt]

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Update 17/2/2009

This particular travelogue heavily quotes from the works of earlier visitors to Kashmir, making it quite interesting.

Letters from India and Kashmir

By Duguid, J
written 1870;
Illustrated and annotated 1873.
London: George bell and Sons(1874)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]

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 Update 14/3/2009

Travels in Kashmir And The Panjab,
from German of Baron Charles Hugel with notes by Major T.B. Jervis, F.R.S
By Karl Alexander A. Hügel

Translated by Thomas Best Jervis

Published 1845 (In German published in 1841 )
[Google Link]

Karl Alexander A. Hügel, was a contemporary of G.T. Vigne, and visited Kashmir in around 1835. The two foreign travelers even met each other in Kashmir.

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Update 14/4/2009

These books were meant a a guide for the early travelers to Kashmir

The Happy Valley: Sketches of Kashmir and the Kashmiris
By W. Wakefield (1879)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]

A Guide for Visitors to Kashmir.
By John Collett (1884)
[Link, archive.org, .txt]

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Update: July 31, 2009

“Beyond The Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir” (1912 )
By Ernest  F. Neve.
[Link, archive.org]

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The list here keeps growing as and when I find more. Do leave the link in comment if you know of some more.

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Update: 25/5/2013
For reference to more books on Kashmir:

The definitive index to Kashmir Images through the ages