Kashmir - The Name
What are the origins of the name Kashmir? Where did it come from and how did it embed itself in the vocabulary of Kashmiris?
How Kashmir Got Its Name
The Chinese traveler and famous Buddhist scholar Huien tsang called it , “Kia-shi-milo” while other Chinese accounts refer to it as, “ki-pin” and ache-pin.”
Thomas Walter named the valley Ki-(Ka) - Pin, because he gives another dimension to the etymology of word Kashmir, as he relates a Chinese version of extraction of water from the valley after lulling of demon/dragon by a Bodhisattva at the end of which people were afraid to enter the valley and asked each other ‘Ki-pin’ meaning ‘who will enter’ in Chinese language, thus the name given was Ki-pin.
Greeks who are supposed to have largely influenced art and architecture of Kashmirian style have called Kashmir as, “Kashyaptreras”. Dr. Stein indicates that Herodotus and Alexander called Kashmir as, “Caspapyrus”.
Over the years Kashmiris have further shortened “Kashmir” to Kashir (Ka-sheer) in their own native tongue.
References: mohini qasba raina, and pnk bamzai - vol 1
The most common tale is that Kashmir or Kasmira is called so because of Sage Kashyap— Kashyap-pur, Kash-yap-mar — a country built by Kashyap, and with time it got the name of Kasmira/Kashmir or Kasheer in the native tongue. However, this is not the only explanation.
Other etymologies include: Kasmira as “ka- water, shmir- to desiccate, Kasmira-land desiccated from water (draining out of water). Or “Ka-water, samara–wind, (Kasmira land from which water has been drained off by wind). Generally in Hindu texts such as Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata etc it is referred to as Kasmira. There are other names for the valley given by foreign travellers, however.