Kashmiri kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of Kashmiri cultural anthropology. Hindu Kashmiris and Muslim Kashmiris living in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India and other parts of the country and the world are from the same ethnic stock.
Kashmiri Hindus are Saraswat Brahmins and are known by the exonym Pandit.[1] Kashmiri Muslims are descended from Kashmiri Hindus who converted to Islam and are also known as 'Sheikhs'. Kashmiri Pandits are the precursors[2] of Kashmiri Muslims who now form a majority population in the valley of Kashmir.[3][4] Both the Kashmiri Hindus and Muslim society reckons descent patrilineally. Certain property and titles may be inherited through the male line, but certain inheritances may accrue through the female line.
Kashmiri Hindus are all Saraswat brahmins, known by the exonym Pandit (the endonym being Batta), a term first reserved for emigrant Kashmiri brahmins in Mughal service. Their surnames (kram) designate their original professions or their ancestors' nicknames (e.g., Hakim, Kaul, Dhar, Raina, Teng).
The Kashmiri Pandits are the precursors of Kashmiri Muslims who now form a majority in the valley of Kashmir...Whereas Kashmiri Pandits are of the same ethnic stock as the Kashmiri Muslims, both sharing their habitat, language, dress, food and other habits, Kashmiri Pandits form a constituent part of the Hindu society of India on the religious plane.
Thus the two population groups, Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims though at the time constituted ethnically homogenous population, came to differ from each other in faith and customs.
The Sheikhs are considered to be the descendants of Hindus and the pure Kashmiri Muslims, professing Sunni faith, the major part of the population of Srinagar district and the Kashmir state.
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