Destruction of Culture during the reign of Sikandar Butshikan
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Destruction of Traditional Value Systems, Customs & Rituals and Ridicule of Bhakti (Sacred Sentiments)
He forbade the Hindus to apply a tilak mark on their foreheads. He did not permit them to pray and worship, blow a conch shell, or toll a bell. Sikandar even stopped the Hindus and the Buddhists from cremating their dead.
Destruction of Sacred Art, Drama, Music
He banned dance, drama, music, iconography and other aesthetic activities of the Hindus and Buddhists, rejecting them as heretical and un-Islamic.
Destruction of Temple and Heritage
Eventually, he began burning temples and all Kashmiri texts to eliminate Shirk.
“Towards the end of his life, he (Sultan Sikandar) was infused with a zeal for demolishing idol-houses, destroying the temples and idols of the infidels. He destroyed the massive temple at Beejbehara. He had designs to destroy all the temples and put an end to the entire community of infidels,” puts Bharistan-i-Shahi (Baharistan-i-shahi is a chronicle of medieval Kashmir. The Persian manuscript was written by an anonymous author, presumably in 1614).
Records Baharistan-i-Shahi, “Immediately after his (Sufi Mir Mohammad’s) arrival, Sultan Sikandar, peace be on him, submitted to his supremacy and proved his loyalty to him by translating his words into deeds. He eradicated aberrant practices and infidelity. He also put an end to the various forbidden and unlawful practices throughout his kingdom. Thus during the entire period of his rule, all traces of wines and intoxicants and instruments of vice and corruption, like the cord of canticle, lyre, and tambourine were wiped out. The clamor of the drum and the trumpet, the shrill notes of the fife and the clarion no longer reached people’s ears, except in battles and assaults. ”
“Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and were massacred in case they refused to be converted,” writes Hasan, a Muslim chronicler. He further observes, “And Sikandarpura (a city laid out by Sultan Sikandar) was laid out on the debris of the destroyed temples of the Hindus. In the neighborhood of the royal palaces in Sikandarpur, the Sultan destroyed the temples of Maha-Shri built by Praversena and another by Tarapida. The material from these was used for constructing a ‘Jami’ mosque in the middle of the city.”