Sopore

History

Sopore was earlier known as "Suyyapura" in Antiquity. Suyyapura, founded by a reputed Kashmiri engineer Suyya during the reign of Raja Awantivarma (855-883 A.D.) and commemorating his name, is undoubtedly the town known now as Sopore. J.P. Ferguson, in his book entitled 'Kashmir', remarks, "Suyya stands out as a person hundreds of years in advance of his time". It is because of the technical intelligence and real skill he possessed and applied for draining off the flood water, which could find no outlet and had made the cultivation of land impossible, with the result that famine-like conditions prevailed in the whole of the valley. That is why, in the light of the results achieved by this great engineer, he has been regarded as an incarnation of the Lord of Food himself by the great historian Kalhana in his book 'Rajatarangini'. Suyya's reputation attracted many persons who also settled at the place he resided, and which eventually came to be known as Suyyapura, meaning the place where Suyya settled. With the passage of time and constant use, the pronunciation of the name was distorted into Sopore, by which it is known at present. M.A. Stein, the English translator of Kalhanas 'Rajatarangini' in his book 'Memoir on maps illustrating the Ancient Geography of Kashmir' published in 1899, (p. 208) while writing about Sopore town, remarks: Sopore, which lies a short distance below the point where the Vitasta leaves the Wular, has retained its importance to this day and is still a town of over 8,000 inhabitants. It has, during recent times, been the official headquarters for the whole of Kamraj. From a passage of Srivara, it appears that this had been the case already at an earlier period. Relating a great conflagration which destroyed Suyyapura in Zain-ul-Abidin's…