The history of Kashmir is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions, comprising the areas of Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Historically, Kashmir has been referred to as the Kashmir Valley. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Chinese occupied regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.

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Jammu and Kashmir being integral part of India extends from Jammu in South to Ladakh in North and from Mansarovar in East to Gilgit in West. The rich heritage of J & K, part of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, is an all-embracing confluence of religions, traditions and customs. The highlights of its heritage lie in the treasure of its art, architecture, classical dance, music, flora and fauna, and the innate secular philosophy of its people. Due to its diversity, J & K can be divided basically into three regions Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. But the origin of all the regions has its roots from Central India. Jammu and Kashmir was under Hindu rulers from the start but Leh was predominately under the influence of Buddhism from the start, which was extended there from central India only.

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Due to geographical segregation of these regions there can be different accounts to describe the history of these regions. These regions have seen many ups and downs with respect to the religious and socio-cultural changes based on the rulers they were under. These regions have different account of such changes recorded in the history. However all the regions had come under the single dominion number of times in history, under Lalitaditya in 8th century and under the Sikh & Dogra kingdom in 19th century before independence and under dominion of India after the accession in October 1947 of state of Jammu and Kashmir to India by then Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh.