Well, mzybe not so cool: Sanskrit script?

[Allen W Thrasher]

"<Does anyone know if the habit of spending the winter in the plains or in Jammu was already established before the Dogra Raj?  >
In earlier times leaving the valley meant excommunication. A ceremony was held in honour of the 'departed'. A trip outside was not a normal thing. Those who made did not return. At present there is no trace of the practice and knowledgeable Pandits, those who live outside and those in Kashmir, never think of the return of those old days and custoims.
DB"

Thanks for this extraordinary fact.  I don't recall hearing of the brahmins of any other part of the subcontinent regarding migration as a cause for excommunication.

My Pandit friends (baby boomers) had ancestors in the Maharaja's administration.  They told me that when one was posted to the western parts of the kingdom, which are now in Azad Kashmir, their families would say goodbye to them as to someone going off to their death. But they said nothing about punishment, just about danger.

Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
Senior Reference Librarian
Team Coordinator
South Asia Team, Asian Division
Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
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