The Korkoda Empire, a dynastic, primarily Hindu nation that at its apex ruled over a substantial chunk of the northern

portion of the Indian subcontinent, reached that apex, sometime in the late 8th century,

though they held much of their eventual territory from about 625 CE until about 885 CE.

This region was broadly referred to as different permutations

and pronunciations of the word Kashmir, depending on the language being used and the people

doing the pronouncing. Over the next two centuries, more or less the same area was held

by the Utpala dynasty, which was another Hindu kingdom,

and which took their religious practice a little more seriously than those whom they replaced,

building a whole lot of Hindu temples, alongside several notable Buddhist monasteries.

A great deal of philosophical work was created in this region at this time, and some

very notable spiritual, mathematical, and creative innovators were born thereabouts, too. Some of

those innovators stuck around, but some migrated elsewhere, increasing the region's influence

with nations in other parts of the subcontinent. The Shah-Mir dynasty became the first

Muslim family to rule Kashmir in around 1339 CE, and they governed until the mid-16th

century, at which point Islam as a religion was fairly well established in the area, though

it took a while for the, at the time,

predominantly Hindu population, to accept that shift. The Mughal civilization conquered and held

Kashmir for a few years in the late 16th century, using the Sunni-Shiya divisions within the

local Muslim population as a wedge to divide them before taking over.

Though, to be honest, the Mughal Empire was quite experienced with conquest at this point,

so even lacking the divide-and-conquer advantage, they probably would have taken control.

They already held all of modern-day northern India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh,

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