Budshah's Art of Flood Control

Six hundred years ago, Zain-ul-Abidin turned floods into opportunity. Today, his vision is more urgent than ever.

- Irshad Mushtaq

Centuries before engineers drew maps or machines moved earth, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin built a system that kept Kashmir safe from floods.

Today, his wisdom feels more urgent than ever.

The medieval monarch saw the Jhelum for what it was: life and danger flowing in the same vein.

In fifteenth-century Kashmir, the river fed the fields with rich silt and, in the same breath, swept away villages when it raged. To rule here was to live at the mercy of water.

Budshah, as his people called him, believed survival needed more than prayer.

He studied the moods of the river: swelling with snowmelt, creeping into fields, swallowing homes, and sought a way to guide it without breaking its rhythm.

His answer was simple: canals.

They eased the river’s pressure on towns, carried water into fields, and turned catastrophe into opportunity.

With only spades and bare hands, workers dug channels that followed the valley’s natural slope, letting gravity do the work.

The canals bled excess water from the Jhelum’s swollen belly and released it gently into the countryside.