Srinagar, Nov. 5 -- Picture an evening in the last days of October. The chinars of Srinagar have turned crimson and gold, there is a faint chill in the air, and the Vitasta, the river the world knows as the Jhelum, moves slowly through the city. Then, one by one, clay lamps begin to glow along both banks, on the arches of the bridges and on the rooftops. Their reflections tremble in the water, as though the river itself had put on light. Through this glow a decorated royal barge glides forward, carrying the Emperor of Hindustan, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar.

This scene belongs to Akbar's visit to Kashmir in 1592, usually counted as his second journey to the Valley. It is more than a story of royal spectacle. It is a way into a larger questi...