The region of northern India now occupied by Jammu and Kashmir has been inhabited for thousands of years. Rock carvings found in Ladakh indicate that nomadic tribes (tribes that wandered about from place to place) were present in the area over a very long period.

Such tribes included the Mons of northern India, who introduced Buddhism to Ladakh and established settlements in the valleys, and the Dards of Dardistan, now in Pakistan, who introduced irrigation. Other tribes included the Mongols and Champa shepherds of Tibet. Kashmir and Ladakh lay on a branch of the great silk road that ran from China to the Mediterranean at the time of the Roman Empire.

The Vale of Kashmir formed a part of several Indian empires, including that of Asoka in the 200's B.C. An independent kingdom of Kashmir arose in the A.D. 600's. It was founded by Durlabhavardhana, the first king of the Karkota dynasty, a royal family of local origin.
The Karkota kings raised the political status of Kashmir and extended its territorial control. In 855, the Utpala dynasty replaced the rule of the Karkotas. The Utpala kings undertook large-scale irrigation works in the Vale of Kashmir, enabling them to take large areas of land into cultivation.

During the 900's, several small kingdoms and hill states emerged in the foothills of the Himalaya. Among them was Durgara, the future Jammu. By the end of the 900's, the Thi dynasty ruled Ladakh. This dynasty founded a capital at Shey and built many forts throughout their domain.

Tibetan Buddhism became established in Ladakh during the 900's. More than 100 gompas (Buddhist monasteries) were built in the region.
From the 900's to the 1300's, the rule of the Utpala dynasty in the Vale of Kashmir was dominated by the rivalry of two military factions, the Tantrins and the Ekangas. Feudal landowners called damaras finally put an end to the power struggle.
Two Utpala queens conducted the affairs of state with distinction - Queen Sugandhra and Queen Didda. The period was also famous for a history of Kashmir entitled Rajatarangini, which was composed in the 1100's by a writer named Kalhana. It is hailed as the first major historical text of ancient India.

Arab invaders had first been drawn to Kashmir in the 700's and had afterward made repeated unsuccessful invasions. However, in the 1200's and 1300's, Afghan and Turkic people whose religion was Islam moved into the Vale of Kashmir. In 1339, one of their leaders, Shah Mirza, finally seized the throne and ruled Kashmir under the name Shams-ud-Din.
His dynasty, which retained power until the 1500's, spread Islam throughout the region. One monarch, however, Sultan Zain-ud-Abidin (1420-1470), sought good relations with the Hindus and fostered education, scholarship, and the arts.