Mr. Shri Maharaj Krishen Raina
Date of passing: 2026-04-23
An Ode to Shri Maharaj Krishen Raina (Master Ji)
No words can describe the loss that we as a Kashmiri Pandit community have suffered today with the demise of the biggest stalwarts and proponents of Kashmiri language - Shri Maharaj Krishen Raina Ji, also known to everyone dearly as Master Ji.
A civil engineer by training, Master Ji spent the last three decades of his life dedicated solely to the preservation and spread of Kashmiri language. He founded Project Zaan in Mumbai in the late 90s with the unequivocal intention of preserving and spreading our language and culture to the younger generations. He was also actively the editor of many Kashmiri Pandit periodicals like Milchar, Aalav and Praagaash.
Master Ji understood the value of preserving our literature through digitization. He translated and transliterated many Kashmiri classics like Lal Vaakhs, Shruk, Kashmiri Proverbs, Kashmiri Folk Tales, Kashmiri Riddles, Kashmiri Folk Songs, Hatim's Tales, Kashmiri Talmih, Sarvanand Koul Premi's Koshur Ramayan, Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and 'Rusi Padshah Katha' in Devanagari-Kashmiri script. He was also a very prolific writer and wrote many heartwarming short stories like Naseehath and Khander Saal. Above all, Master Ji was a great teacher of Kashmiri language and ran Kashmiri classes for many years, educating hundreds of students. Master Ji's website mkraina.com has a wealth of Kashmiri language resources that are a treasure cove of kashmiri literature for our future generations.
His life and work will continue to inspire us all. The void he leaves behind is immeasurable, but his legacy lives on in the knowledge he shared and the seeds he planted.
It is now upon us to carry his vision forward and do our part in preserving and nurturing our language and culture.
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
Maharaj Krishen ji was a brilliant man who made enormous contribution for the preservation of Kashmiri culture, literature and the language. It is rarely that we produce jewels like him in the community. Condolences to the family. Om Shanti
Surinder Chowdhury
Fremont, California
Great people never die. We need to keep his legacy alive. 🙏🙏🙏🕉️
Deeply pained Had a long association with him since we were working for the same cause. MK Raina worked very tirelessly for promotion of Kashmiri language post displacement. His demise’s is a great loss to the community may his soul rest in peace om shanti
🙏Om Shanti Om🙏
May God rest the noble soul in eternal peace 🙏
Hazaro’n saal Nargis apni benoori pe roti hai ,
Badi mushkil se hota a Chaman mein deedavar paida.
May God grant moksh to the departed soul of our dear Raina sahib. We Kashmiris have ,in the realm of literature ( language ) , been rendered homeless/destitute again today.
heartfelt condolences to Raina Sahib’s family. Om Shanti.
This is indeed a huge loss for our community. Shri Maharaj Krishen Raina Ji (Master Ji) was a visionary, scholar, and tireless champion of the Kashmiri language. His lifelong dedication to preserving our linguistic and cultural heritage has left an indelible mark on generations to come. May his soul attain moksha and continue to guide us from above. Om Shanti !
*More Than a Friend: Remembering Sh. Maharaj Krishen Raina*
April 23, 2026 morning is a day that will be permanently etched in my memory. This is when I got the bad news that my dear friend, Sh. M.K. Raina is no more. Our community has lost a jewel.
We cannot choose your family, but in the case of a true friendship, I disagree. My bond with Maharaj ji was beyond blood – he was more than a friend to me - he was an elder brother. In our Hindu tradition, such a bond is viewed as a special connection of the soul (atman) across time.
Maharaj ji was an inspiration and a role model to me when it came to community service, and I relied on him more than he probably knew. What I will miss most is his advice. He gave me encouragement at a time when I went through the darkest chapter in my life, and for that I shall be eternally grateful. He taught me how to focus and stay positive while choosing to ignore the negative.
I am sharing the following excerpts about him from my writeup “Kashmir Language Resources on KP Websites “, that I posted on my Facebook account on March 1, 2021.
My last sentence about him says it all:
“I must say this - I have never seen any person work as hard as Raina Sahib. Period.”
Raina Sahib, you will be missed.
Sunil Fotedar
Spring, Texas
April 23, 2026
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Sh. M.K. Raina, a civil engineer by profession, retired from J&K Govt service in 2006. His last assignment was at the Head Works of Upper Sindh Hydel Project, Stage-II, Kangan. Like the rest of the KPs, he first moved to Jammu in 1990 at the height of militancy and later to Mumbai in 1993.
While in Mumbai, he got associated with the Milchar, the community magazine of Kashmiri Pandits' Association, Mumbai in the year 1995 and later became its editor. In 1998-99, Project Zaan was founded by a group of people led by Shri J.N. Kachroo, ex Principal, National High School, Srinagar. Raina sahib was appointed its Convener. Around the year 1996, during his visit to the book shop of J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages at Jammu, he found a huge repository of valuable Kashmiri literature including classics, but available in Nastaliq (Perso-Kashmiri) script only. Since Devanagari script for Kashmiri was not recognized by the State or the Central governments, printing of books in that script was not undertaken by the Academy. Moreover, there was no standardized script for Devanagari-Kashmiri devised till then. Later a team of Kashmiri scholars headed by Dr. Roop K. Bhat worked tirelessly on the project for over two years and devised one.
Since Kashmiri Pandits were not familiar with Urdu or Persian scripts, especially the youngsters, they could not get familiar with the Nastaliq. Consequently, the Kashmiri literature was not accessible to them. After our exodus in 1990, when youngsters were physically away from Kashmir, this bottleneck proved to be challenging. Kashmiri Pandit writers wrote significantly in Devanagari, but Academy would not help financially or otherwise, on the same plea that it was not a recognized script. Therefore, these authors got their books printed in Nastaliq instead to allow Academy (read J&K Govt) to finance the printing cost. As a result, most of the new literature too remained away from the masses. Raina sahib took it upon himself the duty of rewriting some of the precious literature in Devanagari-Kashmiri since the year 2000. He has transliterated more than 5000 pages of Nastaliq into Devanagari-Kashmiri, in addition to the translation of other English documents to Kashmiri/Hindi and his own authored and compiled work. He has recently started producing audio and videos as well.
Thanks to Dr. Brij Moza of Kolkata, I was introduced to Sh. Raina, and we have been friends ever since. He has even hosted me once at his house in Mumbai. I created and maintained two websites for several years - one for Milchar, a KPA Mumbai publication (ikashmir.net/milchar), and the other for Project Zaan for uploading Zaan material separately (ikashmir.net/zaan), for which I was honored by Project Zaan with a trophy.
To this day, Raina sahib continues to do this work for at least 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. He is a person who is well-versed with Kashmiri, Devanagari, Nastaliq, and English. He has created quite an online repository of self-authored books, short stories, lessons in audio and video, and has translated several Kashmir classics from Nastaliq, Hindi and English to standardized Devanagari-Kashmiri. In early 2000s, I created http://www.mkraina.com and uploaded his content on it over several years. Later, I handed over the website to his son Vishal who has been maintaining the site ever since.
I uploaded his book, Basic Reader for Kashmiri Language, that he co-authored with Neelam ji Trakru, to http://koshur.org/reader/index.html and added audio clips to the lessons contained therein.
*I must say this - I have never seen any person work as hard as Raina Sahib. Period.*
I pray for Master ji's peaceful journey. May his soul rest in peace and may we continue to carry forward his legacy 🙏🏻