Kashmir had always been the land of desire. It attracted the rishies, saints and teachers. This is the land of Rishi Abhinavgupt, a learned seer of 11^th Century; it is the land of Kalhana, Bhat Lollata and Lal Ded. It is the land of rich folk culture, literature and rituals. The vast beautiful valley inspired many narratives in the past. It offered a fertile ground for the play of creative minds. However, much of the antiquity is neglected due to the conflicts in the past many decades. The formal study of Kashmir folktales was first done by the British missionaries. The clever English race wanted to seep deep into its roots so as to know the strengths and weaknesses of its colonies. They had come with a long lasting plan and they employed all the strategies to control their subjects through and through. Study of culture, folk life, manuscripts, classics, morality of the natives etc. was also the main area of their concern besides ruling over them. It was a phenomenon that was exercised throughout India. The testimony of it was the regular publication of The Indian Antiquary, Indian Notes and Queries, The Christian College Magazine, The Indian Evangelical Review, Westminster Review, Folk Lore Journal & Indian Fairy Tales etc. It had both positive and negative outcomes. The positive aspect of it was that at least the oral literature was explored, recorded and documented by them because by the later 19^th Century the Indians had started neglecting the documentation of their own history, culture and traditional knowledge. It was due to constant invasion, attacks and mass destruction of temples of knowledge. The rich treasure in all forms remained confined to a few families only. So, at least now we have it in recorded form and the credit goes to the British. The negative aspects of it are that their study and documentation is highly colored with their ideology of white man’s burden. It is biased, prejudiced and highly unfair. The missionaries made a deliberate attempt to project the natives as superstitious, illiterate and uncultured. The present paper in an attempt to study Kashmir folktales as collected by Rev. J. Hinton Knowles, a Missionary to the Kashmir’s through the lens of post-colonial theory.

KEY WORDS: Post-colonial, Rishi, Kahsmiri Folk life, Antiquary, Naag Worship.