Origin of Saffron
According to other historical evidences saffron was brought to India by the Persian rulers around 500 BC. The Persian rulers transplanted the Persian saffron crocus corms to the Kashmiri soils, once they conquered Kashmir. According to ancient Chinese historical account an Arhant Indian Buddhist missionary named Madhyantika (or Majjhantika) sowed Kashmir`s first saffron crop when he was sent to Kashmir in the 5th century BC. Saffron cultivation and its uses are believed to spread through the Indian subcontinent from Kashmir. The huge popularity of saffron during that time made it the official colour for Buddhist robes and mantles, immediately after the death of Lord Buddha.
The Phoenicians began cultivation of saffron in India during the 6th century BC and also started marketing the Kashmiri saffron by utilising their extensive trade routes. Saffron is used regularly for anointing Gomateshwara, as part of the Mahamastakabhisheka festival, since 978-993 AD. However, according to the traditional Kashmiri legends, saffron was brought to the region by two Sufi ascetics, Khwaja Masood Wali and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin, during the 11th and 12th centuries AD. A golden-domed shrine and tomb dedicated to those Sufis can be found in the saffron-trading village of Pampore, India, till today. However, famous Kashmir poet and scholar Mohammed Yusuf Teng differed with this history of saffron and stated that the plant had been cultivated in Kashmir for more than two millennia. The Kashmiri Tantric Hindu epics of that time mention about saffron cultivation as well.