Short answers, pulled from the story.
Verinag sits at an elevation of 1,851 metres within the Pir Panjal mountain range approximately 78 kilometres south-east from Srinagar and about 26 kilometers away from Anantnag city. Travelers entering Kashmir by road from Jammu encounter this location as their first tourist spot in the valley near the Banihal pass.
Emperor Jahangir halted at this spring during the 15th year of his reign in 1620 A.D. He ordered the construction of an octagonal tank using sculptured stones brought from Iran while carvers worked on the project to improve the natural marshy pond. Inscriptions on a stone slab built into the southern wall record the date 1029 Hijri.
Water continuously rises from a point approximately 50 feet underwater beneath the town to serve as the main source for the river known locally as Vyeth or Jhelum. The water flows through a 300-yard canal before joining the Bihat River and eventually enters Pakistan-administered Kashmir after flowing throughout the valley.
The garden measures 460 meters by 110 meters along a steep hillside slope where traditional Charbagh design required adaptation because water could only flow downward on this terrain. Engineers reduced double symmetry to a central water axis running south to north with an east-west canal intersecting the main channel at its southern end near the entrance.
Sanskrit texts explain that Virah means to go back and nag means a water spring which led to the name Virahnag or Vernag for the location. Hindu legends state goddess Vitasta wanted to rise from this spring but had to return when Shiva stayed there so she subsequently took her rise from Vithavatur located about a mile to the north-west.
The India census recorded a population of 16,727 people living in Verinag with males constituting 54% of residents while females make up 46% of the total count. Seven wards including Bonagund and Malikpora divide the administrative area and average literacy reaches 66% which exceeds the national average of 59.5%.