صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Khakhas have until very recent times worthily maintained the reputation which their forefathers enjoyed as marauders and turbulent hill

men.

North of the Vitasta Valley and as far as the Kisanganga we now find the Bombas as the neighbours of the Khakhas to whom they are closely related. It is probable that the Karnav district was held by them already in old times. Kalhana seems to comprise them, viii. 3088, under the designation of Khasa.

The upper Kisanganga Valley above Sardi was in old days already as at present inhabited by Dards (Skr. Darad, Dārada) who are often referred to by Kalhana as the neighbours of Kasmir on the north.1 Their seats extended then too probably much further to the north-west, where they are now found in Citral, Yasin, Gilgit and the intervening regions towards Kaśmir. Megasthenes already knew them in the Upper Indus regions. Kalhana relating events of his own time speaks of Mlecchas further to the north. These might have been Muhammadanized Dards on the Indus, and beyond.2

The regions immediately to the north-east and east of Kaśmir were held by the Bhauṭṭas. We have already seen that these represent the people of Tibetan descent, the modern But, of Drās, Ladākh and the neighbouring mountain districts.3

1 See Rajat. i. 317 note.

2 See note viii. 2762-64.

See above, § 58.

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL TOPOGRAPHY.

SECTION I.-FRONTIERS OF ANCIENT KAŚMIR.

81. Our account of the political topography of ancient Kaśmir may conveniently open with a survey of its frontiers. These agree so closely with the natural boundaries of the Valley that we have already had occasion to trace them when dealing with the mountain ranges enclosing the latter. It will however be useful to supplement our information regarding these frontiers by a brief notice of the territories which lay beyond them and formed the neighbours of the Kaśmir kingdom in Hindu times.

Beginning in the Territories S. E. of Kasmir.

south-east we have first the Valley of KĀṣTHAVĀTA, the present Kaṣṭvār (' Kishtwar' of the maps) on the upper Cinab. It is mentioned by Kalhana as a separate hill state in the time of Kalasa. Its Rājās who were Hindus till Aurangzeb's time, practically retained their independence until the conquest of their territory by Mahārāja Gulāb Singh.

The hill-district of Bhadravah lower down on the Cināb is once named in the Rājatarangiņi as Bhadravakāśa.2 Its Rājās were tributary to Camba in recent centuries. This was probably the case also in earlier times as we do not find a ruler of Bhadrāvakāśa referred to in Kalhana's lists of hill Rājās.

1 See Rajat. vii. 590 note.

2 See Rajat. viii. 501 note.

The Rājās of Cambā, the ancient CAMPA, on the other hand figure often in the Kasmir Chronicle. Their territory has since early times comprised the valleys of the sources of the Ravi between Kangra, the ancient Trigarta, and Kaṣṭhavāṭa. The ancient Rajput family which rules this hill state to the present day, often intermarried with the Lohara dynasty which reigned in Kaśmir.

To the west of Campa and south of Bhadravakāśā lay the chiefship of VALLAPURA, the modern Ballāvar. Its rulers are repeatedly referred to in Kalhana's narrative and retained their independence as petty hillchiefs till the rise of the Jammu family early in this century. ‘Ballāwar' was known also to Albērūni.

Of the political organization of the hill-territories between Vallāpura in the south-east and Rajapuri in the north-west we have no distinct information. The Hindu inhabitants of this tract including Ballavar call themselves now Dogrās and their country Dugar. This name is traditionally derived from Skr. *Dvigarta, but this term is nowhere found in our historical texts and has probably been created for the sake of an etymology in analogy of the ancient Trigarta. The original of the name seems to be Durgara.

3

It is very probable that the region of the lower and middle hills between the limits indicated was already in old times divided into a number of small chiefships. Of these some eleven seem to have existed up to the time of the extension of the Sikh power into the Panjāb Kōhistān. They were all absorbed in the growing state of Jammu which was originally one of them.

Among these small hill-chiefs of limited territory but ancient descent, we have probably to class the Thakkura Dengapāla on the Cinab who gave his daughter to the pretender Bhikṣācara in marriage. Also the Rājā of KÄNDA must probably be located in this hill tract.7 Other Thakkuras in this region are mentioned as levying blackmail on Prince Mallarjuna when on his march to Kasmir from the plains. Immediately at the foot of the Banahal Pass in the territory of VIȘALAȚĂ we find the castle of a 'Khaśa lord,' who gave shelter to Bhikṣācara and at the time

p. 9.

8

1 Compare Rajāt. vii. 218 note, and CUNNINGHAM, Anc. Geogr., p. 141.

2 See Rājat. vii. 220 note, and CUNNINGHAM, Anc. Geogr. p. 135.

3 See DREW, Jummoo, pp. 43 sq.

• Compare the Cambă copperplate, edited by Prof. KIELHORN, Ind. Ant., 1888,

5 See CUNNINGHAM, Anc. Geogr. pp. 133 sqq., where a useful synopsis of the hill-states in the central portion of the Panjab Kōhistān is given.

6 See Rajat. viii. 554 sqq.

7 See note vii. 590.

8 viii. 1989 sqq.

was evidently independent. Temporarily the Khasas of the hills immediately south of the Pir Pantsal Range may have acknowledged the suzerainty of strong Kaśmir rulers. But during the greatest part of the period which is known to us from historical sources, they appear to have held their own and rather to have levied subsidies, i.e., blackmail from the Kasmir rulers.2

Frontier territories

to the south-west

and west.

[ocr errors]

82. Some of the petty hill states here referred to must have been included in the region which by its ancient name was known as DĀRVĀBHISĀRA. I have elsewhere shown that this name, as a geographical term, was applied to the whole tract of the lower and middle hills between the Candrabhāgā and Vitastā.3 The combined names of the Dārvas and Abhisāras are found already in the ethnographical lists of the Mahābhārata and Bṛhatsaṁhitā. A chief of this region figures by the ethnic appellation of Abisares in the accounts of Alexander's Indian campaign.

The most important of the hill-states in this territory was certainly the ancient RAJAPURI represented by the modern district of Rajauri. It comprised the valleys drained by the Tohi of Rajauri and its tributaries. Owing to its position on the most direct route to the Panjab, Rajapuri was necessarily often brought into political relations with. Kaśmir. When Hiuen Tsiang passed through it, the kingdom of Rājapuri' was subject to Kaśmir. From the 10th century onwards we find the chiefs of Rajapuri as practically independent rulers, though the Chronicle tells us of numerous expeditions undertaken into their territory by the later Kasmir kings. The upper valley of the Tohi of Prūnts leading to the Pir Pantsal Pass, was included in Rajapuri territory. Here lay probably the famous strong-hold of Rājagiri known also

to Albērūni.6

Rajapuri took its name from its capital which is repeatedly mentioned by Kalhana and undoubtedly occupied the position of the present town of Rajauri. The ruling family belonged to the Khasa tribe. Its descendants were the Muhammadanized Rajput chiefs who retained this territory down to the present century.

On the north-west Rajapuri was adjoined by the territory of

[blocks in formation]

LOHARA. The chief valley belonging to this hill-state was the present Loh rin which we have already visited when examining the Tōs maidān route. Lohara became important for Kasmir from the end of the 11th century when a branch of its ruling family acquired the Kasmir throne. Subsequently this branch succeeded also to Lohara which thus became united to Kasmir under the same ruler. As the ancestral home and stronghold of the dynasty, the castle of Lohara has played a great part during the last reigns related by Kalhana. The chiefs of Lohara are distinctly named as belonging to the Khasa tribe.

or less

Lohara seems to have included in those times also the town and district of PARŅOTSA corresponding to the present Punch or Prünts (the Kasmiri form), in the lower valley of the Tohi (Tausi). In Hiuen Tsiang's time Parņotsa gave its name to the whole hill-state which was then tributary to Kaśmir. The Muhammadan Rājās of Prunts, closely related to the Khakhas of the Vitasta Valley, remained more independent till the conquest of Mahārāja Gulab Singh. Their territory forms now a separate small principality under a branch of the Jammu family. Parņotsa being on the great route to the western Panjab is often mentioned in the Kaśmir Chronicles. The large percentage of the Kaśmiri element in the population of Prūnts attests the closeness and ancient date of its relations to Kasmir.

The hills to the south-west of Prunts were held till early in this century by petty chiefs, known as the Rājās of Kōṭli. It is possible that the small hill-state of KALINJARA repeatedly referred to by Kalhana and known also to Ferishta, lay in this direction.3

Proceeding to the north-west of Parņotsa we come to the valley of the Vitasta. This, as has already been shown above, was held in old times as an outlying frontier-district of Kasmir as far down as BOLYASAKA, the present Buliasa. Beyond this point it was occupied by Khasas. In Muhammadan times the valley was divided between several petty chiefs of the Khakha and Bomba clans who seem to have acknowledged as their nominal head the Khakha Rājā of Muzaffarabad. The portion of the valley between Muzaffarābād and Buliāsa bore tho old name of DVĀRAVATI from which the modern designation of this tract, Dvārbidī, is derived (see above, § 53).

1 Compare for the history of Lohara and its various localities, Note E, Rājat. iv. 177, reproduced in Ind. Ant., 1897, pp. 225 sqq.

* See for details note iv. 18. Hiuen Tsiang's reference shows that the town of Parnotsa must be older than the time of Lalitādityn to whom Kalhaṇa ascribes its foundation.

3 See note Rājat. vii. 1256.

J. 1. 17

« السابقةمتابعة »