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during Hindu times. The Lokaprakāśa, it is true, tells us of the division of Kaśmir into twenty-seven Visayas and enumerates some nineteen of the latter. But several of the names are so corrupt as to be beyond recognition, while others bear a distinctly modern look. In any case it is impossible to fix the date to which this notice may belong or to judge of its authenticity.

Abu-l-Fazl's account is the first which presents us with a systematic statement of Kasmir Parganas. It is of special interest because it shows us how their list could be increased or re-adjusted within certain limits according to fiscal requirements or administrative fancies. The return of Asaf Khan reproduced by Abu-l-Fazl shows thirty-eight Parganas, while the earlier one of Qazi 'Ali contained forty-one. The difference is accounted for by the amalgamation of some and the splittingup of other Parganas. The Pargaņas varied greatly in size, as shown by the striking contrasts in the revenue-assessments. Thus, e.g, Pațan was assessed at circ. 5300 Kharwars, while the revenue from ' Kamrāj' amounted to 446,500 Kharwārs.

The number of Parganas had changed but little during Mughal and Paṭhān times. For the Sikhs on their conquest of the Valley seem to have found thirty-six as the accepted traditional number. But there had been various changes in the names and extent of these Parganas. These changes became still more frequent under the Sikh administration, as is seen by a comparison of the lists given by Moorecroft (1823), Baron Hügel (1835) and Vigne (circ. 1840). They all show a total of thirty-six Parganas but vary among themselves in the names of individual Parganas.

These frequent changes and redistributions of the Parganas continued during Dogra Rule. The most accurate list I am able to refer to for this most recent period, is that given by Major Bates. It shows a total of forty-three Parganas for the year 1865.2 Subsequent reforms introduced Taḥsils after the fashion of British provinces with a view to reducing the number of sub-divisions. The latest list shows eleven Taḥsils.3 In their constitution little regard was paid to the historical divisions of the country. Fortunately, however, Kaśmiris are as con

1 Of the Lokaprakāśa's Visayas Khoyāśrami, Samālā, Laharī, Aulaḍīya, Nīlāśa, Khaḍuviya correspond clearly to the Khuyāśrama, Samālā, Lahara, Holaḍā, Nīlāśva, Khaḍūvi of the Rājatarangiṇī. Ekena, Devasūvi may possibly be corruptions for Evenaka and Devasarasa. Krodhana, Dvāvimsati, Bhṛnga, Phagvā probably represent the modern Parganas of Kruhin, Dunts, Bring, Phakh. Calana, Vitasthā, Satrava, Svanavāri, Nīlā, Hārī, Jalahaḍīya, are quite uncertain.

2 See Gazetteer, p. 2 8qq.

8 Compare the sketch-map attached to MR. LAWRENCE's Valley.

servative in their topographical nomenclature as in many other matters. The old Pargana names are hence still in ordinary use and likely to remain so for some time to come.1

The absence of a complete list of Parganas for an earlier period and the changes in their constitution during more recent times make a systematic exposition of the ancient territorial divisions impracticable. In a separate note I have given a comparative table of the Pargana lists we possess since Akbar's time. There too I have indicated the ancient equivalents of the Pargana names, as far as they can be traced in the Sanskrit Chronicles. We shall have occasion to refer to these names and their history in the course of our detailed survey of ancient localities in the Valley.

Density of population in old Kaśmīr.

87. The large number of administrative sub-divisions which as we have seen goes back to an early date, may be taken as an indication of the dense population then occupying the Valley. We have no means of forming any accurate estimate as to the number of the population which the country contained in Hindu times. But there is every reason to believe that even at a later period it was far larger than at the present day. The existence of a very great number of deserted village sites, in all parts of the country, the remains already alluded to of a far more extended system of irrigation, the number of great temple ruins, and the uniform tradition of the people,-all point to the same conclusion.

The present century has witnessed in Kaśmir a series of appalling famines and epidemics, which wrought terrible havoc in the mass of the rural population particularly. The last famine, 1878-79, alone is supposed to have removed three-fifth of the population from the Valley.8 The political vicissitudes of the first half of the century had a baneful influence on the economical condition of Kasmir and brought about an extensive emigration both among the industrial and agriculturist classes. Notwithstanding all these trials the population which in 1835 was estimated at about 200,000 souls, had risen to 814,000 according to the census of 1891.

These figures indicate great powers of recuperation. Yet it is held by competent judges that the present agricultural population is by no means sufficient even for the land actually under cultivation. It would hence manifestly be hazardous to make any guess as to the numbers

I The Survey of India maps indicates the approximate extent of the Parganas recognized in the fifties.

2 See Supplementary Note BB.

Compare for this and other statistical details Mr. LAWRENCE'S Valley, p. 223 sqq.

which the country might have supported in the most prosperous times of Hindu rule.

The fact of Kasmir having possessed a far greater population in ancient times helps to explain the curious traditional verse which puts the number of villages of Kaśmir at 66,063. The verse is found twice in the Lokaprakāśa and still lives in the oral tradition of the Brahmans throughout the Valley. It has been reproduced from the latter in Paṇḍit Sahibram's Tirthasaṁgraha. That it can claim some antiquity is evident from the allusion made to the number in Jonarāja's Chronicle. Though that figure must have at all times implied a considerable exaggeration, it is nevertheless characteristic of the popular notion on the subject. Even Sharifu-d-din whose information, collected about A.D. 1400, is generally accurate and matter-of-fact, records: "It is popularly believed that in the whole of the province-plains and mountains together are comprised 100,000 villages. The land is thickly inhabited." It is curious that Mirzā Ḥaidar who had ruled Kasmir himself copies this statement without modification or dissent.

SECTION III. THE OLD AND NEW CAPITALS.

88. The ancient divisions of Kramarajya and Maḍavarājya are separated by a line drawn through Srinagar. This fact as well as the great historical interest attaching to Srinagar as the capital of the country make it the convenient starting-point for our survey. The history of Kasmir has always been reflected as it were in that of its capital. The site of the latter has not changed for more than thirteen centuries. It is thus easy to account for the ample historical data which enable us to restore in great part the ancient topography of Srinagar and to trace back the city's history to the time of its foundation. Hinen Tsiang who visited the Kasmir capital about A.D. 631, and

Srinagara in the Hiuen Tsiang's time.

whose record is the earliest we possess, found it already in the position of the present Srinagar. He describes it as situated along the

1 Şaştir grāmasahasrāṇi ṣaṣtir grāmaśatāni ca| ṣaștir grāmās trayo grāmā hyetat Kasmiramanḍalam II; comp. Lokaprakāśa, Ind. Studien, xviii. p. 375.

See Jonar. (Bo. ed.), 153.

8 See Tarikh-i-Rashidi, p. 430. RITTER who reproduces the passage of the Zafarnama from De la Croix's translation, shows the number of villages as 10,000; see Asien, ii. p. 1123. It may be noted in passing that according to the Census of 1891 the number of villages in Kasmir was then reckoned at 2870.

J. 1. 18

east bank of a great river, i.e. the Vitastā, 12 or 13 li long from north to south and 4 or 5 li broad from east to west. About 10 li to the south-east of this, "the new city," the pilgrim notices a Buddhist convent which lay between a high mountain on the north and the site of the old city' on the south.

It is the merit of General Cunningham to have first recognized that the situation here indicated for the new capital of Hiuen Tsiang's time corresponds exactly to that of the modern Srinagar. A glance at the map shows that the position and dimensions ascribed by Hiuen Tsiang to the new city apply closely to that part of Srinagar which occupies the right or eastern riverbank, and which, as we shall see, forms the older portion of the city. The two and a half miles represented by the 12 or 13 li of the Chinse measurement, agree accurately with the length of the city within its ancient limits along the eastern bank of the Vitastā. The estimate of its breadth at somewhat less than one mile (4 or 5 li) is equally correct.

89. The position of 'the old city' is marked by the present village of Pandrethan which derives its name from Purāṇādhiṣṭhāna. the appellation PURANADHIṢTHANA, meaning 'the Old Capital.' It lies to the south-east of Srinagar just as Hiuen Tsiang says, at the south foot of a mountain spur which rises with bold slopes to a height of about 3000 feet above the village. Measured from the nearest point of old Srinagar, the distance to the presumptive site of the monastery between Pändrethan and the steep hill-side is exactly two miles or 10 li.

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The history of the Old Capital' is so closely connected with that of Srinagara that it will be useful to acquaint ourselves first with the data bearing upon it. The name of PURĀṆĀDHIṢTHANA meets us first in Kalhana's account of the reign of King Pravarasena I. (or Sresthasena) who is said to have erected there a shrine known as that of Siva Pravaresvara. At the beginning of the tenth century the minister Meruvardhana built at Purāṇādhiṣṭhāna a Visņu temple called after his own name. This has been rightly identified by General Cunningham with the well-preserved little temple which still stands in the village of Pandrethan and has often been described by European travellers.3

1 Gen. CUNNINGHAM'S identification was first indicated in his paper on the architecture of Kasmir temples, J. A. S. B., 1848, p. 283. For a fuller account, see Anc. Geogr., pp. 93 sqq.

site.

See Rajat. iii. 99 note, where detailed references have been given regarding the

3 See v. 267 note, also for descriptions of the temple.

Even in Kalhana's own time pious foundations are recorded at this

ancient site.

The identity of Pandrethan with the site named in the Chronicle as the Old Capital' is proved by ample evidence. It is indicated in the old gloss on Rājat. v. 267 and is still known to Pandit tradition. Srivara in describing the flight of some troops which had been defeated in Srinagar and were retiring along the Vitasta to the east, speaks of the road from the Samudramaṭha (Sudarmar on the right bank of the river near the second bridge) to Purvādhiṣṭhāna as covered with the corpses of the slain. It is clear that by the latter designation which also means 'the Old Capital,' he refers to our present Pāndrēṭhan. This name itself is the direct phonetic derivative of Purāṇādhiṣṭhāna.2 90. General Cunningham has assumed that the Old Capital' marked by the site of Pandrethan was in Aśoka's Śrīnagarī. reality the ancient SRINAGARI which Kalhaṇa mentions as the capital founded by the great Asoka.3 His assumption. was based on another passage of the Chronicle which mentions the foundation of the shrine of Jyesṭharudra at Srinagari by Jalauka, the son of Aśoka. General Cunningham thought he could recognize this shrine in the extant temple on the top of the Takht-i Sulaiman hill, below which at a distance of about one and a half miles Pandrethan is situated.

I have shown in my note on the passage that no reliance can be placed on the alleged tradition which General Cunningham had adduced Yet at the same time as the sole proof of his location of the shrine. the evidence recorded by me proves that Jyeşṭharudra must have been worshipped either on the hill itself or in its close vicinity. Accordingly. Asoka's Srinagari may safely be looked for in the same neighbourhood. Our present data do not allow us to decide with absolute certainty whether its site was at Pāndrethan or elsewhere. But there are at least sufficient indications to make General Cunningham's view appear very tempting and probable.

1 See Sriv. iv. 290.

2 The Kś. derivative of Skr. Purāṇa is prāni ‘old'; this forms, with assimilation The elision of the initial double consonant, the first part, Pan-, of the modern name. of the second à in the assumed intermediary form * P[u]rân[â]dēṭhan is accounted for by the influence of the stress accent which lies on the second syllable of the modern name. The development of the combination nd into ndr is paralleled by similar cases in other Indo-Aryan Vernaculars; comp. DR. GRIERSON, Phonology of Indo-Aryan Vernaculars, Z.D. M.G., 1. p. 37, § 115. The nazalisation of ẽ may be of recent date, as the old gloss of A, on Rajat. v. 267 shows the name as Pamydrṭhan, i. e. Panidrethan.

8 See Note C, i. 124.

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