Some remains of old buildings are reported to exist at this place; I have not seen it myself.

About five miles due south of Arigōm we find a small lake known as Nil nag, situated in a valley between low spurs descending from the Pir Pantsal Range. It appears to have been formed by an old landslip which blocked a narrow defile in the Valley. This lake does not appear ever to have enjoyed any particular sanctity. But Abu-1-Fazl by some curious misapprehension transfers to it the legends of the famous Nilanaga (at Vērnāg). He adds to them what appears like a garbled version of the story of the city submerged in the Mahapadma or Volur lake.1

Nāgām is adjoined on the north by the Pargana of Yech which extends to the immediate vicinity of Srinagar. Its old name is given as IKṢIKA by Srivara. In the centre of the tract lies an arid alluvial plateau known as Damodar Udar, where an ancient popular tradition surviving to the present day has localized the legend of King Damodara. The story as related by Kalhaṇa, represents the king as having built a town on the Uḍar which latter was called Damodara's Uḍar. after him DAMODARASUDA.3 In order to bring water to it he had a great dam, called GUDDASETU, constructed by supernatural agency. Once hungry Brahmans asked the king for food, just as he was going to bathe. The king refused to comply with their request until he had taken his bath. The Brahmans thereupon cursed him so that he became a snake. Ever since the unfortunate king is seen by people in the form of a snake "rushing about in search of water far and wide on the Damodara-Suda." He is not to be delivered from the curse until he hears the whole Rāmāyaṇa recited to him in a single day, a task which renders his release hopeless.

The modern name Dāmadar Uḍar is the exact equivalent of Kalhana's Damodara-Sūda, the old Skr. term sūda meaning a 'place where the soil is barren.' The local name Guddasetu still lives in that of the small village Gud suth situated at the south foot of the Uḍar. Just at this point the latter shows its greatest relative elevation and falls off towards the valley with a steep bank over one hundred feet high. The wall-like appearance of this bank probably suggested the story of an embankment which was to bring water to the plateau. In view of the configuration of the ground no serious attempt at irrigation by means of an aqueduct could ever have been made in this locality.

1 Compare Ain-i-Akb., ii. p. 363. It is possible that of the two Nilanāgas which the Nilamata, 903, mentions besides the famous spring of that name, one was located in the Nāgām lake.

2 Sriv. iii. 25.

3 Compare for detailed references, Rājat. i. 156 note.

The Uḍar stretches in a north-westerly direction, for about six miles from the village of Vahator, with a breadth varying from two to three miles. It bears only scanty crops of Indian corn in patches. Being entirely devoid of water, it is a dry and barren waste, a haunt of jackals as in the days when King Kṣemagupta hunted over the 'Damodarāraṇya.' 1 The main features of the legend regarding it are well known to popular tradition throughout Kaśmir. The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages also point to a spot on the Uḍar known as Satorās Tēng, as the site of Damodara's palace. A spring called Damodar-Nāg in the village of Lalgām, is believed to have served for the king's ablutions.

To Yech belongs also the small village of Somar bug on the left bank of the Vitasta which according to the note of the old glossator A marks the site of the temple of Viṣṇu SAMARASVĀMIN mentioned by Kalhaṇa. Another old locality in Yech is probably marked by the hamlet of Halathal to which Abu-l-Fazl refers. It is not shown on the Survey map, and I have not been able to ascertain its exact position. Halathal is evidently a derivative of SALASTHALA, the name given by Kalhana to a locality where a fight took place in the time of King Ananta. Abu-l-Fazl mentions Halthal' for its quivering tree. "If the smallest branch of it be shaken, the whole tree becomes tremulous."

SECTION VIII.-SOUTHERN DISTRICTS OF KRAMARAJYA.

120. To the west of Yech and reaching close up to the capital,

Districts of Dunts,
Bīru, Manchahōm.

lies the Pargana now called Dunts (map 'Doonsoo'). Its ancient name is uncertain; possibly it is intended by the name Dravimsati

in the Lokaprakāśa's list of 'Visayas.' In Abu-l-Fazl's table of Pargaņas Dūnts ('Dūnsū ') is already counted with Kamrāz. An old locality in it is Silipōr, a large village situated circ. 74° 45′ long. 34° 1′ lat. (map 'Shalipoor'). We may safely recognize in it the SELYAPURA of the Rājatarangiņi which is referred to as a place on the direct route from the Tōs maidan Pass and the Karkotadranga to Srinagar.

Hukh liter (map' Haklitri ') can safely be identified, in view of the name and the evidence of an old gloss, with SUSKALETRA mentioned in the

1 Compare Rajat. vi. 183.

2 See note v. 25.-The ending -bug is not rare in Kaśmir village names. According to Pandit tradition, it is derived from Skr. bhoga in the sense of 'property granted for the usufruct [of a temple].'

8 See note vii. 159; Ãīn-i-Akb., ii. p. 363.

4 See Rajat. vii. 494 note; viii. 200.

[Extra No. 2, Rājatarangiņi as a place where Stūpas were erected by King Aśoka.1 I have not visited the village myself and am hence unable to say whether there are any remains in the vicinity which could be attributed to Stūpas. Kalhana locates at Suskaletra the fierce battle in which King Jayāpīḍa recovered his kingdom.

West of Dunts and towards the mountains of the Pir Pantsal lies the Pargana of Biru. Its old designation BAHURUPA is derived from the spring of that name which is situated at the present village of Biru, 74° 39′ long. 34° 1' lat., and is already referred to as Nilamata. Abu-l-Fazl knows the village and spring by an intermediate a Tirtha in the form of the name, Bīruwā, and mentions the miraculous power of the spring to heal leprosy. Close to the village of Biru is Sunapāh in which we may, with an old glossator of the Rājatarangiṇī, recognize SUVARNAPĀRSVA, an Agrahara of Lalitaditya.

About four miles to the south-west of Biru we reach Khãg, a considerable place. It is undoubtedly the KHĀGI Or KHĀGIKĀ mentioned by Kalhana as an Agrahara both of King Khagendra and of Gopaditya.

Some miles north of Khag an isolated spur known as Pōşkar projects into the level plain from the slopes of the Pir Pantsal Range. At its eastern foot is the Puşkaranāga, referred to as a Tirtha in the Nilamata and several older Māhātmyas, and still the object of a regular pilgrimage. Of the route which leads down into Biru from the Tōs?maidan Pass, and of KARKOTADRANGA, the watch station on it, we have already spoken above.

6

It is

Biru and Dints are adjoined on the north by the Pargana of Mañch hōm which extends eastwards as far as the Vitastā. probably intended by the name of Mākṣāśrama found in a single passage of Sivara aud in the Lokaprakāśa.7 The village of Ratasun, situated 74° 38′ long. 34° 4′ lat., is probably, as indicated by an old gloss, the

1 Compare Rājat. notes i. 102; iv. 473; Kś. Hukhṛliter is the direct phonetic derivative of the Skr. form.

2 See Nilamata, 948, 1180, 1341 sq. The name Bahurupa is given to the tract by Jonar. (Bo. ed.) 286, 840; Srīv. ii. 19, iii. 159; iv. 620, and ought to have been shown on the map.

3 Ain-i-Akb., ii. p. 363.

4 See Rajat. iv. 673.

5 Compare Rajat. i. 90, 340.

6 See Nilamata, 1021, 1347. There were several other Puskara Tirthas in Kaśmir. One was connected with the Sureśvari pilgrimage and probably situated in Phakh; see Sarvāv. v. 56 sqq.

7 See Sriv. iv. 351.

ARISTOTSADANA of the Rajatarangini. From this form the modern name of the village can be derived without difficulty. A temple is said to have been erected there by a queen of Bālāditya.

On the Vitasta some six miles below Srinagar is the small village of Malur which on the authority of Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha may be identified with MalhāṆAPURA, a foundation of King Jayapiḍa. Zain kōth, situated near marshy ground about two miles south-east of it, preserves the name of Zainu-l-'abidin, its founder, and is mentioned as JAINAKOTTA by Jonarāja.3

121. The Pargaṇa of Paraspōr (map' Paraspoor') which lies next to Mañch hōm, is one of small extent, but contains a site of great historical interest. It

Parihāsapura.

Yet

has received its name from the ancient PARIHASAPURA, which King Lalitāditya had built as his capital. The identity of the name Paraspōr and Parihāsapura is evident on phonetic grounds and was well-known to the authors of the Persian abstracts of the Rājatarangiņi. curiously enough the site of Parihasapura had remained unidentified until I visited the spot in 1892 and traced the ruins of Lalitāditya's great structures as described by Kallana, on the plateau known as the Par spor Uḍar.'

This plateau rises south-east of Shad1pur, between the marshes of Panzinōr on the east and those of Haratrath on the west. Its length is about two miles from north to south, and its greatest breadth not much over a mile. On the north this plateau is separated from the higher ground of Trigam by the Badrihēl Nala which, as I have shown above, represents the old bed of the Vitastā previous to Suyya's regulation. On the other sides it is surrounded by marshes which for a great part of the year are still accessible by boats. Its general elevation is about one hundred feet.

A broad ravine which cuts into the plateau from the south, and in which the village of Divar (map 'Diara') nestles, divides it into two parts. On the south-western portion are the ruins of two large temples, much decayed, but still showing dimensions which considerably exceed those of the great temple of Mārtāṇḍa. On that part of the Uḍar which lies to the north-east and towards the Badrihēl Nala, there is a whole

1 Rajat. iii. 482.

2 Compare Rajat. iv. 484.

8 Jonar. (Bo. ed.), 1248.

4 For a detailed account of the site of Parihāsapura and its identification, compare Note F, Rājat. iv. 194-204. The large scale map added to Note I shows the position of the several ruins in detail.

6 See § 70.

J. 1. 25

series of ruined structures. Among these three great buildings attract attention. As an indication of their size it may be mentioned that the ruined mound which marks the central shrine of the northernmost building has a diameter of nearly 300 feet. Though it consists now only of a confused heap of massive blocks it still rises to a height of over 30 feet from the ground. The enclosing quadrangle which can also be traced, measures about 410 feet square. At some distance from this group of ruins there is another smaller one at the southeastern extremity of the plateau now known as Gurdan.

I must refer for a more detailed account of these ruins and their relative position to the Note on Parihasapura, F, appended to my translation of the Chronicle. Here it will suffice to point out that the four great temples of Visņu Parihāsakeśava, Muktakeśava, Mahāvaraha, Govardhanadhara as well as the Rājavihāra with its colossal image of Buddha, which Kalhana mentions as Lalitaditya's chief structures at Parihasapura, must all be looked for among these ruins. Their extremely decayed condition makes an attempt at detailed identification difficult.

Still less we can hope to trace now the position of the numerous shrines, Lingas, Vihāras, etc., which are mentioned by Kalhana as having been erected at the king's favourite residence by his queens and court. One of the great ruins of the northern group shows features characteristic of a Vihara and may be the Rajavihāra. Some clue is also furnished by the name Gurdan attaching to the isolated ruins above mentioned. Gurdan is the common Kaśmiri form of the name Govardhana, and hence points to these ruins being the remains of the temple called GOVARDHANADHARA,

History of Parihāsa

pura.

The state of utter destruction in which the ruins of Parihāsapura, are now found, is easily accounted for by the history of the site. Parihasapura ceased to be the royal residence already under the son of its founder. The Chronicle distinctly records of King Vajraditya that he withdrew the various foundations which his father Lalitaditya had made there. When a century later King Avantivarman effected his great regulation of the Vitastā, the bed of the river and its junction with the Sindhu was diverted to Shadipur, nearly three miles away from Parihasapura. This change must have still more seriously diminished the importance of the latter. The ruinous condition into which Parihāsapura must have fallen only one and a half centuries after its foundation,

I See Rajat. iv. 207–216.

& Rajat. iv. 395.

8 See above, §§ 70, 71.