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gonal cella of which the high basement and the side walls are still wellpreserved. The quadrangular court in which it stands is enclosed by ancient walls and approached by ornamented gateways.

The position of this shrine has suggested to me its possible identity with the ancient temple of Vişņu RAṆASVĀMIN which Kalhana mentions as founded by King Raṇāditya. This temple must have enjoyed considerable celebrity till a comparatively late period. Mankha refers to it as an object of his father's devotion and Jonarāja in his comments on the passage speaks of Visnu Ranasvamin as one of the chief shrines of Pravarapura.2

In his own Chronicle Jonarāja indicates this temple as the furthest point up to which Zainu-l-'abidin carried the canal flowing through Jainanagari. The latter locality corresponds to the Srinagar quarters of Sangin Darwaza and Naushahr, and the canal itself is the one now known as Lacham Kul. It brings the waters of the Sind River via Amburher to the northern suburbs of Srinagar, and after flowing past the Jami' Masjid empties itself into the Mar canal near the bridge called Kadi Kadal. In the corner formed by the two canals stands the ruined temple above described. If it could be shown that the present termination of the Lacham Kul is the same which Jonarāja knew in the middle of the fifteenth century, the identity of those remains with the Raṇasvamin temple might be considered as certain.

97. Crossing the Mar to the south we reach the city quarter

Bhaṭṭārakamaṭha;

Diddāmaṭha.

known as Braḍimar, occupying the right bank of the river between the Fourth and Fifth Bridge. It derives its name from the ancient BHATTARAKAMATHA which is repeatedly referred to in the Rajatarangiņi as a building of considerable size and strength. Bilhana too notices it specially in his descripton of Srinagar. Like other Mathas built originally to serve the purposes of a Sarai, it was used on occasion as a place of defence. Queen Diddā sent her infant son there at the time of a dangerous rising.

1 Rajat. iii. 453 sq. note.

2 See Srikanthacar. iii. 68.

3 See Jonar. 872.

4 Compare Rājat. iii. 453-454 note. The Lacham Kul is mentioned by Abu-l-Fazl, ii. p. 355. It probably took its name (equivalent to *Lakṣmikulyā) from Laksmi, the queen of Shahābū-d-din, in whose honour the quarter of Laksmīnagari was found in the vicinity of the present Sangin Darwaza; see Jonar. 407 sq.

See Rajat. vi. 240 note; viii. 2426; Vikram. xviii. 11. For the derivation of Bradi from Bhaṭṭāraka comp. Brṛrinambal < Bhaṭṭāranaḍvalā, below. That Bhaṭṭārakamatha was the old name of this locality, is known to the tradition of the Pandits; see ВÜHLER, Report, p. 16.

The Chronicle shows us often the Mathas of Srinagar utilized as places of refuge in the times of internal troubles, occasionally also turned into prisons. We may hence conclude that they were substantially built, probably like modern Sarais in the form of detached quadrangles, and thus better adapted for defence than other city-buildings.

That Mathas more than once left their names to the city-quarters in which they stood, is shown by the designation of other wards. Thus the large quarter of Didemar which forms the western end of the city on the right river-bank, retains the name of the DIDDAMATHA. It was built by Queen Didda for the accommodation of travellers from various parts of India. As a local name Diddāmaṭha meets us often in the later Chronicles. Above Didamar we find near the Sixth Bridge the quarter of Balandimar. It represents in all probability the Baladhyamaṭha of the later Chronicles which Jonarāja mentions as having been built by Balaḍhyacandra under King Rājadeva in the 13th century. 4

Skandabhavana;
Nadavana.

A little to the north of the Sixth Bridge lies the Mahalla known by the name of Khandobavan. It has received its appellation from the ancient Vihara of SKANDABHAVANA, a foundation of Skandagupta whom Kalhana mentions among the ministers of Pravarasena II.'s successor Yudhisthira. The site of the Vihāra has been traced by me in the close vicinity of the Ziarat of Pir Muḥammad Basur. Certain ancient remains there were locally known and worshipped till the middle of the present century as a Tirtha sacred to Skanda.

The ground immediately to the north-east of Khandabavan is now an open waste space used partly for Muhammadan graveyards. It seems to have been unoccupied already in old times. For it was chosen as the burning place for the widows of the murdered king Sussala when a rebel force hovering around the capital rendered the usual burning ground on the island of Mākṣikasvamin inaccessible.7

The quarter of Narvor still further to the north is probably identical with the old NADAVANA, mentioned by Kalhaņa as the site of a Vihara built by one of King Meghavahana's queens. I have shown in my note on the passage that the modern name goes back to a form

1 Compare Rajat. vi. 223; viii. 374, 1052, 2309.

2 See Rajat. vi. 300 note.

3 Its old name could not be shown on the map owing to want of room.

4 See Jonar. 82.

6 See iii. 380.

6 Compare Note K, vi. 137, also for the temple of Parvagupteśvara which stood

close by.

7 Rajat. viii. 1441 sq.

*Naḍavata. The termination rata 'garden,' frequent in Kasmir local names, may safely be taken as the equivalent of vana in Kalhana's form of the name.

Bridges of old Śrīnagara.

98. Before we continue our survey further up the river, it will be useful to make a brief reference to the bridges which connect the two river-banks within the city. Srinagar has now seven bridges across Their number has remained unchanged for at least five

the Vitastā.

hundred years.

Already Sharifu-d-din had heard that of the thirty boat-bridges constructed across the great river of Kaśmir, there were seven in the town of Srinagar. The boats were bound together by chains, and through the bridges a way could be opened for the river traffic. Sharifu-d-din's notice is of interest because it shows clearly that down to the end of the Hindu period permanent bridges across the Vitasta where unknown in Kaśmir,

I had been led to the same conclusion by an examination of the Rājatarangiņi passages bearing on the subject.3 Kalhana distinctly says of the two bridges the construction of which he specially records, that they were built with boats. Elsewhere this inference may be drawn from the rapidity with which the bridges are broken at the approach of the enemy or in danger of fire.

The first bridge of this kind is ascribed by Kalhana to Pravarasena II. who built the 'Great Bridge' (Bṛhatsetu) Brhatsetu. in his new capital. "Only since then is such construction of boat-bridges known." This Great Bridge' is subsequently mentioned in connection with a great conflagration which destroyed the city in the time of Sussala (A.D. 1123). This fire arose at the southern end of Srinagar, and Kalhaṇa mentions that the smoke first rising from Mākṣikasvāmin: May sum had scarcely been noticed from the Bṛhatsetu' when the fire was already spreading over the whole city. Kalhana evidently refers to the Great Bridge' as a comparatively distant point from Mākṣikas vāmin, Considering that the river forms an almost straight reach from this locality to the present Fourth Bridge, it appears to me likely that Pravarasena's bridge was somewhere in the vicinity of the latter. The position is in the

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1 Compare Rajat. iii. 11 note.

2 See Tarikh-i-Rashidi, p. 431.

See note iii. 354.

See Rajat. vii. 909, 1539; viii. 1182; Srīv. i. 308, 720; ii. 70, 122.

6 Rājat. iii. 354.

6 Compare Rajat. viii, 1171-72 note.

very heart of the city. It is just here that Zainu-l-'abidin subsequently constructed the first permanent bridge over the Vitastā named after him Zaina Kadal (Jainakadali).1

Another old boat-bridge had been established by Harsa just opposite to his palace. The latter as we shall see was situated on the left bank somewhere near the present Second Bridge (Haba Kadal). The bridge proved fatal to Harṣa's fortunes, because it enabled the rebels to make their final and successful assault on the palace.

There can be little doubt that the first permanent bridge across the Vitastā was of wood and showed the same peculiar cantilever construction which the Kaśmir bridges have preserved to this day. The latter have attracted the attention of all modern travellers and have often been described. But it is curious that none of them can be traced back beyond the time of Zainu-l-'abidin. The explanation may lie in the fact that that stone-architecture in which the engineers of the Hindu period were so proficient, did not permit of the construction of bridges with a sufficient span. For their Muhammadan successors working chiefly in wood it was easier to overcome this difficulty.

Among the most characteristic features of the river-scene as it now presents itself within Srinagar, are the numerous wooden bathing cells moored before all city Ghats. They have been there already in Hindu times. For Kalhana mentions more than once the snanakosthas of the river. From a humorous sketch of city-life which Kalhaṇa draws for us, we can see that they formed, then as now, the favourite meeting-place of the idle and curious.5

Eastern quarters of
Śrīnagara.

99. Resuming our walk up the river-bank we pass the remains of more than one old temple near the present Ziarats of Baḍ Shah (Zainu-l-'ābidin), Shāh Hamadan and elsewhere. But we have no data for their identification. An old site is marked by the present Ghat Sōmayar, below the Second Bridge, which represents the SOMATIRTHA of the Rajatarangiņi.6 The place is still visited as a Tirtha, and some old Lingas are found by the river-side. The quarter in which the Somatirtha lies, is known as Sudarmar. It owes its name to the SAMUDRAMATHA built by Samudra, the queen of Ramadeva, in

1 See Sriv. i. 231 sq., 296.

2 Rajat. vii. 1549.

3 See, e.g., VIGNE, Travels, ii. 23; LAWRENCE, Valley, p. 37.

• Compare Rajat. viii. 706, 1182, 2423. Also Kşemendra, Samay. ii. 38, know the term snanakoṣṭhaka which lives in the present Ks. franṛkuṭh.

6 See Rajat. viii. 706-710.

6 See Rajat. viii. 3360 note.

J. 1. 20

the 13th century. The numerous passages in which the Samudrāmaṭha is mentioned by the later Chronicles, makes this identification quite certain,1

A little higher up, if we can trust local tradition, stood the ancient temple of VARDHAMANESA mentioned already in King Samdhimat's reign. The site so designated by the Purohitas of the adjoining Mahalla is close to the Malayār Ghāt. I have referred already in a previous note to the curious manner in which an ancient Linga supposed to be that of Vardhamaneśa was recovered a few years ago from a neighbouring Mosque and a Māhātmya composed for the newly established shrine.

The confluence of the Tsuṇṭh Kul or Mahāsarit with the Vitastā we have also had occasion to notice. 3 It is the Tirtha now known as MĀRISAṀGAMA. Beyond it lies the great island of Mayssum, the ancient MĀKṢIKASVĀMIN, now chiefly occupied by the houses and camps of European residents and visitors. From the way it is referred to by Kalhaṇa, appears that it was already partly inhabited in old times. Following up the right bank of the Mahasarit above the junction we reach the quarter of Khud bal already identified with the Kṣurikabala of King Pravarasena's story.

it

Here begins the old embankment or Setu, noticed in connection with the latter. To the north of this embankment stretches an extensive marsh fed by canals coming from the Dal and known as Brarinambal. It is the Bhaṭṭāranaḍvala of the Chronicle into which the body of one of Harṣa's ministers was thrown after his execution.6

At the eastern end of the Setu where it joins the rocky foot of the Takht-i Sulaiman hill, there has been for at least a century a gate through which the Tsunth Kul flows out from the lake. It is closed at times of flood when the Vitasta rises higher than the level of the Dal. It is highly probable that this gate is very old and contemporary with the construction of the embankment itself. Beyond it lies the suburb of Drugajan. This is identified in an old gloss of the Rajatarangiņi with DURGAGALIKA, where according to tradition the blind King Yudhiṣṭhira I. was imprisoned after his abdication.7

1 See Jonar. 111; Sriv. iv. 121, 169, 290; Fourth Chron. 504, 618.

3 See above, § 31 note 2.

8 See above, § 65.

4 See Rajat. iv. 88 note.

Compare § 92.

• See Rajat. vii. 1038.

Nambal, from Skr. naḍvală, is the regular Kś. word for

'marsh.' Brāri is a direct phonetic derivative of Skr. bhaṭṭāra 'god.'

1 See Rajat. ii. 4.

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