CHAPTER XLIV.

HYDASPES: FONS ET ORIGO.

KASHMIR FORMERLY A LAKE -THE MONSTER YALDEO THE SAINT KASHAF HINDÚ ARGUMENT FOR POLYTHEISM-RUINS OF MÁRTAND THEIR ANTIQUITY-SKETCH OF KASHMIR EARLY HISTORY ACHIBAL AND VERNAG THE SCHOOLBOY'S

SERPENTS

HYDASPES.

ON the sides of the bridle-path from these caves to the table-land above, successive lake-beaches were distinctly visible. Geology leaves no doubt as to the truth of the old tradition that the great valley of Kashmir was once a magnificent lake, which has now subsided, leaving only remnants of itself here and there. The name of this ancient lake was Sahtísar, and the mountains surrounding it are thickly peopled. The tradition goes on to say that the lake became the abode of a terrible monster called Yaldeo, who, after devouring all the fish there were in the great water, proceeded to appease his hunger by devouring the inhabitants of the surrounding hills, who, in consequence, had to fly into the higher mountains above. At this stage the traditional Rishi, or holy man, makes his appearance on the field: his name was Kashaf, and his great sanctity had given him the power of working miracles. This holy man

proceeded to the north-west end of the lake, where the Jhelam now issues from the valley at Baramúla, struck the ground with his trident, and the opening earth caused the waters of the lake to disappear, which soon brought about the death of the monster Yaldeo. Hence the name Kashmír, which is made out to be a contraction of Kashafmar, the place or country of Kashaf, the Rishi, who may thus be said to have made it.

As to the truth or probability of the above story about Kashaf, I need say nothing. The Hindú may turn round upon us and argue: "You say the age of miracles is over, and you can show no modern ones in support of your religion more probable or less puerile in appearance than those which the masses of this country believe that our devotees still accomplish. As the age of miracles is past for you, so, unhappily, is for us the age for the incarnation and appearance on earth of our gods, otherwise you would not be here. This we have long been taught, and see abundant reason to believe, is the Kala Yogi, or Black Age, when the gods have retired from the earth; but that does not prove they have never been here before. We find that even the rationalistic Socrates did not deny the actual existence of the gods of Greece; and that, in an age of culture and criticism, the historian Plutarch thoroughly believed in them. Is the universal belief of whole nations and of hundreds of millions of people for tens of centuries to go for nothing in elucidation and proof of the past history of the human race? If so, what importance, what value, can we attach to the reasoning and conclusions of a few Western scientific men and critical historians who have formed a school within the last century? The probability would be that they,

too, have fallen into delusion, and are blindly leading the blind. It is more rational to believe that the gods of ancient Greece and India really existed, as at the time they were universally believed to exist, and that they have now, alas! passed away from this portion of the universe, or have ceased to display themselves to the degraded human race.”

Some way up on the table-land, in a now lonely and desolate position, which commands the great valley of Kashmir, I found the wonderful ruin of the great temple of Mártand. Vigne was quite justified in saying that, "as an isolated ruin, this deserves, on account of its solitary and massive grandeur, to be ranked, not only as the first ruin of the kind in Kashmir, but as one of the noblest amongst the architectural relics of antiquity that are to be seen in any country." According to tradition, a large city once stood round it—and there are indications that such may have been the case; but now this wonderful ruin stands alone in solitary unrelieved glory. It is strange, in this secluded Eastern country, where the works of man are generally so mean, and surrounded by these lofty snowy mountains, to come upon a ruin which, though so different in character, might yet vie with the finest remains of Greek and Roman architecture, in its noble dimensions, in its striking and beautiful form, in the gigantic stones of which it is composed, in its imposing position, and by the manner in which gloom and grandeur are softened by its exquisite pillars, and its delicate though now half-defaced ornamentation.

This temple is situated within an oblong colonnade, composed of fluted pillars and decaying trefoil arches and walls. It rises above these in such perfect majesty

that one can hardly believe its present height is only about forty feet. Its majestic outlines are combined with rich and elaborate details; but a description of these, or even of its outlines, would give no idea of its grand general effect, while desolation and silence are around. Moreover, as Captain Bates remarks, "It overlooks the finest view in Kashmír, and perhaps in the known world. Beneath it lies the paradise of the East, with its sacred streams and glens, its brown orchards and green fields, surrounded on all sides by vast snowy mountains, whose lofty peaks seem to smile upon the beautiful valley below."

Baron Hügel asserts of this ancient ruin, which he calls by its name of Korau Pandau, or, more usually, Pandu-Koru, that it "owes its existence and name to the most ancient dynasty of Kashmír. The great antiquity of the ruin will be acknowledged, therefore, when I remind the reader that the Pandú dynasty ended 2500 years before Christ, after governing Kashmír, according to their historians, nearly 1300 years." That would give an antiquity of nearly 5000 years to this temple later archæologists, however, are more moderate in their demands upon our belief, and set it down as erected between A.D. 370 and 500; but the reasons for this are by no means conclusive. When one knows nothing about the history of an ancient temple, it is always safe to call it a temple of the sun; but in this case there is some support for the supposition in the Sanscrit meaning of the word Mártand. That, however, does not throw any light upon its age; and we may as well ascribe it to the Pandú dynasty as to any other period of ancient history. Kashmír may have been the mountain-retreat where Pandú himself

died before his five sons began to enact the scenes of the Mahabharata; but modern Indian archæologists have got into a way of constructing serious history out of very slight and dubious references. This is not to be wondered at, because the first synthetical inquiries, as conducted by Lassen in particular, yielded such magnificent historical results that later antiquaries have been under a natural temptation to raise startling edifices out of much more slender and dubious material. Hügel's date is quite as good as that of A.D. 370; and where all is pretty much speculation, we are not called upon to decide.

But sufficient is dimly seen in the mists of antiquity to reveal something of the past, as we stand by this ancient temple and gaze over the Valley of Roses. A temple such as Mártand, and the city which once stood in its neighbourhood, would not, in all probability, have found a place on this plateau, except at a period when the valley was a great lake. Hence we may presume that this temple and city of the Pandús belonged to a very ancient period when the inhabitants of Kashmir were located on the slopes of the mountains round a great beautiful lake, more picturesquely surrounded than any sheet of water now existing upon the earth. The people were Indo-Aryans, retaining much of the simplicity and rich powerful naturalness of the Vedic period, but civilised in a very high degree, and able to erect splendid temples to the Sun-god. Associated with the Aryan religion they indulged in the serpent-worship which they had adopted from more primitive races, and perhaps from the rude Turanians of the neighbouring abodes of snow. In these ancient times the people and