KASHMIR VALLEYS 67 



If questions are asked, the inevitable answer is, 

 " Built by the Pandus " ; if one presses for more details, 

 the only reward is a shrug of the shoulders, and " they 

 or others ; we are ignorant people, and the Huzur knows 

 best; Sahibs come long way to see this, and always 

 give poor man much backsheesh." Owing to the 

 constant state of anarchy and the depredations of 

 greedy conquerors, no traditions of real value exist in 

 the present day, and the " great men," the men of 

 authority who write books, are only to be believed until, 

 as inevitably occurs, an exponent of newer theories 

 arises. The best plan is to see everything one can, for 

 these old builders were so skilful they could not place 

 one stone upon another without a graceful touch or 

 delicate piece of pleasant fancy, and then make one's 

 own theory about them, regardless of what others have 

 written or may write. By this system much poring over 

 dull descriptions and " dry-as-dust " discussions will 

 be avoided, the memory relieved of a great strain in 

 balancing contradictory statements, and the shock 

 spared of discovering that two of the greatest authorities 

 are capable of differing to the extent of three hundred 

 years in their respective dating of buildings. As for 

 style, the Kashmirian architects of old time may have 

 been under influences that seem to us strangely remote 

 to have had power, but the whole matter is much 

 disputed, and nothing can be stated with certainty. 

 That no one may be disappointed of the pleasures of 

 argument, I give for what they are worth in my 

 description of the various holy places some of the 

 different theories that have been propounded. Avanti- 

 pura, close to the river, was my first halting-place. It 

 has a stray likeness to Martand, but situated 



