KASHMIR VALLEYS 71 



with loving care, and the workmanship is very perfect, 

 so that there can have been no idea of saving of labour. 

 Possibly the havoc wrought by the great natural forces 

 by earthquake, floods, and fierce storms filled with 

 fear the pious builders, and, lovingly careful of their 

 handiwork, they preferred a form better fitted by reason 

 of its compact solidity to withstand such dangers, to 

 one more imposing in size but less likely to endure. 

 The fear of invasion by folks of other creeds may also 

 have encouraged the building of less noticeable fanes. 

 Certainly the smaller ones have escaped to a large degree 

 the destruction wrought by iconoclastic rulers on the 

 greater structures. The tiny temple models, sometimes 

 found on pillars, are generally supposed to be funeral 

 monuments. 



Buddhism has left very few traces in the land. A 

 rare stone with an image possibly a Buddha is dis- 

 covered from time to time; otherwise the influence of 

 those gentle teachers seems to have been swept entirely 

 away. Far more living is the belief in the " Naga " 

 (snake-worship). Half their religious rites are con- 

 nected with this superstition, and few of the temples are 

 built without either a moat round or a tank in front in 

 honour of this god. It is, perhaps, in recognition of the 

 faithful devotion offered that he keeps his myrmidons 

 from worrying the inhabitants too much, poisonous, 

 or certainly fatal bites, being small in number. The 

 temple of Pandrethan has one of the largest moats 

 I saw. This is a very perfect specimen of the later 

 Kashmir style; ornament had begun to run riot, and 

 the duplication of the parts betokens the change that 

 was coming over the builders' art. Cunningham assigns 

 as late a date as 930 A.D. to it, believing it to have been 



