KASHMIR VALLEYS 233 



was also at that time a regular system of village 

 administration and a complicated system of bigar 

 (forced labour). It is the written record of this 

 period that we have in the Rajatarangini of 

 Kalhana, a chronicle in Sanskrit verse, the like 

 of which exists for no other part of India. 

 Much of the early part relates events and circumstances 

 of an entirely legendary character ; but from the seventh 

 century to the time A.D. 1148, when the author lived in 

 the reign of King Jayasimha, he may be generally relied 

 on. H. H. Wilson states that for a period long ante- 

 cedent to that chronicled in the Rajatarangini, Kashmir 

 was certainly an organised kingdom bearing the name 

 of Caspapyrus or Abisarius in the time of Herodotus 

 and Alexander, and it is probable that for centuries 

 prior to the time of Greek supremacy the country was 

 governed by princes of the powerful Pandava clan, who, 

 spreading over all north-western India, have left their 

 name more especially to their descendants in the Jhelum 

 Valley. 



Whether the fact of Chinese Tartar influence, often 

 referred to by people and writers, rests on any real 

 foundation is difficult now to determine, but it is certain 

 that Buddhism was at a very early date a great power, 

 though it did not retain long its position, for in the 

 seventh century it was already quite subordinate to the 

 Brahminical teaching. As the peaceful influence 

 of this happy vale in those days exercised as soothing 

 an influence as the present tune, when Hindus and 

 Mahomedans live peacefully together, the Brahmins 

 and Buddhists agreed to differ without conflict or over- 

 heated contention. 



Asoka, who lived soon after the beginning of the 



