KASHMIR. 283 



the reasoning and conclusions of a few "\Vestern 

 scientific men and critical historians who have formed 

 a school within the last century 1 ? The probability 

 would be that they, too, have fallen into delusion, 

 and are blindly leading the blind. It is more ra- 

 tional to believe that the gods of ancient Greece and 

 India really existed, as at the time they were univer- 

 sally 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 fcmnd the wonderful ruin of the 

 great temple of Martand. 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 wonder- 

 ful 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 sur- 

 rounded 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 



