KASHMIR. 285 



Kashmir, according to their historians, nearly 1300 

 years." That would give an. antiquity of nearly 

 5000 years to this temple : later archaeologists, how- 

 ever, 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 Martand. That, however, does not 

 throw any light upon its age ; and we may as well 

 ascribe it to the Pandu dynasty as to any other 

 period of ancient history. Kashmir may have been 

 the mountain-retreat where Pandu himself died before 

 his five sons began to enact the scenes of the Mahab- 

 harata ; but modern Indian archaaologists have got 

 into a way of constructing serious history out of very 

 slight and dubious references. This is not to be won- 

 dered 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 start- 

 ling edifices out of much more slender and dubious 

 material. Hiigel'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 anti- 

 quity to reveal something of the past, as we stand by 



