178 Some Observations on the Temples of '" Razdan."- [No. 4, 



pool, and a place of Sn/m or religious ablution in the pilgrimage of 

 Hurmooktur-gunga. Into this pool, the pilgrims of the present clay 

 use to cast their mountain sticks and phoolas (grass shoes) on their 

 descent from the mountains whilst on their return from the holy lake 

 of Gungadul. 



(3.) About 80 yards in front due south of this temple are the 

 remains of a large building formerly supported on pillars, parts of which 

 still exist in the corners, and that on the pathway, which I at first 

 mistook for a sort of " font," is peculiarly an object of veneration to 

 the pilgrims who there make their final salaam. This* building 

 whose exact use I find it difficult to conjecture, measures 110' Y. 60 '. 

 The entrance to it has been by a massive flight of steps on the south 

 side. 



(4.) Immediately in front of the above upon the causeway are the 

 ruins of another small building about 25' square. 



(5.) The Southern temple — by far the most perfect of the group 

 from having its roof entire — I made by measurement 31^-' X 30J'. It 

 may perhaps have been 31 J feet square like the other. The interior 

 chamber, 14' square, with dome entire about 20' high interiorly, was 

 surrounded by an enclosure 120' X 80'. It is situated on higher ground 

 above the Northern temple ; and, owing to the precipitous nature of 

 the ground, the dimensions of the North and East faces of the cloisters 

 have been curtailed. A gateway at the North-West angle of this 

 enclosure leads out into the causeway. 



There are no less than six groups of buildings immediately around 

 this temple, in the roof of which several large fir trees have taken 

 root, presenting a singular appearance, their knarled twisted roots 

 grasping the loose stonework, and their height being about equal to 



* On consideration I am inclined to think that this large building may have 

 been a " masjid" or perhaps a summer house constructed at the same time 

 as the terraced garden called the Guldb Bdgh immediately adjacent to 

 it, in comparatively recent times by some Muhammadan magnate, possibly 

 (owing to the occurrence of the name Boodslier or Boodshdh as applied to 

 the place by the inhabitants) by " Zam-ul-' dbidin" to whom that title 

 was emphatically applied. This same king also built the " Lank" or island 

 in the Wulu Lake about the year 1443, A. D., with its mosque and 

 stwimer house on the site of an ancient temple, whose summit was at 

 thnt time visible about the waters of the lake. Vide page 8 of my sketch of 

 Muhammadan History of Cashmere, published in the Asiatic Society's Journal, 

 September. 1854. It was a common practice of the Muhammadans thus to 

 turn to account existing Hindu buildings and sitea. 



