1848.] deputed to the Tibetan Frontier. 97 



From Capt. A.Cunningham, Senior Commissioner , Tibetan Frontier, 

 To Lieut. -Col. II. M. Lawrence, C. B. Resident, Lahore. 



Dated Camp Gingal, 15 miles west of Baramulla, 1st Dec., 1847. 



Sir, — I have the honor to report to you that I reached this place 

 yesterday, and that I have heen detained here to-day from want of por_ 

 ters, which the Bamba-Chief, Sultan Zuburdust Khan, professes his 

 willingness to give ; but which his servants appear to be making no 

 exertions to procure. 



2. Herewith I have the pleasure to enclose the Diary of my marches 

 and proceedings up to the present date. From a perusal of this docu- 

 ment it will be seen that during my short stay in Kashmir, my atten" 

 tion was principally directed to the measurement and illustration of its 

 architectural antiquities, and to the acquirement of precise information 

 upon points regarding which different authors are at variance ; and I 

 am happy to say that my researches have been attended with success. 



3. I have discovered, beyond all doubt, the exact position of the 

 ancient capital of Kashmir in Pandritan, which is the local corrupt 

 form of the Sanscrit name Puranadhisthana, or Puranadhithan, the 

 " old chief city." In A. D. 1032 Abu Rihan Al Biruni states that the 

 capital of Kashmir was named " Addistan," and that it was four far- 

 sangs from a great lake, certainly the Waller of the present day. Four 

 hundred years earlier, in A. D. 640, the Chinese pilgrim Huan Thsang 

 states that the old capital was on the river to the south-east of the new 

 city. Now we know that the present Srinagar was built by Pravarasena, 

 who reigned from A. D. 432 to 464. Huan Thsang's description of the 

 ancient city, therefore, corresponds with the actual position of Pandritan, 

 which is to the south-east of the present town. But to put this point 

 beyond all doubt I may state that in an old abridged copy of the Raja 

 T aringini, which has marginal notes identifying the ancient cities under 

 tbeir Sanscrit names, with the more modern appellations of the corrupt 

 spoken dialect of Kashmir, I found an account of the building of a 

 temple by Nirjita Verwma in A. D. 920 — 921, at Puranadhisthana, 

 which name in the original notes is identified with Pandritan. 



4. I have also been fortunate enough to discover another point of 

 much iuterest and importance in the comparative geography of the 

 countries to the northward of Kashmir ; which is the identification of 



o 



