1848.] through Afghanistan and India. 21 



Here was a Stupa built by Asoka on the spot where Sakya had made an 

 offering of his body. (Close to Derbend, at a place called Kabal, there 

 are several topes.) 



Thence to the S. E. amongst the mountains, at 500 li (83 miles) to 



No. 43 — U-la-shi, a dependency of Kashmir. To the S. W. of the 

 capital, at 4 or 5 li (rather more than half a mile) was a stupa built by 

 Asoka. (This is clearly the Varsa regio of Ptolemy, and the Urasa of 

 the Raja Taringini, a mountainous district where Sankara Varmma of 

 Kashmir was killed by an arrow. It corresponds in position to the 

 modern district of Bash, a part of Dhantawar where there still exist two 

 small topes, of which one is situated within a mile of Mangali, the for- 

 mer capital of the country. The people of Urasa or Varsa, with those 

 of Gilgit or Gilit (as it is called by themselves) would appear to be 

 joined together in Pliny's Arsa-galitce, who are named as neighbours of 

 the Peukola'itce. Mirza Mogal *Beg places a tribe of Urasis on the 

 Upper Kunar River ; and Lieut. Leach locates a clan of the same name 

 at the head of the Alingar river. 



Thence to the S. E. over mountains and iron bridges at 1000 li (1G6 

 miles) to 



No. 44 — Kia-she-mi-lo, Kdsmira, — Landresse. The capital rests to 

 the westward on a large river (the Vitasta or Behat) where are four 

 Stupas built by Asoka. (This is the present capital called Srinagara) . 

 To the S. E. of the new, town at 10 li (If miles) is the ancient town. 

 (This is the present Pdndrethdn, a corruption of Purdnadhisthdna, the 

 "old capital," which is situated 1^ miles to the S. E. of the Takht-i- 

 Suliman. The present town of Srinagara was built by Pravarasena 

 between A. D. 432 — 462. It was therefore a new town at the period of 

 Hwan Thsang's visit. M. Troyer in his disquisition on the Kashmiriau 

 Chronology (Raj. Tar. Vol. II. p. 420) asks whether the Asoka of 

 Kashmir, is the same as Asoka Maurya, the grandson of Chandra Gupta, 

 and afterwards declares his belief that they were different persons. But 

 the accurate Chinese pilgrim in his notice of Kashmir distinctly men- 

 tions that one of its former rulers was Asoka, king ofMagadha. In fact 

 we know from existing inscriptions, engraved with an iron pen on the 

 rock for ever at Dhauli in Katak (Cuttak), at Junagiri in Suraslitra 

 (Gujrat), and at Shah-baz-garhi to the N. E. of Peshawar, that the whole 

 of India to the north of the Narbada, from the Indus to the mouths of 



