284 Essay on the Avian Order of Architect m e > [Sept. 



carved stones and architectural fragments are numerous ; the lines of 

 old walls can be traced in the grass, and the fields •- covered with 

 broken pottery. These remains extend for nearly thre< ules, from the 

 foot of the Takht-i-Suliman to Panthasok, at which phu \ two piers of 

 an old bridge are still existing, one just above the surface of the water, 

 and the other just below it, the position of the latter being marked by 

 the stillness of the water over it. The people assert that these piers are 

 the remains of a stone bridge, which once spanned the Bchat at this 

 place. The colossal linga and other remains about Pandrethan induced 

 Vigne* to imagine, that they might have formed " part of a city and vast 

 Hindu temple." The existence of an ancient city on this spot may, 

 therefore, be considered as fully established on the joint testimony of 

 Vigne and myself : and that this ancient city was the old capital, is esta- 

 blished beyond all doubt, both by the record of the Chinese pilgrim, and 

 by its present name of Pdndrethdn, or " ancient chief town." 



2. — The temple of Pandrethan, from its vicinity to the capital, has 

 attracted the notice of most European travellers, who have spelt the 

 name in as many different ways. Moorcroft calls it Pdndenthdn ; 

 Vigne, Pandrenton ; and Hugel, Pandritan. The last is the same as 

 the Kashmirian Takri, in which it is written ~^V%^^ Pdndretdn, but 

 as it is spelt TTf"i^T«r Pdndrethdn in modern Nagari, and as the final 

 syllable is a contraction of the Sanskrit, ^tt«T sthdn } I have preserved 

 the aspirate. 



3. — The erection of this temple is attributed to Meru-Varddhana, 

 the minister of Partha, both by tradition and by the Raja Tarangini in 

 the following verse : B. 5 — v. 266. 



" The minister Meru erected in the ancient capital, [Puranadhistana, 

 or Pandrethan,] a temple called ' Sri-Meru-Varddhana-swami/ " The 

 building of the temple is recorded between the years 89 and 97 of the 

 Kashmirian era, equivalent to A. D. 913-921 ; and it is afterwards 

 mentioned, between the years 958 and 972, as having escaped destruc- 

 tion, when Abhimanyu, Nero-like, set fire to his own capital, on which 

 occasion the Raja Tarangini relates in B. 6 — v. 191. 



* Kashmir, vol. 2— p. 36. 



