A PILGRIMAGE TO AMERNATH, HIMALAYAN 

 SHRINE OF THE HINDU FAITH 



By Louise Ahl Jessop 



FAR tip in the northwestern part of 

 India lies the Kingdom of Kash- 

 mir. It includes Baltistan in the 

 north. Ladakh in the east, Gilgit, Hunza, 

 and Chitral in the northwest, Jammu in 

 the south, and the beautiful Vale of 

 Kashmir in the southwest. The kingdom 

 has an area of 80,000 square miles and a 

 population of nearly 3,000,000, of whom 

 about three- fourths are Mohammedans, 

 a fifth Hindus, -and the rest Buddhists 

 and Sikhs. It is ruled by a native prince 

 under British protection. 



The history of the country goes back 

 for many centuries, and at one time it 

 was one of the two most powerful king- 

 doms in northern India, but later suffered 

 from invasion after invasion and was 

 conquered and reconquered. It was re- 

 duced by Akbar, the great Mogul em- 

 peror, and its lovely Vale became the 

 favorite summer resort of his son Jahan- 

 gir and his queen, the beautiful Nur Ma- 

 hal. Their pleasure in this Garden of 

 Eden, as portrayed in "Lalla Rookh," has 

 made it famous the world over. 



''Who has not heard of the Vale of Cash- 

 mere, 



With its roses the brightest that earth 

 ever gave, 



Its temples, and grottos and fountains as 

 clear 



As the love-lighted eyes that hang over 

 their wave?" 



And who that has read the musical 

 "Lalla Rookh" has not had a desire to 

 see this land of romance and of song? 

 To many this desire has been but a pass- 

 ing thought, because of the seeming im- 

 possibility of accomplishing it from far- 

 away countries; to others it has been a 

 dream to be realized, perhaps in the dis- 

 tant future ; comparatively few actually 

 enter the enchanted land. 



When, therefore, it was finally decided 

 that we could spend our holiday in Kash- 

 mir, all dreamers can imagine better than 

 I can describe our feelings of anticipation 

 and delight. With guide-books and maps 

 we set about the interesting task of trac- 

 ing routes and deciding upon how we 



could crowd into the brief space of five 

 weeks what should require double that 

 time. 



Soon from the jumble of strange 

 towns, mountains, and camps, Amernath, 

 one of the Meccas of Hindu pilgrims, 

 stood out as our objective point and as 

 the most desirable thing to see. Thus 

 our trip was planned to lead us to that 

 rock cave as a fitting climax to the whole. 



FROM CALCUTTA TO KASHMIR 



Kashmir, spelled with a "K" today, is 

 a far cry from Calcutta, and one travels 

 many hundred miles even before stand- 

 ing upon its threshold. Our way lay to- 

 ward the northwest, up through Bengal, 

 the United Provinces, and the Punjab, 

 past the sacred city of Benares, Cawn- 

 pore of Mutiny fame, Agra with its royal 

 Taj Mahal, and Delhi, the old-new im- 

 perial capital, on to Rawalpindi, the larg- 

 est military cantonment in India. 



Here we left the railway and started on 

 our long drive of 200 miles to Srinagar, 

 the capital of Kashmir. 



The vehicles were waiting for us at the 

 Rawalpindi station, as was the wily crea- 

 ture to whom they belonged and with 

 whom we tried to make as iron-clad a 

 bundbust (contract) as was possible. 

 Needless to say, there was a vulnerable 

 place therein, as is usually the case out 

 here, and it cost us a long parley on our 

 return journey. 



To the uninitiated Westerner, who 

 travels mostly in trunks and neat leather 

 suit-cases, it is hopeless to attempt to 

 picture our party of five as we started 

 off in a landau and two tongas with our 

 twenty-nine pieces of luggage. Our Brit- 

 ish cousins are right ; this was luggage, 

 not baggage. 



The three ladies occupied the landau, 

 which, with its skinny horses, wabbly 

 wheels, shabby top, and general tumble- 

 down appearance, looked as if it were a 

 relic of the days of Warren Hastings. 

 In front of us, behind us, around us, and, 

 I was going to say, on top of us were 



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