416 REV. A. H. FRANCKE ON 



it here, the legs are indicated only by single lines. Of particular interest is a short in- 

 scription on a boulder in the vicinity of the castle in characters which approach the 

 Tibetan, but which I find it impossible to read from a Tibetan point of view. I have dis- 

 covered two more inscriptions of this half-Tibetan type, one half-way between Khalatse 

 and Nyermu, the other between Gadpa sngonpo and Ullu drogpo, near a very extensive 

 ancient gold-mine, and I feel much inclined to bring them in connection with the ancient 

 Dards of this country. 



A few steps east of the ancient castle are several ruined mchod rten, two of them 

 very large, the largest at Khalatse. They are popularly called mGo chen mchod rten, 

 or " Big-head mchod rten." It is very probable that they have something to do with the 

 ancient castle. They may be the burial-places of the last of the old kings of Khalatse, 

 after they had adopted Lamaism. 



The power of these kings probably came to an end when the West Tibetan king 

 of Leh, Naglug, in c. a.d. 1150 "founded Khalatse." Naglug built the Bragnag 

 castle on the rock overtowering Khalatse, and the first bridge in its present place, a mile 

 below that of the Khalatse kings. He being undisputed master of the place, wanted to 

 make the trade his own, and therefore built the new bridge which saved the merchants 

 the last mile of bad road on the left shore ; for in those days in whose hands was the most 

 convenient bridge, was master of the trade. An inscription which only speaks of "the 

 great king," but which may be attributed to Naglug with much probability (as I have 

 shown in another article for the Indian Antiquary) contains the record of the erec- 

 tion of the bridge. On two neighbouring boulders we find inscriptions of kings whose 

 names cannot be found in the rGyalrabs, the chronicles of L,adakh. They are very 

 likely the names of the last kings of Khalatse. Two names can be read with certainty : 

 Shinma and rGyashin. Perhaps the name Khrio'd which can be read on another 

 boulder, is that of another of those kings, although the word ' king ' cannot be 

 found on the same boulder. Shirima does not appear to be a Tibetan name : it may be 

 Dard. This line of kings does not seem to have lasted much after a.d. 1150. Pro- 

 bably they gave offence to the great king of Leh in some way or other and were over- 

 thrown. 



'aBrogmo guram chags sa. — This is the name of another place near Khalatse which 

 is considerd to have been Dard. The name means about ' ' Syrup-plantation of the Dard 

 woman." It is situated at the lower end of the Lamayuru gorge where the Wanla brook 

 falls into the Indus. There are no traces of fields to be seen now-a-days, yet the name 

 seems to indicate that there were fields there many years ago, and this is not impossible, 

 as there is water enough in the neighbourhood. Those fields were either irrigated with 

 the water of the Wanla brook, or with that of the little stream which still irrigates the 

 oasis Skamhur above it. Now-a-days the water of this little stream would not be suffi- 

 cient for two plantations, but it is quite possible that several centuries ago the climate 

 of Ladakh was somewhat moister. 



Below the road on the slope to the Indus there is a little cave with traces of human 

 occupation. It appears as if it had been inhabited occasionally by gold-diggers. I am 

 told that until recently the shore below the cave looked as if it had been terraced, but 



