THE DARDS AT KHALATSE IN WESTERN TIBET. 419 



This is the genitive case of the Sanskrit name Satyamati, saca being the North- 

 Indian form of satya. 



This inscription would thus contain the name of one of the ancient kings of the 

 castle on the river. But the castle may have been Mon and not Dard in those days. 

 And we have a few traces of an ancient colonisation by the Mons, preceding that of 

 the Dards. Perhaps the ancient Mons had a bridge at the same site which was de- 

 stroyed, and later on rebuilt by the Dards in rivalry to the Balu-mkhar bridge, as 

 stated above. 



In this connection it is of some interest that popular tradition speaks of an ancient 

 King Suryamati (sometimes pronounced Surgamati) who had this castle at Trigtse, 

 above Leh. We see that before the Tibetan conquest, c. a.d. iooo, there were kings 

 in Ladakh who bore Sanskrit names. 



