HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 15 



Are perhaps after all but phantoms, and we must remain satisfied with the 

 possibility, thatthey were real personages, who ruled Cashnir as foreigners, 

 and that as foreigners, they were extruded from the Hindu anna!?, and 

 were preserved only by undefined tradiiions, which have been embodied 

 into the Mohammedan history of Shejk. Nuraddin with little regard to chro- 

 nology, or truth. 



As the first named sovereign of the Hindu history of Cuskmir, succeeded 

 to the princes who had governed the country for nearly thirteen centuries, 

 there should have been little or no chronological difficulty about the period 

 of his accession : the introduction of Manxoantaras and Calpas, has however 

 obscured a system, otherwise clear at least, if not unexceptionable, and has 

 left it doubtful, whether these princes, as well as the first settlement of the 

 country, come within the limits of the Cali-age, and consequently at what 

 date in that age, Gonerda, the Augnand* of the Mohammedan writers, was 

 king of Ca&hmir : there are other chronological points, connected with his 

 history, that have received the notice of the Hindu historian. 



The passage of the original is however here not very distinct, and refers 

 evidently to computations of an uncommon character. Gonerda as appears 

 from the transactions of his reign, was contemporary with Crisrna and Yu- 

 dhisht 'hir, who according to the generally received notions, lived at the end 

 of the Dwdpar age: this however the author observes is irreconcileable with 

 the series of Gonerda's successors, which agrees better with the opinion, that 

 places the existence of the Caurava and Pandava princes about the middle 

 of the seventh century of the Cali Yug ; a computation it may be remarked 

 which is at variance with Gonerda's succeeding to the throne, after that had 

 been occupied for l c Z66 years, unless some of those years be carried into the 

 preceding age : it is of very little use however to attempt to reconcile these 

 discrepancies, as the different statements are all probably equally incorrect ; 



* In Nagari -jiT«f^ or in some copies 7VT«TS?£ Gonerda or Gonanda; the Persian is y^ } \ 

 Augnand and the author of the Wakiati Cashnir as well as Bedia-AD-DIN leave no doubt of 

 the intention of the Musselman writers as they detail the letters of this and other names, in the 

 manner, common in Arabic and Persian Lexicons, 



