m HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 



of ten days; and as with him the race of Sancara Verma ended, the king- 

 don} was now without a legal occupant : Sugandha. seated herself on the 

 throne, but either at her own desire, or compelled by the military leaders 

 of the kingdom, she soon made way for another prince. 



In this stage of Cashmirian history we are introduced rather abruptly to 

 $ome new actors in the scene, who continued for a long period to influence 

 very materially the disposal of the crown : they are of a military character 

 evidently ; it is only doubtful, whether they were part of the native forces, 

 or whether they were mercenary bands of foreign adventurers. They are de- 

 nominated Tatris and Ecdngas, and it is perhaps not straining probability 

 overmuch, to conjecture that our author intends these words to represent 

 what we should write Tatars and Afghans ; m^n, who at all times have 

 sold their services to the princes of India, and have not unfrequently/ be- 

 come the masters of those whom they originally obeyed.* 



Whatever may have been her inducements, Sugandha, after ■ holding the 

 reins of government for two years, recommended to the ministers and officers 

 to chuse as king Nirjita Verma the grand-son of Sura Verm a: it was 

 objected to him however that he was a cripple, and therefore not fit to 

 rule, but as his family desqent was highly respectable, the chiefs determin- 



* Theword Tatar, fox Tatri, is an obvious conjecture: Ec&nga for Afghan, isnot so satisfactory. Eca 

 means one, and Anga limb or body figuratively as well as literally, and Ec&nga may refer to some pe- 

 culiarity of discipline, as to troops, fighting in a body. The origin of the word Afghan, says Elphinstone , . 

 is. entirely uncertain, but it is probably modern: it is known to the Afghans themselves only through the 

 medium of the Persian language ; it has no meaning however in Persian, and they therefore probably 

 borrowed it from some other quarter transmuting it in their ordinary manner: there is some probabili- 

 ty therefore about the Etymology suggested : the Afghans it is asserted inhabited the mountains of 

 GJtor-at- a very remote peripdj and seem to have been established in the north eastern mountains of 

 Afghanistan in the ninth, century, (tElphinstQne's Cabul, \Q7,) expelling thence, probably about that time, 

 the Damaras, who from Our, history appear to have occupied, till the ninth century, that part of the vi- 

 cinity of Cashmir: the mercenary, character of the Tatris is repeatedly alluded to: they are said to 

 have been attracted into the country by the Hundicas of the king of Canouj, and they are compared in 

 ene place to prostitutes who saw no merit in, a man but his money* 



