HISTORY OF CASHMIR. £5 



modern, and recede gradually to the most remote dates. The Table prefixed 

 was necessarily constructed on a different principle, and depends upon the 

 date of Gonerda the 3rd, which, as I have previously explained, is esta- 

 blished according to the Chronology of the text. Gonerda 3rd lived, ac- 

 cording to Calhana Pandit, 2330 years before the year of Saca 1070, or 

 A.D. 1148, and consequently his accession is placed B. C. 1182 : the peri- 

 ods of each reign are then regularly deduced till the close of the history, 

 which is thus placed in the year of Christ 1025, or about 120 years before 

 the author's own time. That the reign of the last sovereign did terminate 

 about the period assigned, we may naturally infer, not only from its proxi- 

 mity to what we may conclude was the date at which the work was written, 

 but from the absence of any mention of Mahmud's invasions, and the intro- 

 duction of a Prithivi Pala, who is very possibly the same with the 

 Pitteruge Pal of Lahore, mentioned in the Mohammedan histories. 



Taking therefore the date of Didda Rani, as being at least very near 

 the truth, we may go up the list with some confidence through three dy- 

 nasties at least. The three last series present an aggregate of thirty-eight 

 princes, and but 409 years, giving us less than eleven years to a reign, an 

 average rate, with which the most cautious chronologist may be contented. 

 The first of the three series, which presents the longest average, gives us 

 less than 16 years to a reign, which is equally unexceptionable, and we 

 have therefore every reason to conclude that the chronology of our author 

 is perfectly accurate, as far back as the year 616 of the Christian sera. 



The History of Cashmir is too purely domestic during the period com- 

 prised within these limits, for us to be able to apply the chronology of the 

 author to the establishment of dates, for incidents or persons of interest in 

 the records of Hindustan. Sancara Verma is said to have subverted the 

 extensive empire acquired by Bhoja, and he may be supposed therefore to 

 have been nearly contemporary with that prince. Sancara Verma reigned 

 from 904 to 922. The date of Bhoja is now fixed with tolerable certainty 

 within the limits of the beginning of the tenth and that of the eleventh cen- 



