HISTORY OF CASHMIR. Ur 



Herodotus (Thai. 102) describes the northern Indians as dwelling near 

 a city which he names Caspatyrus, and again, (Melp. 44) he states that 

 Scylax when sent by Darius Hystaspes to explore the mouth of the Indus, 

 commenced his course from that city. That by Caspatyrus is meant Cash- 

 mir seems highly probable from the analogies both of name and locality. 



1. With respect to the name, it is first to be observed, that there are ve- 

 ry adequate grounds for a slight alteration, which will bring the resem- 

 blance to absolute identification, with what is asserted to have been, and 

 most probably was, the origin of the term, Cashmir : this was derived, it is 

 uniformly asserted by the oriental writers, from the colonization of the 

 country by Casyapa, the first settlement or city being named after 

 him Casyapa pur (^ipR:) converted in ordinary pronunciation, into 

 Cashappur or Caspapur, the latter of which forms, independent of the ter- 

 mination of the case, is the proper reading of the Greek text. Thus Stephanus 

 Byzantinus has Ko«r7ra7rypo£ n-'oXig Tavfiocpixr, and Dodwell (De Peripli Scy- 

 lacis aetate) considers this as the same with the Ka<r7i-a]u^os of Herodotus. 

 Wesseling regards it also as a various reading of the same, and although 

 he prefers retaining the latter, he assigns no reasons for the preference. 

 D'Anville also concurs in considering the Kaspapyrus of Stephanus Byzan- 

 tinus, and the Kaspatyrus of Herodotus, as the same, and it seems most 

 likely therefore that the variety of reading is accidental, and originates with 

 an error in the manuscript: as far therefore as a precise coincidence of name 

 is a proof of identity, we have every reason to conclude, that the Kaspapyrus 

 of the Greeks, is the Kasyapapur, or Cashmir, of the Hindus, which there- 

 fore was known by the original of its present denomination, as early as the 

 reign of Darius Hystaspes, or above five centuries before the Christian sera. 



2. The next question is as to the situation of Caspapyrus, according to 

 the Greek authorities, and its correspondence with that of Cashmir, and here 

 it must be admitted, there are some difficulties in the way of extreme pre- 

 cision. The general concurrence is satisfactory enough. Herodotus (Thai. 

 102) states it to be in the vicinity of the Northern Indians, and associates 



