20 H. S. Jarrett — Note on an Inscripion found in Kashmir. [No. 1, 



and in repairing the ravages o£ the irruption of the Turks under Zulju 

 which the lapse of more than a century had not yet been able to efface. 

 He was a liberal patron of naen of letters and encouraged the progress of 

 the arts, especially favouiing the artificers whom he had introduced from 

 Samarkand. He travelled much over his dominions and his Hindu and 

 Muhammadan subjects lived at peace with each other -undisturbed by 

 religious dissensions, which if they arose were amicably settled by puncha- 

 yets at which the monarch himself would preside. This conduct gained 

 for him the title of the Great King. 



According to tradition in the vicinity of the Wular lake once stood a 

 city of which the Eaja was Sudrasen. By reason of the enormity of his 

 crimes, the waters of the lake rose and drowned him and his subjects. 

 It was said that during the winter months, at low water, the ruins of a 

 submerged idol temple might be seen rising from the lake. Zayn lil Aabi- 

 din constructed a spacious barge which he sank in the lake and upon which 

 he laid a foundation of bricks and stones till it rose high enough to be level 

 with the water. Upon this he erected a mosque and other buildings and 

 gave the islet the name of Lanka. The expense of the work was defrayed 

 by the fortunate discovery of two idols of solid gold which had been 

 brouo-ht up from the lake by divers. On the completion of Lanka the 

 king ordered a great festival to be held wherein great sums were distribut- 

 ed amongst the poor. Verses were written by the poets to commemorate 

 this event, and among these the inscription under notice by Ahmad AUamah 

 Kashmiri was engraved upon a stone and placed above the Mihrab or sanc- 

 tuary of the mosque. This Ahmad Kashmiri was the author of the Nur- 

 nama, a Persian translation made in the time of Zayn ul Aabidin of an aii- 

 cient History of Kashmir in the Kashmirian language by Shaikh Nur-ud-din 

 "VVali. His translation was made use of by Muhammad Aslam the son of 

 Muhammad Aazam, in amending the omissions of his father's History. 

 Mention of the slab with its inscription is made by Muhammad Aazam 

 who gives a faithful transcript of the verses Muhammad Aslam states 

 that he visited Lanka in 1167 A. H. (A. D. 1753) and observing the 

 inscription carried it in his memory and records it in his work. His 

 second line runs thus — 



which shows that either his memory failed him or he was unable to decipher 

 the line more correctly given by his father. 



The further history of Zayn ul Aabidin it is perhaps unnecessary to 

 record. He died in A. H. 880 (A. D. 1475) and was succeeded by his 

 son Hydar Shah. His tomb may still be seen below the Zayna Kadal, the 

 fourth of the thirteen bridges that span the river Jhelam in its course 

 through the valley of Kashmir. 



