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M. A. Stein —Topography of the Fir Pantsdl Route. [No. 4, 
Notes on the ancient topography of the Fir Panbsal Route . — By 
M. A. Stein, Ph. D. 
[Read February 1896.3 
The following notes on an ancient mountain-route of Kagmir have 
been collected by me while engaged in the preparation of an annotated 
translation of Kalhana’s Rajataragginl which is to follow my edition 
of the Sanskrit text of that Chronicle. Their publication in the present 
form may, perhaps, be acceptable as an illustration of the aid which 
a search for the surviving local traditions of Kagmir and a study of its 
topography afford for the elucidation of Kalhana’s narrative. 1 2 * * * * * 
The Pass of the Fir Fantsdl , 8 11,400 feet above the sea, forms the 
lowest point in the central part of the mountain-range which, reaching 
with its snowy peaks a height of more than 15,000 feet, encloses the Valley 
of Kagmlr on the south and south-west. The pass gives access to the 
valleys of the two Tohls (Skr. Tausi) of Rajauri (Rdjapuri) and Pruntz 
(Parnotsa ) from which easy and direct routes of communication lead 
to the central and western Pan jab. 
These natural advantages evidently influenced Akbar when he 
chose after the conquest of the Valley the route via Bhimbhar and 
Rajauri and over the Pir Pautsal for the construction of his ‘ Imperial 
Road ’ ( rdh-i shahi) which was to connect Lahore with his summer 
residence Kagmir. Along this road passed in the reigns of Akbar’s 
1 An abbreviated translation of these notes, has been contributed to the 1 Festgabe , 
offered to Professor Albrecht Weber on occasion of his Fifty Years’ Doctor Jubilee 
(18th December, 1895). 
2 I write the name according to its usual Kagmln pronunciation. The latter 
we find already, with the transcription required by the Sanskrit alphabet, attested 
in the form Pdhcdla deva of Qrivara’s Chronicle, iii. 433. The Paharl population 
of the valleys to the south calls the pass Pir Panedl. This is also, the form 
recorded by the accurate Moorcroft. Anglo-Indice the form Pir Panjdl has been 
generally accepted. The name Pantsdl is used for the whole mountain range. The 
word Pir, probably of Muhammadan origin, serves in Kagmir as the designation 
of every pass j comp. Drew, Jammoo and Kashmir Territories, London, 1875, 
p. 157. 
