377 
1895.] M. A. Stein— Topography of the Pir Pantsdl Uoute. 
immediate successors the almost annual migrations of the Mughal Court 
to Ka^mir. 
We owe to this circumstance the first European description of 
the pass, written by one of the best observers who ever travelled in 
India. Dr. Bernier, then in the service of Danishmand Khan, one of 
Aurangzeb’s Omras, followed this route to Ka 9 mir in the spring of 
1665, in the train of the Imperial Coart. The account he has left us in 
the Ninth Letter to Monsieur de Merveilles of his observations and 
experiences, is as attractive as it is accurate. 1 
The old Imperial Road, though reduced in the course of time to 
the condition of a mere bridle-path,—bad at that in many places—has 
remained a favorite route for trade and traffic until the recent con¬ 
struction of the Jhelam Valley Road. It has accordingly been often 
described in the works of modern travellers, such as Moorcroft, Von 
Hugel, Vigne, Drew and others 2 ,—not to mention the various guide¬ 
books. Referring to these works for more detailed information, I may 
hope that the following brief indications regarding the topography of 
the route will be found sufficient for the comprehension of the historical 
notices to be discussed below from Kalliana’s RajataraijginI and the 
later Sanskrit Chronicles of Ka 9 imr. 
The ascent to the Pir Pantsal Pass begins for the traveller from 
the south at the village of Bahramgalia , the Bhairavaqala of fhivara’s 
Chronicle, and follows in an easterly direction the bed of a mountain 
stream as far as the hamlet of Pusiana , which is inhabited only in the 
summer months and is mentioned under the name of Pusydnanada in 
several passages of the Chronicles. Prom the latter placO the road rises 
in steep zigzags to the pass which lies about 3,000 feet higher; it then 
descends on the Ka 9 mir side in a gently sloping valley to the Mu gh al 
Sarai of ‘Allahad which lies about miles further to the east. At 
this point steep transverse ridges, descending from the mountain ranges 
on the north and south, approach close to the bed of the stream which 
flows from the pass, and narrow the valley into a gorge. The ‘ Imperial 
Road,’ cut into the precipitous cliffs of the left or northern side and 
carried in parts on a masonry foundation, leads down the valley, keeping 
high above the stream. 
Opposite to the point where the Pir Pantsal stream is joined by 
the Puprl river from the south, the road passes the old watch-towers 
of Inganari. A short distance further down it crosses to the right 
1 Compare Travels in the Mogul Empire, by Framjois Bernier, pp. 406 sqq., in 
A. Constable’s careful and well-got up translation, London, 1891. 
8 Perhaps best in Travels in Kashmir, Ladalc, Iskardo, etc., by G. T. Vigne, 
London, 1812, vol. ii., pp. 261 sqq. 
