200 
ANCIENT GEOCRAPHY OF KASHMIR. [Extra No. 2, 
route offered by the marshes which stretch between Par^spor and 
Patan, a distance of only seven miles. 
Though S'amkarapura owed thus to its founder but little that 
could secure distinction, yet the site he had chosen for it was one likely 
to retain some importance. Patan still lies on the direct road between 
Srinagar and Baramula, reckoned at two daily marches, and has probably 
always just as now been the half-way station between the two places. 
Considering that Baramula is the starting point of the route to the 
west, traffic and trade were thus sure to be attracted to S'amkaravar- 
man’s town. We find it referred to as a local centre still in Kalhana’s 
time, and it has remained to the present day a large and thriving place. 
Patan figures as a separate Pargana in Abu-l-Fazl’s list. A 
popular tradition has it that when Todar Mai, Akbar’s minister, was 
arranging for the redistribution of Parganas, he inadvertently omitted 
the Patau village at which he was just then encamped. To remedy the 
mistake Patan with its immediate vicinity was made into an additional 
Pargana. 1 However this may be, we find Patan subsequently named 
as the chief place of the Til a gam Pargana. 2 At the last settlement it 
became the headquarters of one of the new Tahsils. 
The Pambasar lake which stretches to the east of Patan as far as 
the ‘ Gond Ibrahim ’ and i Adin River ’ of the map, is referred to by 
Kalhana under the name of Pampasaras. King Harsa seems to have 
extended or regulated it. 3 The Karewa ground to the west of Patan 
with the deep valleys which intersect it, forms the Pargana of Til a gam. 
It is mentioned in the Fourth Chronicle, 780, by the name of Taila- 
grama. 
About four miles to the north-west of Patan and on the high road 
to Baramula lies Tapar, a considerable village, 
ra apapura On the evidence of an old gloss and several 
passages of the Chronicles, it can be safely identified with the ancient 
Pratapapura. 4 ’ The latter was founded by King Pratapaditya-Dur- 
labhaka, the father of Lalitaditya, probably in the second half of the 
seventh century. When visiting the place in 1892 I found close to the 
road two ruined mounds covered with large slabs and architectural 
fragments evidently marking the sites of old temples. Since then, I 
am informed, most of these remains have been turned into road metal 
by the native contractors employed in the construction of the new cart- 
road to Srinagar. 
1 See Bates, Gazetteer, p. 2. 
2 See Mogrcroft, ii. p. 113; Vigne, ii. 16G. 
$ See Rdjat. vii. 940 note. 
* Compare Rdjat. iv. 10 note. 
