4 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MlR. [Extra No. 2, 
In treating tliis subject it appears to me most convenient to exa¬ 
mine first the sources of information from which our knowledge 
regarding the ancient topography of Kasmir is drawn. I shall next 
proceed to notice what we can learn from these sources as to the general 
physical features of Kasmir geography and their bearing on the histo¬ 
rical and economical conditions of the country during the Hindu period. 
In the last chapter I intend to discuss the political divisions of the 
territory and to indicate briefly the information available to us regard¬ 
ing the particular places of historical or religious interest. 
Most of the data upon which this account of the old topography of 
Kasmir is based, are contained in Kalhana’s Chronicle, and have there¬ 
fore already been explained by me in the notes which accompany my 
translation of that work. In order to avoid unnecessary repetition I shall 
refer to these notes for all such detailed evidence as could not con¬ 
veniently be set forth within the limits of the present paper. 
4. Before, however, closing these preliminary remarks it is neces- 
_ sary to refer briefly to those few publications 
Earlier publications. • • i £ , i • n ,, . 
m which tacts bearing on the old topography 
of Kasmir have received an earlier treatment. 
In view of what has been said above we naturally turn first to the 
works which have dealt directly with the interpretation of the Raja- 
taranginl. Dr. W ilson who was the first European to study the Chronicle 
in the original, published an abstract of the contents of the first six 
Books as early as 1825. 1 He seems to have fully realized the importance 
of an accurate and sober examination of the geographical questions 
connected with the narrative. The textual materials at his disposal 
were, however, extremely defective, and European knowledge of Kasmir 
restricted at the time solely to the accounts of Bernier and Forster. 
He could hence scarcely do more than indicate the more or less corrupt 
modern equivalents by which the Persian Chronicles render some of the 
Kasmir local names taken from Kalhana’s account. The judgment and 
accuracy with which Dr. Wilson discussed the Chronicle’s notices of coun¬ 
tries and places situated outside Kasmir and better known at that time, 
shows sufficiently that only the defective character of the available 
materials prevented that distinguished Sanskrit scholar from doing 
justice to the task. 
The elaborate commentary with which Mr. Troyer accompanied his 
French translation of the Rajatarangini,* does not represent any mate¬ 
rial advance beyond the contents of Wilson’s Essay. Yet Mr. Troyer 
1 An Essay on the Hindu History of Cashmir, in Asiatic Researches , vol. xv., 1825, 
pp. 1 sqq. 
8 Radjatarangim on Histoire des rois du Kachmtr, Paris, 1840-52. 
