6 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF K ASM III. [Extra No. 2, 
locating Parihasapura and some other ancient sites, this may fairly be 
attributed to his inability to consult the Sanskrit sources in the ori¬ 
ginal. 1 
Professor Lassen’s “Indische Altertliumskunde ” gives an exten¬ 
sive analysis of the historical contents of Kalhana’s work. 2 But his 
explanations as to the ancient localities mentioned are generally only 
there well-founded where they are based on General Cunningham’s 
researches. Ancient territories and places are often connected with 
modern localities merely on the ground of a faint resemblance of the 
names and without sufficient internal evidence. This tendency has 
frequently led that distinguished scholar to ignore the narrow territorial 
limits within which most of the local and ethnic names occurring in the 
later portion of Kalhana’s narrative have to be looked for. It is only 
natural that identifications of real (or imaginary) localities which trans¬ 
ferred the scene of contemporary events described by Kalhana to 
territories so distant as Lahore, Eastern Af gh anistan or Ajmir, 3 have 
helped to produce a very ill-focussed picture of the political power and 
extent of the Kasmir kingdom in those later times. 
The merit of having definitely shown the right methods and means 
for re-constructing the ancient geography of Kasmir belongs to Professor 
Buhler. This great scholar by whose lamented death so many branches 
of Indian research have suffered irreparable loss, had in the masterly 
1 If particular proof were wanted to show that a through acquaintance 
with the modern topography of a country is in itself not sufficient to lead to 
useful results in regard to its historical geography, Mr. Vigne’s work, Travels 
in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, (London, 1842, two Yols.) would supply it. This 
estimable artist and traveller evidently took a great deal of interest in the 
antiquities of the country which he traversed in many directions. His book, 
however, as far as the old geography of Kasmir is concerned, furnishes scarcely 
anything more than a series of amusingly naive etymologies of local names. Tlius 
Hiir<}pdr (S'urapura) is “ the Diamond City,” Pdndrethan (Puranadhisthana) the 
place of the ‘ Pandus and Duryndun ’ ( i . e., Duryodhana), Sopur (Suyyapura) ‘the 
Golden City,’ etc.; see i. p. 267, ii. pp. 37, 157. 
Mr. Vigne is responsible for the strange derivation of the name of the Kasmir 
capital, Srinagar (S'rinagara), or as he spells it, ‘ Siri-Nagur,’ from “ Surya Nagur , 
the city of the sun” (p. ii. 137). Judging from the persistence with which the 
error has been copied by a succession of modern writers on Kasmir, this etymology 
bids fair to establish itself as a piece of orthodox creed with European visitors to 
the Valley. 
2 See Indische Alterthumskunde (second ed.), ii. pp. 885-915 ; iii. pp. 984-1128. 
3 I refer to locations like those of Lohara (Loh^rin) at Lahore; of the 
[imaginary] province Kampand in eastern Afghanistan ; of the Lavanya tribe near 
the Sambhar salt lake ; of the feudal chief Kosthesvara at Kotgarli on the Satlej, 
etc.; comp. Ind. Alterth. iii. pp. 1057, 1041, 1069, 1105, and for the supposed terri¬ 
torial extent of the Kasmir state, iii. p. 1119. 
