s 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'AllR, [Extra No. 2, 
CHAPTER II. 
ACCOUNTS OF OLD KAS'MlR. 
Section I.— Classical Notices. 
5. Our sources for the early geography of Kasmir may be con¬ 
veniently divided into foreign notices and indigenous records. As the 
information supplied by the former is on the whole earlier in date 
though by no means more precise or important, we shall commence our 
review with them. Having learned what little the outer w r orld knew 
or recorded of the secluded alpine land, we shall appreciate all the more 
the imposing array of Kasmirian authorities which offer themselves as 
our guides iu and about the Valley. With the foreign accounts but 
in a kind of intermediate position we may class those Indian texts the 
authors of which may have possessed some more detailed information of 
Kasmir, but have not thought it necessary to vouchsafe it to us. 
It is significant for the isolated position which its mountain barriers 
assured to Kasmir, that we do not find any 
mention of the country in those accounts to 
which we are accustomed to look for the first 
truly historical notices of the North-West of India. I mean the relations 
of Alexander’s invasion. The march from Taxila to the Hydaspes 
(Jehlam) took the Macedonian forces along a line of route which lay 
comparatively near to the confines of Kasmir. Yet there is no notice in 
the accounts of Alexander’s expedition which can be shown to imply 
even a hearsay knowledge of the Kasmir Valley. On the other hand 
the names of the neighbouring territories on the West and South have 
long ngo been recognized in the names of their rulers Arsakcs and 
Alexander’s 
invasion. 
