MUHAMMADAN NOTICES. 
23 
1899.] 
Alberunl’s account 
of Kasmlr. 
14. Alberuni’s main account of Kasmlr is contained in Chapter 
xviii. which gives 1 various notes on the coun¬ 
tries of the Hindus, their rivers and their 
ocean.’ 1 Compared with the description of the 
rest of India, it is disproportionately detailed. Alberuni first sketches in 
broad but correct outlines the political division of the mountain region 
which lies between the great Central Asian watershed and the Panjab 
plain. He then refers to the pedestrian habits of the Kasmirians and 
notes the use by the nobles of palankins carried on the shoulders of men, 
a custom fully illustrated by the Chronicle and accounted for by the 
nature of the communications in the mountains. 2 
What follows deserves full quotation. “ They are particularly 
anxious about the natural strength of their country, and therefore take 
always much care to keep a strong hold upon the entrances and roads 
leading into it. In consequence it is very difficult to have any commerce 
with them. In former times they used to allow one or two foreigners 
to enter their country, particularly Jews, but at present they do not 
allow any Hindu whom they do not know personally to enter, much 
less other people.” 
We have here a full and clear statement of that system of guard¬ 
ing all frontier-passes which we have found alluded to already in the 
Chinese records. It explains the great part which is played in the 
Kasmlr Chronicles by the frontier watch-stations, the Dvaras and 
Drangas. It is of all the more interest as the last traces of the system, 
in the form of rahddrl , have disappeared in Kasmlr only within quite 
recent memory. 3 
Alberuni then proceeds to describe the ‘ best known entrance to 
Kashmir.’ Though the starting point of his itinerary cannot be identi¬ 
fied with absolute certainty, it is clear that he means the route which 
ascends the Jehlam Valley. From “the town Babrahdn , half way 
between the rivers Sindh (Indus) and Jailam, 8 farsakli are counted 
to the bridge over the river where the water of the Kusnarl is joined by 
that of the Mahwi , both of which come from the mountains of Shamilan 
and fall into the Jailam.” Though there seems to be here some slight 
confusion, I have little doubt that the point meant by ‘ the bridge over 
the river ’ corresponds to the present Muzaffarabad, at the confluence 
etc. 
1 See India, i. pp. 206 sqq. 
8 Compare e.g. Bdjat. iv. 407; v. 33, 219; vii. 478; viii. 2298, 2636, 2674, 3165, 
The word katt which Alberuni gives as the indigenous term of the palankin is 
perhaps a corrupted Apabhramsa form of Tearniratha, often named in the Rajat. 
3 Compare my Notes on the Ancient Topography of the Pir Pant^al Route 
J. A. S. B., 1895, pp. 382 sqq. ; also below § 40. 
