1899.] 
MUHAMMADAN NOTICES. 
27 
mountain DunbRwand (Damawand). The snow there never melts. It 
is always visible from the region of Takeshar and Lauhawar (Lahore).” 
I have already elsewhere shown that the mountain here described 
is the Tatakuti peak (33 d 45' lat. 74° 33' long.). 1 It rises to a height of 
15,500 feet in the central part of the Pir Pantsal range and is the 
loftiest as well as the most conspicuous point of the mountain chain to 
the south of Kasmir. It has the shape described by Alberuni, is sur¬ 
rounded by extensive snow-fields and can be seen through the greatest 
part of the year from the Panjab districts of Sialk5t and Gujranwala 
corresponding to the old Takeshar (Takkadesa). Alberuni puts the 
distance between this peak and the Kasmir plain at two farsakh. This 
estimate is somewhat too low, inasmuch as the direct distance on the 
map between the peak and the nearest point of the open Valley is about 
15 miles. 
He is, however, quite exact in placing the fortress Lauhur to the 
west of it as we have already seen that this stronghold is identical with 
the Loharakotta of the Chronicle, the present Loh^rin. The entrance to 
the Loli^rin Valley lies almost due west of Tatakutl. To the south of 
the peak he places ‘the fortress Raj a girl ’ which is also mentioned by 
Kalhana, vii. 1270, and must be looked for somewhere in the Upper 
Suran Valley. Alberuni speaks of these two hill fortresses as “the 
strongest places ” he had ever seen. 
He had personally had an opportunity of judging of their strength 
when accompanying Mahmud’s expedition against Kasmir. On that 
occasion he had made the observation of the latitude of Lauhur (Lohara) 
to which he refers in another chapter of his work. 2 The result of this 
observation, 33° 40' lat. as shown in the author’s Canon Masudicus, 
very closely approaches the real one, which is 33° 48' according to the 
Survey map. It is very probable that he obtained at the same occasion 
the very accurate information regarding the distance from Lauhur to 
the Kasmir capital. He gives it as 56 miles, “ half the way being 
rugged country, the other half plain.” Alberuni’s measurement accor¬ 
ding to the previously stated valuation represents about 69 English 
miles. This is but little in excess of the actual road distance via the 
Tos^maidan pass as estimated by me on the tour referred to in the 
above-quoted paper. The description of the road, too, corresponds 
closely to the actual character of the route. 
Alberuni closes his account of Kasmir geography with a reference 
to the town of Rajawari which is the Rajapurl of the Chronicles, the 
1 See my paper ‘ The Castle of LoharaInd. Ant., 1897, § 12. 
2 See India, i. p. 317, with Prof. Saohau’s note ii. p. 341. In the same passage 
he quotes the latitude of Srinagar as 34° 9' from the Karanasdra. 
