32 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. [Extra No. 2, 
notices which appertain to the Topographia sacra of the Valley. 
Kasmir lias from early times to the present day been a land abundantly 
endowed with holy sites and objects of pilgrimages. Kalhana duly 
emphasizes this fact when he speaks, in the above-quoted introductory 
passage, of Kasmir as a country ‘ where there is not a space as large 
as a grain of sesamum without a Tlrtlia.’ 1 
Time and even the conversion to Islam of the great majority of 
the population has changed but little in this respect. For besides the 
great Tirthas which still retain a fair share of their former renown 
and popularity, there is scarcely a village which has not its sacred 
spring or grove for the Hindu and its Ziarat for the Muhammadan. 
Established as the latter shrines almost invariably are, by the side 
of the Hindu places of worship and often with the very stones taken 
from them, they plainly attest the abiding nature of local worship in 
Kasmir. 
This cannot be the place to examine in detail the origin and 
character of these Tirthas and their importance for the religious history 
of the country. It will be enough to note that the most frequent 
objects of such ancient local worship are the springs or Nagas , the 
sacred streams and rivers, and finally the so-called svayambhu or ‘ self- 
created ’ images of gods which are recognized by the eye of the pious in 
various natural formations. These several classes of Tirthas can be 
traced throughout India wherever Hindu religious notions prevail, and 
particularly in the sub-Himalayan regions (Nepal, Kumaon, Kangra, 
Udyana or Swat). Still there can be no doubt that Kasmir has,from 
old times claimed an exceptionally large share in such manifestations of 
divine favour. 
Nature has indeed endowed the Valley and the neighbouring moun¬ 
tains with an abundance of fine springs. As each of these has its 
tutelary deity in the form of a Naga , 2 * we can easily realize why popular 
tradition looks upon Kasmir as the favourite residence of these deities. 5 
Hiuen Tsiang already had ascribed the superiority of Kasmir over other 
countries to the protection it received from a Naga. 4 Kalhana, too, in 
his introduction gives due prominence to the distinction which the land 
1 i. 38. 
2 Compare my note i. 30 on the Nagas and their worship. 
S The Nilamatcrpurdna, 900-972, gives a long list of Kasmir Nagas and puts 
their number at thousands, nay Arbudas (see 971). 
4 Si-yu-ki , i. p. 148. Hiuen Tsiang, like other Chinese pilgrims, calls the Nagas 
by the term of ‘ dragon; ’ no doubt because the popular conception represents 
them under the form of snakes living in the water of the springs or lakes they 
protect. 
