36 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. 
[Extra No. 2, 
attempts to identify the latter we have therefore only too often to depend 
either on the accidental fact of other texts furnishing the required 
evidence, or to fall back solely on the comparison of the old with modern 
local names. That the latter course if not guided and controlled by 
other evidence, is likely to lead us into mistakes, is a fact which re¬ 
quires no demonstration for the critical student. 
It is different with the notices the consideration of which we have 
left to the last. Here the narrative itself, in the great majority of 
cases, becomes our guide and either directly points out to us the real 
locality meant or at least restricts to very narrow limits the area within 
which our search must proceed. The final identification can then 
be safely effected with the help of local tradition, by tracing the modern 
derivative of the old local name, or by other additional evidence of this 
kind. 
For the purpose of such a systematic search it is, of course, a very 
great advantage if the narrative is closely connected and detailed. And 
it is on this account that, as already stated above (§ 17), Kalhana’s 
lengthy relation of what was to him recent history, in Books vii. and 
viii., is for us so valuable. An examination of the topographical notes 
in ray commentary on the Chronicle will show that the correct identifica¬ 
tion of many of the localities mentioned in the detached notices of the 
first six Books has become possible only by means of the evidence fur¬ 
nished by the more detailed narrative of the last two. 
In this respect the accounts of the endless rebellions and other 
internal troubles which fill the greater portion of the reigns af the 
Lohara dynasty, have proved particularly useful. The description of 
the many campaigns, frontier-expeditions and sieges connected with 
these risings supplies us with a great amount of topographical details 
mutually illustrating each other. By following up these operations on 
the map,—or better still on the actual ground, as I was often able to 
do,—it is possible to fix with precision the site of many old localities 
which would otherwise never have emerged from the haze of doubt and 
conjecture. 
In order to illustrate these general remarks it will be sufficient to 
refer to a few typical examples among the many identifications thus 
arrived at. As the corresponding notes of my commentary fully in¬ 
dicate the evidence on which these identifications are based, as well as 
the process of reasoning by which they were arrived at, it will not be 
necessary here to go ‘into details. A very characteristic example is 
furnished by the important stronghold and territory of Lohara, which 
was formerly supposed to bo Lahore. Its correct location at the 
present Loh^rwi and the identification of the several places and routes 
