1899.] 
THE FIR PANTSAL RANGE. 
77 
He refers to the common practice of Faqirs establishing themselves 
on Passes for the sake of refreshing travellers and of receiving their alms. 
“ When any noted holy Faqir died on a Pass, the place became sacred to 
his memory, and was often called after him, his title of Pir being prefix¬ 
ed ; at last it became so common for every important Pass to have a 
name beginning with Pir that the word acquired the secondary meaning 
of Mountain Pass.” Mr. Drew refers to the fact that Dr. Bernier already 
found an aged hermit established on the Pass who had resided there 
since the time of Jahangir. He was supposed “ to work miracles, cause 
strange thunders, and raise storms of wind, hail, snow and rain.” From 
this ‘ Pir,’ Mr. Drew thinks, the Pass acquired the first part of its 
present name. 
I agree with the above explanation as far as the use of the 
Persian word Pir is concerned. But I suspect that the custom of 
connecting mountain passes with holy personages rests on a far older 
foundation. Superstitious belief has at all times and in all mountainous 
regions peopled the solitary summits and high ridges with spirits and 
other supernatural beings. To this day Kasmirian Brahmans fully 
believe in the presence of Devatas and ‘ Bhutas’ of all sorts on high 
mountain passes. In those parts of the Himalaya where Hinduism has 
survived among all classes, this superstition can, no doubt, be found 
still more fully developed. 
On all Kasmir Passes, however rarely visited, stone-heaps are found 
marking the supposed graves of imaginary ‘ Pirs.’ Every pious Muham¬ 
madan on passing adds his stone to them. Yet these little cairns existed 
there in all probability long before Islam reached the country. Exactly 
the same custom is observed, e.g., by the Hindu Pilgrims to Amaranatha 
on crossing the Vav a jan Pass above the lake of Susravonaga, ‘to 
please the Devas ’ as the Maliatmya says . 1 
We can show that almost all famous Ziarats in Kasmir, whether of 
real or imaginary Muhammadan saints, occupy sites which were sacred 
in earlier times to one or the other Hindu divinity. We can scarcely 
go far wrong in concluding by their analogy that the ‘ Pirs ’ of the 
Muhammadan wayfarers have only taken the place of the older Hindu 
‘ Devas.’ 
This surmise is strikingly corroborated by the only passage of the 
1 See Amarandthamahdtmya, vii. 1 sqq. The stones placed are supposed to 
represent mathikds, 1 shelter-huts in which the gods can find refuge from the evil 
wind blowing on the pass (hence its alleged Sanskrit name Vdyuvarjana). The duty 
of making these Mathikas is enjoined in vii. 19. Hathikam ye na kurvanti tatraiva 
Vayuvarjanc I ddrunam narakam ydnti satakalpam na samsayah II krtvd tu mathikdrh 
devi pujayed vidhipdrvakam I arpayed devaprityartharh daksindbhih samanvitam II. 
