1899.] 
THE V1TASTA VALLEY. 
83 
in holding the passage. 1 The military difficulties of a march through 
such a succession of dangerous defiles must have been even greater in 
old times which knew no fire-arms. The protection of the route against 
an active enemy who could easily seize and hold all commanding posi¬ 
tions, was then, no doubt, a still more difficult task. 
51 . It is probably on account of the circumstances here briefly 
T ,., __ _ , indicated that we hear in the Chronicles com- 
Vitasta Valley Route. of fte rQute following the 
Vitasta. Being the shortest line of communication to the present 
Hazara District and the Indus, it was certainly used from early times. 
We have seen that Hiuen Tsiang and Ou-k'ong coming from the 
ancient Gandhara and Urasa followed it on their way to Kasmir, and 
that it was well-known to Alberunl. 
But it seems probable that its importance, military and commerciab 
was then far smaller than that of the Plr Pantsal and Tos^maidan 
routes. It is only in modern times that this western route has attained 
real prominence. This originated in the time of the Af gh an rule over 
Kasmir when the route along the Vitasta to Muzaffarabad and hence 
though Hazara afforded the shortest and least exposed line of com¬ 
munication between Kasmir and Peshawar. 2 Subsequently after the 
annexation of the Pan jab, the establishment of the hill-station of 
Murree naturally drew traffic in this direction. The construction of the 
Tonga Road from Murree to Baramula in our own time finally assured 
to this route its present supremacy. 
There is at present a road on each side of the Valley leading down 
to Muzaffarabad. But only the route along the right bank of the river 
can claim any antiquity. The one on the opposite bank has come into 
general use only within the last few decades since traffic towards 
Murree and Rawalpindi sprung up. The track chosen for the old road 
is easily accounted for by topographical facts. We have already noticed 
that the Vitasta Valley route was of importance chiefly as leading to 
Hazara (Urasa) and hence to the old Gandhara. A glance at the map 
will show that the open central portion of Hazara is most easily gained by 
crossing the Kisanganga just above Muzaffarabad and then passing the 
comparatively low ridge which separates this river from the Kunhar 
stream. The route here indicated finds its natural continuation towards 
1 Moorcroft’s account of his attempt :o use the Muzaffarabad route in 1823 
gives a graphic picture of the obstacles created by the rapacious hill-tribes; see 
Travels , ii. pp. 281 sqq . Compare also Lawrence, Valley, p. 200. 
2 Baron Hugel quite correctly notes a Kasmir tradition that the Baramula 
route was properly opened up only about 80 years before his own visit (1835) on 
the arrival of the Pathans; see Kaschmir , ii. p. 174. 
