THE VITASTA VALLEY. 
85 
1899.] 
Old frontier in 
Vitasta Valley. 
called Naran Thai. Near it stands a little temple, with a spring close by 
which is visited by pilgrims and is probably identical with the Narayana- 
sthana of the Nilamata. 1 
About a mile below this point and close to the village of Kiiad?'- 
niyar, 2 the river turns sharply round a steep and narrow spur project¬ 
ing into the valley from the north-west. A ledge of rocks continues 
the spur below the river-bed and forms the first serious rapid of the 
Vitasta below which boats cannot pass (see map). The road crosses the 
spur by a narrow and deep cut, known as DyarVgul. Kalhana’s Chronicle 
knows this curious cutting by the appropriate name of Yaksadara, ‘ the 
demon’s cleft.’ According to the tradition there recorded the operations 
by which Suyya, Avantivarman’s engineer, lowered the level of the 
Vitasta, extended to this point of the river bed. 3 
53. Two miles below Dyar^gul we pass near the village of Zehenpor 
some ancient sites vaguely described by Vigne 
and Hiigel. Still further down near the 
village of Gingal the map marks the ruins of a 
temple which I have not been able to visit. But no localities on this 
route are known to us from our old sources until after about three and a 
half marches we reach the side valley marked on the map as ‘ Peliasa.’ 
This valley and the large village at its entrance are known indeed to 
the Pahari population by the name of Peliasa. But the Kasmlris 
settled at several places along the Vitasta Valley call them Buliasa. 
This form of the name which I ascertained by local enquiries, enables 
us to identify this locality with the BolyIsaka of the Rajatarangini. 
Kalhana in his account of S'amkaravannan’s ill-fated expedition 
towards the Indus (a.d. 902) mentions Bolydsalca as the place where the 
Kasmir army retreating from Urasa reached the border of their own 
territory. 4 This reference is of special interest as it shows that Kasmir 
authority extended in Hindu times down to this point of the Valley. 
We can easily reconcile this fact with the existence of the ‘ Dvara ’ at 
Varahamula. 
The gorge at the latter place offered a convenient position for 
establishing a watch-station which was to secure control over the traffic 
and the collection of customs. But in regard to military defence 
a frontier-line in the immediate vicinity of the Kasmir Valley would 
have been very unsafe. I believe, therefore, that the Vitasta Valley 
1 See Nilamata , 1179, 1315, 1349. The name occurs also repeatedly in the several 
Y ara h aksetrama ha tiny a s. 
2 Perhaps the Khddandvihdru of Rdjat. iii. 14. 
3 Compare Rdjat. v. 87 note. 
4 See Rdjat. v. 225 note. * 
