86 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. 
[Extra No. 2 
below Varahamula was held as an outlying frontier-tract as far as the 
present Buliasa. It is exactly a few miles below this place that ascend¬ 
ing the Valley the first serious difficulties are encountered on the road. 
An advanced frontier-post could scarcely have occupied a strategically 
more advantageous position. 
The conclusion here indicated is fully supported by what Kalhana’s 
narrative tells us of a locality almost exactly opposite to Buliasa. 
Kalhana mentions in two places a place called Viranaka in connection 
with events which make it clear that it lay in the Vitasta Valley and 
just on the border of Kasmir territory. 1 2 I have been able to trace the 
position of Viranaka at the modern hill-village of Viran , near the left 
bank of the Vitasta and only a short distance above Buliasa. The 
valley below the old frontier thus marked is now known as Bvarbidi. 
Its ancient name is given by an old gloss of the RajatarahginI which 
speaks of Bolyasaka as situated in DvaravatI. Local enquiries have 
shown me that even to the present day popular tradition indicates a 
ridge a short distance above Buliasa as the eastern limit of Dvarbidl. 3 
In the account of S'amkaravarman’s above-mentioned expedition six 
marches are reckoned from the capital of Urasa to Bolyasaka, This 
agrees exactly with the present reckoning which also counts six marches 
from the vicinity of Buliasa to Abbottabad. 3 Near this place, the 
modern head-quarter of the Hazara District, the old capital of Urasa 
was in all probability situated. 
54 . It remains for us to notice briefly what is known of ancient 
localities on the left side of the Valley. As 
already explained there was no great line of 
communication on this side corresponding to the present Murree- 
Baramula Road. Yet for two marches down the Valley, as far as UrI, 
the route of the left bank is likely to have been much frequented. 
From UrI a convenient route leads over the easy Haji Pir Pass to 
Prunts or Parnotsa. This pass owing to its small elevation, only 8500 
feet, is never completely closed by snow. It is hence much used 
during the winter-months when the more direct routes to Kasmir via 
the Pir Pantsal, Tos^maidan or other high Passes are rendered imprac¬ 
ticable. 
Left bank of Vitasta. 
1 See Rdjat. v. 214 and viii. 409. In the first passage we hear of an attack 
made on Viranaka by the chief commander of the frontier posts ( dvdresa ). In the 
second Viranaka is referred to as a settlement of Khasas which offered the first safe 
refuge to Sussala when defeated before Varahamula, A.D. 1111. 
2 See Rdjat. v. 225 and note v. 214. 
8 Compare Rdjat. v. 217 note; Cunningham, Anc. Geogr ., p. 104, and Drew, 
Jummoo, p. 528. 
