1899.] 
NORTHERN AND EASTERN MOUNTAIN RANGES. 
89 
old watch-towers are still found on the path which leads up to the pass 
behind the village of Drang. 
Besides the route marked by this old frontier-station there are 
others leading in the same direction. One is to the west over the 
Sitalvan Pass ; the other lies in the west and passing through the 
valley of Kroras descends directly to S'ardi along the Madhumati 
stream. The portion of the Kisanganga Valley into which these routes 
lead, can never have been of much importance itself though there are 
indications of gold-washing having been carried on in it. 1 2 But from 
S'ardi starts a route leading very directly, by the Kankatori (Sarasvati) 
River and over a high pass, into Cilas on the Indus ; a this line of cornu- 
nication may already in old times have brought some traffic to S'ardi. 
Owing to the inroads made by Cilasis and the restless Bomba 
chiefs of the Kisanganga Valley, the Pathan Governors found it neces¬ 
sary to settle Afridis at Drang and the neighbouring villages to guard 
the passes. The presence of these Af gh an colonies shows that the con¬ 
ditions which necessitated the maintenance of the old frontier watch- 
station at Draiiga, had altered little in the course oE centuries. 
56. Above S'ardi the course of the Kisanganga lies for a long 
distance through an almost inaccessible and 
Pass of^Dugdha- uninhabited gorge. Hence for over 30 miles 
eastwards we find no proper route across the 
mountain range. Kalhana gives us a vivid and interesting account of 
the difficulties offered by a winter-march along the latter when he 
describes the flight of the pretender Bhoja from S'irahsila castle to the 
Darads on the Upper Kisanganga. 3 
The line of communication we meet next is, however, an important 
one. It leads from the north shore of the Volur lake into that part 
of the Upper Kisanganga Valley which is known as Gurez, and connects 
with the routes leading to Astor and the Baltl territory on the Indus. 
The road used in recent years, and now improved by British engineers 
into the ‘ Gilgit Transport Road,’ crosses the range by the Trag a bal or 
Razdiangan Pass, nearly 12,000 feet high. But the route frequented in 
ancient times lay some eight miles further to the east. 
Kalhana refers in several places to the hill fort of Dugdhaghata 
which guarded the mountain-route leading into Kasrnir territory from 
inroads of the Darads. The latter can easily be shown to have held 
1 Compare Note B on S'arada ( Rajat. i. 36), §§ 2, 16. To this circumstance the 
of Drang owes probably the distinguishing designation of Sun^-Drang ‘ the Gold 
Drang,’ by which it is popularly known. 
2 See Bates, Gazetteer , p. 490. 
8 See Rajat. viii. 2710 sqq, 
J. i. 12 
