1899.] 
UPPER COURSE OF THE VITASTA. 
99 
valley it drains is known as tlie Kother Pargana and takes its name 
from the sacred tank of Kapatesvcirci. At the western end of the spur 
on the slope of which this Tirtha is situated, issue the magnificient 
springs of Ach a bal (Aksavala). They form a small stream by themselves, 
which flows into the Harsapatha. A short distance below the village 
of Khan a bal (map ‘ Kanbal ’) where the three streams hitherto men¬ 
tioned unite, their waters are joined from the north by those of the 
Lid a r. 
This river, the ancient Ledari , l receives a number of glacier-fed 
streams which drain the high range towards the Upper Sind Valley. It 
is hence in volume more considerable than any of the previously named 
affluents. The Ledari spreads in several branches through the wide 
valley forming the Parganas of Dachiinpbr and Khovurpor which take 
their names, ‘ Right Bank ’ and ‘ Left Bank,’ respectively, from their posi¬ 
tion relative to this river. In old days a canal constructed on the hill¬ 
side to the east carried the water of the Ledari, and with it fertility, to 
the barren plateau of Martanda or Matan. 2 
63 . At Khan a bal the Vitasta becomes navigable and continues 
. so on its whole course through the valley. 
Vitasta’s course m Tl . , 
alluvial plain I here too the great flat plain begins which 
stretches on both sides of the river down to 
Baramula in the north-west. In its course to the Volur lake, a direct 
distance of about 54 miles, the river falls only some 220 feet. 3 The 
slope in the general level of the plain is equally gentle. The bed of 
the river lies everywhere in the alluvial soil, the result of the deposition 
of sediment at flood times when the river overflows its banks. Down 
to STinagar the river keeps in a single bed and its islands are but 
small, in fact mere temporary sandbanks. The course is in parts very 
winding. But as far we can judge from the position of the old sites 
along the river, no great changes are likely to have taken place in 
historical times in this portion of the river’s course. 
When the river is low as during the winter, the banks rise on an 
average about 15 feet above the water. But in the spring when the 
snow melts, the great volume of water brought down from the moun¬ 
tains rises to the top of the banks and often overflows it. Dangerous 
floods may also follow long and heavy summer-rains, and sometimes 
1 See Rajal. i. 87. 
2 The construction of this canal by Zainu-l-‘abidin is described at length by 
Jonar. (Bo. ed.) 1232-60. It is probable that there existed earlier irrigation works 
on the same plateau. See below, § 111, 
3 See Drew, Jummoo, p. 163. 
