1899.] 
LOWER COURSE OF THE VITA ST A. 
107 
Section VI.— Lower Course of the Vjtasta. 
The Sindhu, 
68 . Immediately below S'rinagar we come to marshes which 
stretch along both sides of the river for a considerable distance. 
Those on the left bank, of which the Hukh a sar and Panz^nor Nambal 
are the nearest, are fed by mountain-streams of smaller volume. The 
marshes to the north of the river are more extensive and belong to the 
Delta of the Sind River, the greatest tributary of the Vitasta within the 
Valley. 
Our survey of the northern range of mountains has already taken 
us to the true headwaters of the Sind near the 
Zoji-La and the Amburnath Peak. Its tradi¬ 
tional source in the sacred Gaiiga-lake on Mount Haramukh has also 
been noticed. This great river has a course of over sixty miles and 
drains the largest and highest portion of the mountain-chain in the 
north. Its ancient name, Sindhu, means simply ‘ the river’ and is thus 
identical with the original designation of the Indus. 1 2 The Raja- 
tarangini mentions the river repeatedly, and it figures largely in the 
Nllamata, Haracaritacintamani and the Mahatmyas. 3 Everywhere it is 
identified with the Granga, as already by Alberuni’s informants. The 
valley of the Sind forms the district of Lar, the ancient Lahara, one of 
the main subdivisions of Kasmir territory. 
Where this valley debouches into the great Kasmir plain, near the 
village of Dud^rhSm, the old Dugdhasrama, the river spreads out in 
numerous branches. These form an extensive Delta, covered in its 
greatest portion by shallow marshes and known as Anch'ar. Its eastern 
side extends along the strip of high ground which connects STinagar 
with the foot of the spur at the mouth of the Sind Valley. The western 
1 It is customary in Kasmir to distinguish the two rivers by giving the designation 
of * the Gi’eat Sind (Bud Sind),’ to the Indus. This is found as ‘ Brhatsindhiv,* 
already in the Haracaritacintamani, xii. 45. 
The identity of the two river names has led to a great deal of confusion in 
geographical works down to the beginning of the present century. The Sind River 
of Kasmir was elevated to the rank of one of the chief sources of the Indus, or else 
represented as a branch of the great river taking its way through Kasmir (!). This 
curious error is traceable, e.g., in the map of c L’Empire du Grand Mogol * reproduced 
in Bernier’s Travels , ed. Constable, p. 238, from the Paris Edition of 1670, and in 
the map of Ancient India attached to Tieffenthaler, Description de V Inde, 1786, 
p. 60. Compare Huger, Kaschmir, i. p. 330. Even Wilson, writing in 1825, says 
of the Kasmir Sind that “ it is not improbably a branch of the Indus.” 
2 See Bajat, i. 57 note; also iv. 391; v. 97 sqq. ; viii. 1129; Jonar. 982; S’rtv. iv. 
110, 227, etc. 
