112 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF K AS' MIR. [Extra No. 2, 
was thus closely connected with the general scheme of regulation and 
drainage. Kalliana indicates this by referring immediately after the 
above passage to stone-embankments constructed along the Yitasta for 
seven Yoianas (circ. 42 miles) and the damming-in of the Yolur lake. 1 
On the land reclaimed new populous villages were founded. From 
the circular dykes which were built around these villages, they are said to 
have received the popular designation of kundala, ‘ ring.’ We actu¬ 
ally still find two villages on the low ground near the Yolur showing 
in their modern names the ending kund a l, derived from Skr. kundala. 
Ut,b^kund a l (map wrongly ‘ Watr koondl ’) and Mar^kundH are situated 
both close to the left bank of the Yitasta before it enters the marshes at 
the south-eastern end of the Volur. Their names and position seem to 
support the assumption that the present northerly course of the river 
above Trigrami and Shad 1 par is directly due to Suyya’s operations. 
Kalhana adds that even in his own time, i.e., two and a half cen¬ 
turies later, there were “ seen, growing on the banks of the former 
river-beds, old trees which bore the marks of the boat ropes fastened to 
them.” 2 Similarly the observant Chronicler noted the old pales secur- 
ing the embankments “ which the rivers displayed when low in the 
autumn.” 3 We must be grateful to him for the evident interest with 
which he ascertained and recorded the details of Avantivarman’s opera¬ 
tions. For he has thus enabled us even at the present day to trace 
some of the important changes then effected in the hydrography of the 
whole Yalley. 
72. Following the course of the Yitasta below its present conflu¬ 
ence with the Sindhu we soon pass the village 
Course of Vitasta to of Sambal where the route from STiuagar to 
wards the o ur a p| ie nor th of the Yolur lake and thence to the 
Trag a bal Pass, crosses the river. Here at some distance from the left 
bank is the site of the ancient Jayapura, the capital founded by King 
Jayapida in the second half of the eighth century. 4 It is marked by 
the village of And^rkoth situated on an island between the Sambal 
marsh and a branch of the canal known as Nor. An ancient causeway 
connects the island with the strip of land separating the marsh from 
the present course of the Yitasta. 
1 See v. 103 sqq. 
8 v. 101. 
8 It is still the common belief in Kasmir that “ no embankment on the riverside 
is sound unless it has a foundation of piles ” ; Lawrence, Valley, p. 211. Consider¬ 
ing the peaty nature of the soil along the lower course of the river, this belief may 
be justified by old experience. 
4 See for the identification of this site, Raj at. v. 506 note, and below, § 122. 
