SOIL AND CLIMATE OF THE VALLEY. 
117 
1899.] 
This portion of the country figures but little in Kalhana’s narrative ; 
hence we find in the Rajatarahginl no reference to the Pohur or any 
of its affluents. The old name of the river is uncertain. Jonaraja in a 
passage which is found only in the Bombay edition, calls this river 
Pahara ; the Mahatmyas vary between Prahara and Prahara. 1 2 Of the 
side-streams the Mav u r (map ‘ Maur’) flowing through the Machipor 
Pargana is named in the Nilamata as Mdhurl. % The name of the Hamal 
stream is identical with that of the Pargana through which its course 
lies, the ancient S'amald . 3 
About 18 miles from the point where the Yitasta leaves the Volur, 
it reaches the entrance of the gorge of Baramula. Through this defile 
we have already before followed the course of the river. At Baramula 
navigation ceases. After passing with a violent current the ravine 
immediately below the town, the river, so placid within the Yalley, 
turns into a large torrent rushing down in falls and rapids. 
Section YII.—Soil and Climate op the Yalley. 
Alluvial Plateaus 
(Udar). 
76 . 0 ur survey of Kasmir rivers has taken us along that great 
flat of river alluvium which forms the lowest 
and most fertile part of the Yalley. We 
must now turn to the higher ground of the 
Yale which consists of the peculiar plateaus already alluded to. 
The genuine Kasmiri term for these plateaus is udar, found in its 
Sanskrit form as uddara in the Chronicles. Auother modern designa¬ 
tion of Persian origin now often used, is karewa. The word uddara is 
twice found as an ending of local names in the Rajatararigini 4 * , while 
the latter Chronicles use it frequently in designations of well-known 
plateaus. 6 An earlier Sanskrit term no longer surviving in use, is 
suda, originally meaning ‘ barren waste ground.’ Kalhana employs it 
when speaking of the well-known Dam a dar Udar. 6 
The Udars of the Kasmir Yalleys are usually considered by geolo¬ 
gists to be due to lacustrine deposits. They appear either isolated by 
1 See Jonar. (Bo. ed.) 1150, 1152 ; Vitastdmdh. xxvii. 2; Svayamhhdmdh. 
2 Nilamata, 1322 sqq. 
3 See Bdjat. vii. 159 note. 
4 Locanodddra and Dliyanodddra, Rdjat. viii. 1427 note. 
6 See Gusikodddra, the Udar of Gus near Ramuh, S'riv. iv. 465, 592, 596; Ddmo- 
darodddra, the Datn a dar Udar, S'riv. iv. 618 ; Laulapurodddra, Fourth Chron. 175 etc 
6 See Rdjat. i, 156 note. 
