120 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MlR. [Extra No. 2, 
Cultivation. 
In this as in other respects there is nothing to suggest any material 
change of the climatic conditions during historical times. Kalhana, it 
is true, in describing the reign of Abhimanyu I., speaks of deep snow 
as “ falling each year to cause distress to the Bauddhas ” and obliging 
the king to pass six months of the cold season in Darvabhisara. But 
the whole story there related is nothing but a mere rechauffe of the 
ancient legend told in the Nilamata of the annual migrations caused 
by the presence of the Pisacas. It therefore can claim no historical 
value whatever. 1 
78 . Cultivation such as appears to have been carried on in Kasmir 
since the earliest historical period, must neces¬ 
sarily leave its traces in the topography of a 
country and may hence claim a passing notice. 
Rice has as far as we can go back, always been the largest and 
most important produce of the Valley. Its character as the main cereal 
is sufficiently emphasized by the fact that it is usually referred to in 
the Chronicles by the simple term of dhanya 1 grain.’ 2 The conditions 
of its cultivation presuppose an extensive system of irrigation, and for 
this the Kasmir Valley with its abundance of streams and springs is 
admirably adapted by nature. The elaborate arrangements which 
exist at present for taking water from the streams large and small and 
distributing it over all the ground capable of irrigation, will be found 
fully detailed in Mr. Lawrence’s valuable and exhaustive account of 
Kasmir agriculture. 3 There is every reason to believe that they have 
come down with little, if any, change from a very early period. 
Many of the larger irrigation channels which intersect the fertile 
Irrigation alluvial flats, or skirt the terraced slopes of 
the Udars and mountain-sides, are shown on 
the map ; see, e.g., the tracts on the lower course of the Lid a r, Vesau, 
Sind, and other rivers. In old times when the population was larger 
than now, much land which is at present allowed to lie waste on the 
liill-sides, on the Udars and in the low-lying tracts by the marshes, 
must have been under cultivation. 4 I have often come across traces of 
old irrigation-cuts long ago abandoned, which brought down the water 
of the melting snows from alpine plateaus high above the forest zone. 
Their distance from any lands capable of rice-cultivation is so great 
1 See i. 180, and note i. 184. 
2 “ The Kashmiris, so far, have considered no crop worthy of attention save 
rice;” Lawrence, Valley , p. 319. 
3 See Valley , pp. 323 sq. 
4 Compare Valley, pp. 239 and 356, as to the extensive areas which were once 
cultivated and are likely to be so again in future. 
