122 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MlK. [Extra No. 2, 
Saffron-cultivation. 
water of tlie Lid a r was conducted to t-lie arid plateau of Martanda, 
deserve special mention. In the latter locality some work of this kind 
must have existed already at a far earlier period. Or else we could 
scarcely understand how it could have been chosen as the site for 
Lalitaditya’s magnificent temple and tlie flourishing township which 
once surrounded it. 1 
Of the other products of the Valley only two may be mentioned 
here, since they have from old times received 
special attention in all descriptions of the 
country. Already Kalhana in his introduction designates snffron and 
grapes among “the things that even in heaven are difficult to find but 
are common there.” 2 Snffron ( hunkuma ) has to the present day re¬ 
mained a famous product of Kasmir. Its cultivation has apparently 
from an early time specially flourished about Padmapura, the present 
Pampar, where the Udar lands are still chiefly utilized for it. The 
Fourth Chronicle describes at length the plant and its treatment. 
Abii-l-Fazl mentions it also in the same locality and devotes to it a long 
notice. 3 
The grapes of Kasmir which Kalhana mentions repeatedly, 4 * have 
not retained their area of cultivation with 
equal persistence. They must have enjoyed 
reputation outside Kasmir, because the name Kasmira is given by 
Sanskrit Kosas as the designation of a special variety of grapes. 6 They 
were once plentiful at Martanda where both Kalhana and the Fourth 
Chronicle mention them, and at many other localities. 6 
In Akbar’s time grapes were abundant in Kasmir aud very cheap ; 
but Abu-1-Fazl notes that the finer qualities were rare. 7 Since then, 
viticulture among the people generally has greatly declined. Though 
vines of remarkable size and age can still be found in many places, they 
are mostly wild. The produce of grapes is now restricted to a few old 
gardens at the mouth of the Sind Valley and to the new vineyards 
established on the Dal shores by the late Maharaja for the cultivation 
of French viues. 8 
Grapes. 
1 See Rajat. iv. 192. 
2 i. 42. 
s See Fourth Chron. 926 sqq. ; Aln-i-ATcb ., i. pp. 357 sq. 
4 Rajat. i. 42; iv. 192; vii. 498. 
6 See Bdhtlingfc-Roth, s. v. 
6 Fourth Chron. 851, 928. 
7 Ain-i-Alcb., i. p. 349. 
8 For a detailed account of Kasmir vineyards, see Lawrence, Valley , pp. 351 sq. 
