U4 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. [Extra No. 2, 
Old limits of Prava¬ 
rapura. 
has been shown above that this second outflow of the Dal also shared 
the old name of Mahasarit. 1 2 
93. The name of the village Saritaka where the demon showed 
to the king the proper site for his city, has 
long ago disappeared. Its position, however, 
is sufficiently marked by the mention of the 
goddess S'cirikd. The latter, a form of Durga, has since ancient times been 
worshipped on the hill which rises to the north of the central part of 
Srinagar and is still called after her. The modern name of the hill, 
Har a parvat, is the regular phonetic derivative of Skr. Sarikaparvata. 
By this name it is designated in the latter Chronicles and Mahatmyas. 8 
Another passage of the Ttajataranginl shows that the term Vetala- 
siitrapata , * the demon’s measuring line,’ clearly connected with the 
above legend, was also in later times applied to the limits of the oldest 
part of Pravarapura 3 . But our materials do not enable us to ascer¬ 
tain these limits in detail. Kalhana it is true, has not failed to specify 
them, as he mentions the temples of Vardhanasvamin and Visvakarman 
as marking the extreme ends of Pravarasena’s city 4 * . Unfortunately 
the position of neither of these structures can now be traced. 
So much, however, is clear that the new city was at first confined 
to the right bank of the river. Kalhana tells this distinctly, 6 and 
those sites and structures which he particularly mentions in his de¬ 
scription of Pravarasena’s capital, are all found as far as they can be 
identified, on the right bank. The account of Hiuen Tsiang and the 
T'ang Annals show that even in the 7th century Pravarapura extended 
mainly along the eastern bank of the river. 6 
Kalhana follows up his account of the foundation of the city with 
a brief description of its splendours 7 . He 
tio K n a of a pr a avampura P ' noteS tte ^yagant story of its having 
once counted thirty-six lakhs of houses, and 
1 Compare § 65. 
2 See note iii. 339-349. HarQ is the Kasmirl name of the goddess Sarika as 
well as of the S'arikd bird (Maina); comp. Buhler, Report, pp. 16 sq. 
Panjabis and other foreign visitors from India have by a popular etymology 
turned the * Hill of S'arika ’ into the ‘ Hill of Hari (Visnu) ’ or the ‘ Verdant Hill.* 
The latter interpretation could be justified only on the principle of lucus a non 
lucendo ; for verdure is scarce indeed on the rocky faces of the Sarikaparvata. 
Dr. Bernier already, Travels, p. 398, was told this popular etymology, probably by 
his friends from Delhi. 
8 See vi. 191 note. 
4 iii. 357. 
6 iii. 358. 
® See above, §§ 8, 10. 
7 iii. 357-363. 
