1899.] 
THE ENVIRONS OF S'RINAOARA. 
159 
102. In my note on Rajat. i. 124 I have shown that an old tradi¬ 
tion which can he traced back to at least the 
sixteenth century, connected the Takht hill with 
the worship of S'iva Jyestharudra or, by another 
Tlrtha of Jyesthe§- 
vara. 
form of the name, Jyesthesvara (Jyestliesa). 1 And we find in fact a 
Liiiga known by this name worshipped even at the present day at 
the Tlrtha of Jyether, scarcely more than one mile from the east foot of 
the hill. 
Tliis Tirtha which undoubtedly derives its name from Jyesthesvara, 
lies in a glen of the hill-side, a short distance from the east shore of the 
Gagri Bal portion of the Dal. 2 3 Its sacred spring, designated in the 
comparatively modern Mahatmya as Jyesthanaga , forms a favorite 
object of pilgrimage for the Brahmans of STinagar. Fragments of 
colossal Lingas are found in the vicinity of Jyether and show with 
some other ancient remains now built into the Ziarats of Jyether and 
Gup a kar, that the site had been held sacred from an early time. 
It is in this vicinity that we may look for the ancient shrine of 
Jyestharudra, which Jalauka is said to have erected at STinagarl. But 
in the absence of distinct archaeological evidence its exact position 
cannot be determined. It is highly probable that whatever the 
origin and the date of the temple on the Takht hill may be, it was 
connected with the worship of Jyestharudra at Jyether. No other 
Tirtha is known in the immediate neighbourhood. 
The distance of the shrine from the Tirtha is scarcely greater than 
that of Lalitaditya’s temple at Mar tan d from the sacred spring in 
honour of which it was erected. And in both places the distance of 
the temple is easily accounted for by the more prominent position 
which was thus secured for it. There is yet another analogy in the 
case of the two shrines. Both have long ago ceased to be places of 
popular worship. But the sacred springs, to the presiding deity of 
which they were dedicated, continue to attract pilgrims though shorn 
of all splendour of temples and images. 
Kalhana in the same passage which mentions the erection of 
haras ’ on Brahman settlers from Aryade^a. 8 
The combination of the two local names suggests that by the Gopa- 
1 Compare Fourth Chron. 592, 853, 806. 
2 For Jyesthefoara > Jyether we have exact analogies in Kapa(e6varci > Kdther, 
Amarefvara > Amburher , etc. 
3 See i. 341. Agrahara is the regular term designating a Jaglr or piece of land 
bestowed on individuals or religious corporations, etc,; see note i. 87, 
