1899.] 
THE ENVIRONS OF S'RINAGARA. 
161 
103. A sacred site of far greater fame and importance is that of 
Tirtha of Suresvari. the present village ° f U ' h - r which lieS ab ° Ut 
two miles further north on the Dal shore and 
a little beyond the Mughal garden of Nishat. The site was known in 
ancient times as Suresvariksetra (‘the field of Suresvari’). 1 It was sacred 
to Durga-Suresvari who is still worshipped on a high crag rising from 
the mountain range to the east of Isobar village. The seat of the 
goddess is on a rugged rock some 3000 feet above the village, offering no 
possible room for any building. The numerous shrines erected in her 
honour were hence built on the gently sloping shore of the lake below. 
The Tirtha of Suresvari is often referred to in Kalhana’s Chro¬ 
nicle and other Kasmirian texts as a spot of exceptional holiness. It 
was particularly sought by the pious as a place to die at. The pilgrim¬ 
age to Suresvari is connected with visits to several sacred springs in 
and about Isobar. One of them, S'atcidhara, is already mentioned by 
Ksemendra. 2 It is passed in a narrow gorge some 1500 feet below the 
rock of Suresvari. 
Isobar derives its present name from the shrine of Isesvara which 
King Samdhimat-Aryaraja according to the Rajatarangini erected in 
honour of his Guru Isana. 3 An earlier form, Istbror, which is found in 
an old gloss of the Chronicle and evidently was heard also by Abu-1-Fazl, 
helps to connect Isobar and Isesvara. 4 
Isobar is still much frequented as a pilgrimage place. The chief 
attraction is a sacred spring known as Guptaganga which fills an ancient 
stone-lined tank in the centre of the village. This conveniently acces¬ 
sible Tirtha is the scene of a very popular pilgrimage on the Vaisakhi 
day and has fairly obscured the importance of the mountain seat of 
Suresvari. A ruined mound immediately behind the tank is popularly 
believed to mark the site of the Isesvara shrine. Numerous remains 
of ancient buildings are found around the sacred springs and elsewhere 
in the village. They probably belong to the various other temples 
the erection of which is mentioned by Kalhana at the site of Suresvari. 5 
Passing round the foot of the ridge on which Suresvari is 
worshipped, we come to the small village of 
■*. , Harvan which the old glossator ot the tvajata- 
i ripurGsv^rSi. $ # 
rangini identifies with Sadarhadvana the 
1 Compare for Sureivarl and the site of Isobar, note v. 37. 
2 See Samay. ii. 29. 
8 See Rdjat. ii. 134 note. 
* -bar is a modern contraction for -brdr, from Skr. bhattaraka, which in Kasmlr 
local names has often taken the place of its synonym -Uvara ; comp, e.g., Skr. 
Vijayeivara > Ks. VijQbrdr. 
5 See Rdjat. v. 37, 40 sq ,; viii. 3365. 
J. i. 21 
