The Northern Barrier of India. A popular account of the Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, etc

Front matter

THE NORTHERN BARRIER OF INDIA BY THE SAME AUTHOR, Medium Svo, cloth, 42s. THE JUMMOO AND KASHMIR TERRITORIES. A GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT. Illustrated by Six Folding Coloured Maps, numerous Plates, and Folding Sections. London: EDWARD STANFORD. D A THE NORTHERN BARRIER OF INDIA A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE JUMMOO AND KASHMIR TERRITORIES. BY FREDERIC DRW^ A3S00, "T THK ROVAL SCHOOL OF MINUS ; ASSISTANT MASTER OP ETON COLLEGE; sf.RVFflf.T OF I»HB XARA.RAJA OP KASHMIR'S ftIUlVICE. WIT LI MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD. 55, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 18 77.

Preface

. In the present volume, I have selected from my work ' The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories ' those parts which are most likely to interest the general reader. To the other book I would refer any who may wish for more detailed information on such subjects as the physical con dition of the country, the distribution of languages and faiths within it, its political organization, or the routes that traverse it. All of these are there more fully treated, and by the accompanying maps and sections illustrated. The map accompanying the present work shows par ticularly the distribution of Races ; but it will also be found a sufficient topographical guide through the de scriptions of the country. For both the text and the map, I have adopted, in spelling the native names, the new Indian system of transliteration.

In this the ten vowel sounds which occur in the languages of Northern India are represented by the five vowels of our alphabet, by an accentuation (to denote elongation) of three of them, and by two diph thongs. The following table will make clear to anyone who speaks English the exact native Indian pronunciation of these vowels. In the middle column is an English VI PREFACF. word whose vowel-sound corresponds with that of the character to the left of it ; while the third column shows the same word as it would be spelt on the Indian system, to retain its original sound. English -ord to she" Indian vowel. exempliiylhe pronuncmt.on. the same. a bun ban a palm pam i bin bin i been bin u pull pul u pool pul e day de o bowl bol ai fine fain au fowl faul As to the consonants, it need only be said that g is always hard, j is to be pronounced as in the Eng lish word yam, and that ch has the power of ch in church.

I have made an exception to the above rules in the name ' Jummoo,' which must be pronounced in English fashion. F. D. Eton College, December, 1876. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. The Outer Hills

Approach through India — Foot of the hills — City of Jummoo — Character of the hills — Climate — Vegetation — Cultivated crops . . Page 1

Chapter II. Inhabitants Of The Outer Hills

Race map — Classification of races — Distribution of faiths — The Dogra race — Brahmans — Rajputs — Middle and lower castes — Lowest castes and their origin — Inhabitants of Chibhal — Muhammadans and Rajputs — Villages and towns — Place of pilgrimage — Origin of the name Dogra 18

Chapter III. The Court Of Jummoo

Its early state — Ascendency of the Sikhs — Rise of Gulab Singh — His character — His acquisitions of territory — Cession of Kashmir — The present Maharaja — His daily court — Special Darbars — Presentation of Nazars — Festival of Holi — The Nautch — A hunt — A royal marriage 40

Chapter X. Gilgit And The Frontier

Village and fort of Gilgit — Productions of Gilgit — Punial — Village forts — The extreme boundary — Neighbouring states . . . . CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XL THE DARD PEOPLE.

Dr. Leitner's work — Description of the Dards — Caste subdivisions — Peculiar customs — Muhammadanism among the Dards — Buddhist Dards — Republics Page 167

Chapter XII. Gilgit History

Dynastic changes — Gaur Rahman — Conquest by the Sikhs — Succession of the Dogras — Expulsion of the Dogras — Reconquest by the Dogras — Attack on Yasin — Confederation of the tribes — Expedition to Darel — Hayward's visit to Yasin — Death of Hayward . . . . 180

Chapter XIII. Baltistan

Rondu — : Basho — Katsura — Skardu — Tibetan climate — Taking of /i Skardu — Shigar — Basha — Arandu glacier — Braldu — K 2 — Deosai plateau 200 CHAPTEE XIV. THE BALTf PEOPLE. Their origin — Their appearance — Balti emigrants — Muhammadan sects 220

Chapter XV. Polo In Baltistan

Antiquity of the game — Its revival in India — The play in Baltistan — The ponies — The stick — Comparison with the English game . . 226

Chapter XVI. Skardu To Leh

Valley of the Indus — Alluvial fans — Village oases — Garkon — Dah — Buddhist Dards — Khalsi — The road from Kashmir — Khalsi to Leh — Position of Leh 239 b CONTENTS. X CHAPTEE XVII. THE INHABITANTS OF LADAKH. Turanian features — Character of the Ladakhis — Their dress — The Champas — Khambas — Mode of living — Polyandry — Various customs — Buddhist religion Page 251 CHAPTEE XVIII. DISTRICTS OF LADAKH. The mountain ranges — The Dras valley — Contrast with Kashmir — Kargil — Zanskar — Its climate — People of Zanskar — Their trade — The road to Nubra — Nubra — Charasa — Old glaciers — Lofty peaks 275

CHAPTER XIX. THE HIGH VALLEYS OF LADAKH.

Rupshu — Its climate — Tents of the Champas — Rarity of the air — The Salt Lake valley — The Higher Indus valley — The wild ass — Pangkong lake — Changchenmo 296

CHAPTER XX. THE PLATEAUS.

Barrenness of the ground — Mode of travelling — Lingzhithang plain — Lokzhung mountains — Kuenlun plains — Kuenlun mountains Animal life — Ice-beds — Conclusion LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. l'Aorc A group of Dards. ( Woodbury-type, from a photograph by Frith) Frontispiece Mosque of Shah Hamadan, Sirinagar xii Dogra Soldier. (From a photograph) 23 Gaddis. (From a photograph) 78 Akhnur Fort, on the Chinab 91 Rough plan of the Sarae at Saidabad .. ■ 101 View from near Gulmarg 117 Glacier near Sonamarg 121 View approaching Baltal 122 A Kangri 127 Kashmiri Pandits. ( Woodbury-type, from a photograph by Frith) to face page 128 Kashmiri Boatmen. ( Woodbury-type, from a photograph by Frith) to face page 131 The City of Sirinagar. (From a photograph by Frith) 137 Section across Tarshing Glacier 149 Gilgit Fort in 1870 159 Hayward's Grave 199 Dogra Fort, Skardu 208 K 2, 28,265 feet 214 Polosticks 235 Ladakhi cap 253 Figure of Chamba 270 Kagani 271 Granite mountains 281 Section through the Leh Range 289 High peaks east of Nubra 294 Valley in the Lokzhung Range 323 Map of India \ Map of the Territories, coloured to show the distribution of Races I Isometric View of the mountains between the Panjab and | Kashmir / MOSQUE OP SHAH HAMADAN, SIRINAGAR. THE NORTHERN BARRIER OF INDIA.

Chapter I. The Outer Hills

I shall endeavour to picture to the reader the most northerly portion of the large mountain mass whose base skirts the flat and fertile plains of India, extending for twelve hundred miles in one grand curve and forming the northern boundary of our Eastern Empire. The northern most portion, that which lies immediately between India and the nations who dwell in the heart of Asia, is occu pied by a kingdom of which we shall visit almost every corner, the kingdom ruled by the Maharaja of Jummoo and Kashmir. Since the parts of the country governed by that ruler have no other bond of cohesion than the fact of his rule, no simple name for it exists ; while for short it is sometimes called Kashmir, from the far-famed country which lies in its midst, a fuller, though not complete, designation is that which I have adopted, namely, " Jummoo and Kashmir Territories."

From the position of this kingdom at the extremity of the great barrier which separates our warm and well peopled dominions from the bare and thinly-inhabited B plateaus of Tibet and Turkistan, its physical and other characters derive an importance beyond that which its size, or population, or value measured in revenues, would other wise bear. Hence an account of it, such as ten years of familiarity with the country and its people justifies me in now attempting to give in this short and condensed form, may have an interest both for those who, looking to the wider questions of politics and of science, social or physical, make India but one item in their consider ations ; and for those who, caring to know all details of the country and people we directly or indirectly rule in Asia, will wish for a more minute knowledge of the many races who here dwell and of the homes which they have made, on plain or mountain slope, in fertile valley or in forest, or by pitching their narrow tents amid bare and stony expanses, such as are to be found among the varied and much-furrowed ridges of the great Himalayan range.

It may be well to begin with a comparison of the size, both of India generally and of this part which we shall dwell on, with the countries of Europe, and for this purpose we may refer to the map of India at the end of the work. The space that is coloured represents all that is attached, by one tie or another, to the British Crown ; of this the north and south measure (from Cape Comorin to the northernmost corner) is as far as from Gibraltar to Stock holm, while across India from west to east, from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges, is a distance equal to that from London to the Black Sea shore. The little map of England, drawn to the same scale, will give an idea of its comparative area ; and it will be seen APPROACH THROUGH INDIA. that the Jummoo and Kashmir territories themselves (coloured yellow on the map) are not less in extent than England and Wales together ; they have in fact an area of about 68,000 square miles.

Perhaps never is the traveller in India more strongly impressed with the idea of its magnitude than in the journey from Calcutta north-westwards. Here the route is over the plain that separates the hills and table-land of the Peninsula from the Himalaya ; a plain that, with a width averaging fully a hundred and fifty miles, extends ten times that distance in length. As one goes through this — whether for days and nights in the railway train, or, as formerly, for weeks in the dak-gari — its unbroken flatness allows the great extent to impress itself on the mind, while the change from the fuller vegetation of Bengal to the clumps of trees scattered among continuous far-extending corn-fields in the North-West Provinces, and the yet more open ground of the Panjab, induces a still better appreciation of the magnitude of the Plains of India.

The Panjab itself is the widest expanse of this great plain, though, from the comparative dryness of its climate, not the richest. The mountain ridges, though seldom sighted by the traveller, had lain on his right hand all through the jour ney. Along the chief part of their course the land is held by native princes of various degrees of power and of dependence on the British Government. For more than 500 miles in length the Ruler of Nipal holds a broad band of mountains. The next section, which includes Kumaon and Garhwal, is ruled directly by our government. Then comes a collection of rajas, separately of small importance, in that part of which Simla may be counted the centre. This is followed by another district under British rule, that of Kangra, which is known afar for the fine flavour of its tea and is admired by those who have visited the spot for its scenery, combining the look of quiet comfort with bold mountain views.

Lastly, edging that part of the Panjab which lies between the Ravi and Jhelam rivers, lie the hills which we shall visit. The reader should now turn to the larger map, which depicts, on a scale of 32 miles to an inch, the tract marked out by a rectangle in the smaller one. On this the colouring, of one tint or another, shows what is included in the Maharaja of Kashmir's dominions, while each separate tint denotes the tract occupied by one of the many races he governs. From Lahor, a city that was the old capital, and is at this day the seat of our government, of the Panjab, a drive of 60 miles, still on the unbroken flat, brings one to Syalkot, the last British Station. Here are the civil authorities of the Syalkot District and a brigade of troops in cantonments. Six miles beyond Syalkot we cross the frontier ; on entering the dominions of the Maharaja of Kashmir, no immediate physical change is seen ; for the last portion of the great plain makes part of the Maharaja's territories.

We are still on the wonderful wide plain of India, where the eye tires in contemplating the unvaried level. As in the Panjab, the trees here also are small and scant of foliage, either scattered singly or grouped round wells ; here also the villages are clumps of low, flat-roofed, mud huts, not inviting in look, yet commodious for the people, with their kind of life. The soil, either clay or THEIR EXTENT. 5 loam, at certain times looks sterile and at others is covered with verdure. Dull enough is the aspect of this plain when the crops are off, and the ground is a bare caked surface of dried mud, when the hot-weather haze, hiding the distant view, makes the dusty ground shade off into a dusty air. But at other times of the year — as in March, when spring is well advanced, when the trees are in bloom, and the wheat over large undivided spaces is coming into ear — the prospect is bright and agreeable.

At such a season the air is clear, and one sights the snow mountains from afar. As we approach, darker ranges of less lofty hills come more strongly into view ; getting nearer still, we see that a succession of comparatively low ridges, some rugged and broken by ravines, some regular and forest-covered, intervene between the plain and the high mountains. These constitute a tract to which J give the name of " Outer Hills." They edge the Himalaya with great uni formity of character along its whole course. In these territories they extend for 150 miles, from the river Ravi on the east to the Jhelam on the west. Going inwards one has to pass over a width of them varying from fourteen to thirty-six miles before coming to the next higher class of mountains. Now among these Outer Hills live the men of the race called Dogra, who, headed by the Maharaja, him self a Dogra, rule all the territories; here also is the capital, Jummoo.

As well for these reasons as for the sake of beginning with the skirts of the mountain mass, the first chapters will be devoted to an account of the Outer Hills, of their inhabitants, and of the Court of Jummoo. The last portion of the plain before coming to the hills has here none of that luxuriant and swampy forest called Terai, which edges the Eastern Himalayas ; there are but patches of wood, of the trees characteristic of the dry Panjab climate, in great part of a fine-leaved acacia. The plain, which is 1000 feet above the sea (havingattained that level by an imperceptible slope from Calcutta upwards), is at this part cut into by gullies which lead down from the hills ; these are what in India are called nullahs (nala) ; most of them are dry for the greater part of the year, but in the rainy season they will often be filled by what for the time is a wide aud swift river, discoloured by red mud washed from the hills above.

One or two of the wider valleys thus made, as well as some tracts of the higher plain, are covered with a long tufty jungle - grass, among which black -buck or antelope abound. These animals, encouraged by the game laws of the country, which preserve the pursuit of them for the ruler, spread into the cultivated parts and even herd with the cattle. The hills begin along a line that can be traced on the map by the words " Daman-i-Koh, or Foot of the Hills." Daman-i-Koh is the Persian phrase, which means literally " Skirt of the Mountain." The outermost ridge of all is one that for seventy miles bears one character. It rises from the flat with a regular and gentle slope which continues till a height of some two thousand feet above the sea is reached ; this slope is indented with many drainage valleys, not cut steep, but making undulations of the ground transverse to the run of the ridge.

The surface of the hills is very stony ; rounded pebbles cover FIRST RISE FROM THE PLAIN. 7 nearly the whole of it, for the strata beneath are com posed partly of pebble-beds. Still it bears vegetation ; the hills are indeed clothed with forest ; it is a close forest of trees twenty and thirty feet in height, mostly of two species of acacia and of Zizyphus jujuba* with an underwood of brenkar, a shrub which grows to the height of three or four feet, and has a white flower that gives out a sickly smell. Thus clothed the slope continues up to a crest, beyond which there is a sudden fall along the whole line of it, an escarpment formed of sandstone cliffs of some hundreds of feet of vertical height. Within, for many miles, is a broken hilly tract. On the outermost ridge, at the very first rise of the hills out of the plain, the city or town of Jummoo is built, on a slightly sloping plateau two or three hundred feet above the flat country and some 1200 feet above the sea.

The ridge is here cut through by the valley of the Tavi River, which flows out to the plains at a level more than 200 feet below the town, between steep but wooded banks. Coming from the Panjab, one passes, while still on the plain, through two or three miles of the close forest of acacia-trees with bushy underwood ; then one comes to the river-bed, an expanse of rounded pebbles, with the stream flowing in the middle — a stream usually shallow and gentle, but which is sometimes so swollen with floods as to rush with violence over the whole wide bed, at which times it is impassable. As one fords this Tavi * The native names of the acacias are Phuldi (A. modesta), and Eikar (A. Arabica) ; the latter is called Babul in Hindostan. The native name of the Zizyphus jujuba is Ber. River, one sees how, in coming from the upper country, it breaks through, so to say, the outermost range ; on its right bank the hill on which Jummoo is built, and on its left a corresponding one, crowned by Bao Fort, form, as it were, a gateway to the inner country.

To reach the town after crossing the stream, we have again to pass through the wood, along a narrow lane, at a turn of which we find ourselves in front of the principal gate, placed at the top of a short but steep ascent. At this spot travelling on wheels comes to an end ; from here onwards carriage is performed by camels, pack horses, elephants, or coolis. The bullock-carts that up to this point have been the great means of goods traffic are left here, and their contents are brought into the city mostly on men's backs. After passing the entrance-gate, in doing which we come on to the plateau, we advance on more level ground, along a wide street or bazaar which gives the promise of a comfortably-built town ; but a little farther, and one suddenly becomes lost in a maze of narrow streets and lanes of low single-storied houses and little narrow shops.

But the way is crowded, and business is brisk, and most of the people have a well-to-do look. A mile or so of this, on a gradual rise, brings us to the centre of interest of the place — an open, irregular square, called the Mandi, or Public Place. This is the spot where all the business of the Government is done ; it is a space entirely surrounded by Government buildings. On three sides are public offices, built with considerable taste; their lower stories have a line of arches that suit the native practice of doing business half out of doors. The farther side of the square P0S1TL0N OF JUMMOO. 9 has a nearly similar building, where the Maharaja holds his ordinary daily Darbar or Court ; behind this is seen the more lofty pile of the inner palace. The town, of which the area is about a square mile, and the population 40,000, is bounded on two sides by the cliff or steep slope that overhangs the river-bed.

Some of the buildings of the Maharaja's Palace are placed at the very edge of the most precipitous part, and they command a view over the flat valley of the river, where it widens above the gorge, over alluvial islands covered with gardens and groves, on to inner lines of hill with a surface of broken cliff and scattered forest, and to higher mountains beyond, which are often snow-covered. The steep slopes close at hand, and those of the opposite hill, are clothed with the same forest that covers the plain through which the town was approached ; it gives shelter to a good deal of game, chiefly pig, spotted deer, and nilgae, which, from the strictness of the game laws, are found up to the skirts of the city. With the exception of the palace and the public buildings surrounding the square, there is not much that is architecturally attractive.

Nearly all the city, as before said, is of single-storied houses, which one quite overtops in going through the streets on an elephant. But there rise up among them a few large houses, mansions so to say, which have been built by some of the Court people, or of the richer merchants of the place; the house of the family of the chief ministers, Diwan Jawala Sahai, and his son Diwan Kirpa Ram, especially, is a large pile of buildings. Then at one edge of the town, in a picturesque position overlooking the river valley, are a few houses built after the fashion of those that Englishmen live in in India ; these the Maharaja has erected for the accommodation of European travellers, whether stray visitors or guests of his own, who now and then reach Jummoo. Hindu temples also rise among the dwellings ; their convex-curved spires are con spicuous objects ; the principal one, in the lower part of the town, is a plain but fine, well-proportioned building ; and in the same quadrangle with it is a smaller, gilt domed temple, built in memory of Maharaja Gulab Singh.

New temples arise ; of late years several have been built ; one of these has been erected by the chief minister ; as one approaches Jummoo through the plain, its tall spire and gilt pinnacle catch the eye from a distance. Jummoo, though it is a good deal resorted to for trade and other business, is not usually liked by natives as a place to live in. The comfort of a native of India depends very much on the accessibility of good water, and here one is obliged either to use the water of the tanks, not really fit for drinking, or to fetch the river water from below. The position of the town, on a stony hill and en closed by forest, prevents any pleasant way of egress from it. But a redeeming point is the beauty of the prospect. We have seen how, from the edge of the cliff, a wide view opens of the nearer ridges of the Himalayas, with peep3 of the more lofty mountains behind.

From other points we can look south and west over the plain of the Panjab, and from our elevation can command a great and beautiful expanse of it. Near at hand are rounded masses of the gi-een foliage of the forest ; beyond is more open ground, with villages scattered, and the waters of the Tavi, in its ROCKS, RIDGES, AND RAVINES. various channels, shining between ; in the distance the hues change to grey and purple, but the land ends off with the sharp line made by the earth's curvature, distinct as the horizon at sea. Let us now turn again towards the mountains. I have said that within the outermost ridge there is an irregular, broken, hilly country ; it is a country of ridges and sloping plateaus, cut through by narrow steep ravines, carved out of a sandstone rock. It is easy here to lose one's way and to find one's self separated by some in accessible cliff or impracticable ravine from one's goal.

To these rocks a noted prison-breaker once escaped, and, aided by an intimate knowledge of the ground, for long weeks kept clear of a whole regiment that was sent to capture him. A great part of the surface of these hills is of the bare grey sandstone rock uncovered by soil, but in some places grass and bushes have got a footing upon it, and here and there is cultivated space enough to support a family or two, or a little hamlet, but of necessity it is a tract very thinly peopled as well as difficult of access ; the paths from hamlet to hamlet are but tracks marked by the passage of feet over the sandstone, or sometimes down steps cut into it ; from the inaccessibility of the cliffs, and the steepness of the ravines, the ways are tediously round about, and they are tiresome from the frequent rise and fall.

This irregular combination of ridges continues, as one goes on, to a distance of ten or twelve miles from the outer skirt of the hills ; then we come to a wide longitu dinal valley, such as is called in the more eastern Hirnalayas a dun. This varies in width from one to four miles ; it is itself cut through by ravines ; close by Dansa.1 a branch of the Tavi flows along in a steep cliffed ravine at a level some two hundred feet below7 the flat of the main valley ; the Tavi River itself flows in a similar ravine, and at that low level winds across the dun. The next range we come to goes by the name of Karai Thar, the latter word of which is the equivalent of" ridge." It has a steep face, an escarpment, to the south-west ; near Dansal, its height is 3000 or 3500 feet ; eastwards it rises to 5000 feet, and then curves round and joins on to the higher mountains.

This range, too, is traversed by the Tavi in a gorge, one so narrow and inaccessible that one of the main roads to Kashmir, that comes through this country, is unable to follow the river valley and has to cross the Karai Thar ridge by a very steep ascent. Another dun succeeds, that in which the town of Udam pur stands, a space some sixteen miles long and five miles wide, which may be described either as a flat much cut down into wide hollows or as a low vale with wide flat topped hills jutting into it from the mountains. Beyond that comes the higher land which as yet we do not visit. Eastwards to Basoli, and north-westwards to beyond Kotli, extends such broken ground as has been described, varying indeed often, but still with a certain character which justifies one in bringing the whole under one head ing.

Only as we approach where the Jhelam River passes through this tract — from the latitude of Puneh downwards — we find yet more sudden falls of the streams WESTERN PORTION. 13 and steeper slopes of the hills ; this river flows often between steep rocky banks several hundred feet high ; anon it reaches a spot where a ravine coming down makes its margin accessible ; again for a time more gradual slopes, or smaller cliffs that edge some plateau, form its banks ; still again it comes between high cliffs, and in deep curves finds its way round lofty promontories, such nearly7 isolated spots being often fort-crowned; then, at last, some miles above the town of Jhelam, it debouches into the plain, where it is bounded by low' banks and finds room to spread and divide, to form islands with its ever-varying channels, and otherwise disport itself as a river delights to that has escaped from the mountains that restrained it.

Before proceeding to tell of the people that inhabit this rugged tract, I shall say something of the two things which have so much to do in fitting or unfitting a country to be a dwelling place for man — its vegetation and climate. Though as far north as 33° of latitude, and elevated on an average perhaps two thousand feet above the sea, yet these hills differ not greatly in climate from the northern part of British India. As in the plains, the year may be divided into three seasons ; here they are thus distributed ; — the hot weather, from April to June; the rains, from July to September ; * the cold weather, from October to March. Taking the more inhabited portions of the * The reader must not think that the time of the rains is one of cool ness ; true the temperature is some degrees less than during the " hot weather," but a hot moist air that makes everything damp renders the rainy months more trying to the constitution of both Europeans and natives than any other time. tract, of which the altitude may be from twelve hundred to two thousand feet, we find that in May and June they experience a severe heat ; the rocky surface of the ground becomes intensely heated, and gives rise to hot winds, which blow sometimes with regularity, sometimes in gusts.