The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir

Pesháwar is a large basin encircled by hills. The gorge of the Indus separates it from Attock and Hazára. The basin is drained by the Kábul river, whose chief affluents in Pesháwar are the Swát and the Bára. The district is divided into the five tahsíls of Pesháwar, Charsadda, Naushahra, Mardán, and Swábí. The last two form the Mardán subdivision. Nearly 40 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by irrigation mainly from canals large and small. The most important are the Lower Swát, the Kábul River, and the Bára River, Canals. The irrigated area will soon be much increased by the opening of the Upper Swát Canal. The cold weather climate is on the whole pleasant, though too severe in December and January. The three months from August to October are a very unhealthy time. The soil except in the stony lands near the hills is a fertile loam. The cold weather rainfall is good, and the Spring harvest is by far the more important of the two. Wheat is the chief crop. Half of the people are Patháns, the rest are known generically as Hindkís. The principal Hindkí tribe is that of the Awáns. Besides managing his own people the Deputy Commissioner has to supervise our relations with 240,000 independent tribesmen across the border. The Assistant Commissioner at Mardán, where the Corps of Guides is stationed, is in charge of our dealings with the men of Buner and the Yúsafzai border. The N.W. Railway runs past the city of Pesháwar to Jamrúd, and there is a branch line from Naushahra to Dargai at the foot of the Malakand Pass.

Hazára is a typical montane and submontane district with a copious rainfall and a good climate. It has every kind of cultivation from narrow terraced kalsí fields built laboriously up steep mountain slopes to very rich lands watered by canal cuts from the Dor or Haro. Hazára is divided into three tahsíls, Haripur, Abbottábád, and Mansehra. Between a fourth and a fifth of this area is culturable and cultivated. In this crowded district the words are synonymous. The above figure does not include the 204 square miles of Feudal Tanáwal. The rainfall is copious and the crops generally speaking secure. The principal are maize 42 and wheat 25 p.c. Hazára was part of the territory made over to Rája Guláb Singh in 1846, but he handed it back in exchange for some districts near Jammu. The maintenance of British authority in Hazára in face of great odds by the Deputy Commissioner, Captain James Abbott, during the Second Sikh War is a bright page in Panjáb history, honourable alike to himself and his faithful local allies. The population is as mixed as the soils. Patháns are numerous, but they are split up into small tribes. The Swátís of Mansehra are the most important section. After Patháns Gújars and Awáns are the chief tribes. The Gakkhars, though few in number, hold much land and a dominant position in the Khánpur tract on the Ráwalpindí border. The Deputy Commissioner is also responsible for our relations with 98,000 trans-border tribesmen. The district is a wedge interposed between Kashmír on the east and Pesháwar and the tribal territory north of Pesháwar on the west. The Indus becomes the border about eight miles to the north of Amb, and the district consists mainly of the areas drained by its tributaries the Unhár, Siran, Dor, and Haro. On the eastern side the Jhelam is the boundary with Kashmir from Kohála to a point below Domel, where the Kunhár meets it. Thence the Kunhár is the boundary to near Garhí Habíbullah. To the south of Garhí the watershed of the Kunhár and Jhelam is close to these rivers and the country is very rough and poor. West of Garhí it is represented by the chain which separates the Kunhár and Siran Valleys and ends on the frontier at Musa ká Musalla (13,378 feet). This chain includes one peak over 17,000 feet, Málí ká Parvat, which is the highest in the district. The Kunhár rises at the top of the Kágan Glen, where it has a course of about 100 miles to Bálakot. Here the glen ends, for the fall between Bálakot and Garhí Habíbullah is comparatively small. There is a good mule road from Garhí Habíbullah to the Bábusar Pass at the top of the Kágan Glen, and beyond it to Chilás. There are rest-houses, some very small, at each stage from Bálakot to Chilás. The Kágan is a beautiful mountain glen. At places the narrow road looks sheer down on the river hundreds of feet below, rushing through a narrow gorge with the logs from the deodár forests tossing on the surface, and the sensation, it must be confessed, is not wholly pleasant. But again it passes close to some quiet pretty stretch of this same Kunhár. There are side glens, one of which opposite Naran contains the beautiful Safarmulk Lake. Near the top of the main glen the Lulusar Lake at a height of 11,167 feet and with an average depth of 150 feet is passed on the left. In the lower part of the glen much maize is grown. As one ascends almost the last crop to be seen is a coarse barley sown in June and reaped in August. Where the trees and the crops end the rich grass pastures begin. Kágan covers between one-third and one-fourth of the whole district. The Siran flows through the beautiful Bhogarmang Glen, at the foot of which it receives from the west the drainage of the Konsh Glen. Forcing its way through the rough Tanáwal hills, it leaves Feudal Tanáwal and Badhnak on its right, and finally after its junction with the Dor flows round the north of the Gandgarh Range and joins the Indus below Torbela. The bare Gandgarh Hills run south from Torbela parallel with the Indus. The Dor rises in the hills to the south of Abbottábád and drains the Haripur plain. A range of rough hills divides the Dor valley from that of the Haro, which again is separated from Ráwalpindí by the Khánpur Range. To the west of the Siran the Unhár flows through Agror and Feudal Tanáwal, and joins the Indus a little above Amb. Irrigation cuts are taken from all these streams, and the irrigated cultivation is often of a very high character. The best cultivation of the district is in the Haripur plain and the much smaller Orash and Pakhlí plains and in the Haro valley. There is much unirrigated cultivation in the first, and it is generally secure except in the dry tract in the south-west traversed by the new railway from Sarai Kála. The little Orash plain below Abbottábád is famous for its maize and the Pakhlí plain for its rice.

Feudal Tanáwal is a very rough hilly country between the Siran on the east and the Black Mountain and the river Indus on the west. It is the appanage of the Kháns of Amb and Phulra.

North of Feudal Tanáwal is Agror. In 1891 the rights of the last Khán were declared forfeit for abetment of raids by trans-bordermen.

There are fine forests in Hazára, but unfortunately the deodár is confined to the Kágan Glen and the Upper Siran. Nathiagalí, the summer headquarters of the Chief Commissioner, is in the Dungagalí Range. The Serai Kála-Srínagar railway will run through Hazára. There is a good mule road from Murree to Abbottábád through the Galís.

2. Tribal Territory

Feudal Tanáwal mentioned above occupies the southern corner of the tract of independent tribal territory lying between the Hazára border and the Indus. North of Tanáwal on the left bank of the river a long narrow chain known as the Black Mountain rises in its highest peaks to a height of nearly 10,000 feet. The western slopes are occupied by Hasanzais, Akazais, and Chagarzais, who are Patháns belonging to the great Yúsafzai clan, and these three sections also own lands on the right bank of the Indus. They have been very troublesome neighbours to the British Government. The eastern slopes of the Black Mountain are occupied by Saiyyids and Swátís, and the latter also hold the glens lying further north, the chief of which is Allai.

The mountainous tract on the Pesháwar border lying to the west of Tanáwal and the territory of the Black Mountain tribes formed part of the ancient Udyána, and its archaeological remains are of much interest. It is drained by the Barandu, a tributary of the Indus. Its people are mainly Yúsafzai Patháns, the principal section being the Bunerwáls. These last bear a good character for honesty and courage, but are slaves to the teachings of their mullas. The Yúsafzais have been bad neighbours. The origin of the trouble is of old standing, dating back to the welcome given by the tribesmen in 1824 to a band of Hindústání fanatics, whose leader was Saiyyid Ahmad Sháh of Bareilly. Their headquarters, first at Sitána and afterwards at Malka, became Caves of Adullam for political refugees and escaped criminals, and their favourite pastime was the kidnapping of Hindu shopkeepers. In 1863 a strong punitive expedition under Sir Neville Chamberlain suffered heavy losses before it succeeded in occupying the Ambela Pass. The door being forced the Yúsafzais themselves destroyed Malka as a pledge of their submission. Our political relations with the Yúsafzais are managed by the Assistant Commissioner at Mardán.

The rest of the tribal territory between the Pesháwar district and the Hindu Kush is included in the Dír, Swát, and Chitrál political agency. It is a region of mountains and valleys drained by the Swát, Panjkora, and Chitrál or Yárkhun rivers, all three affluents of the Kábul river. Six tracts are included in the Agency.

(a) Swát.—A railway now runs from Naushahra in the Pesháwar district to Dargai, which lies at the foot of the Malakand, a little beyond our administrative boundary. An old Buddhist road crosses the pass and descends on the far side into Swát. We have a military post at Chakdarra on the Swát river, and a military road passing through Dír connects Chakdarra with Kila Drosh in Chitrál. Most of the Swátís, who are Yúsafzais of the Akozai section, occupy a rich valley above 70 miles in length watered by the Swát river above its junction with the Panjkora. Rice is extensively grown, and a malarious environment has affected the physique and the character of the people. The Swátí is priest-ridden and treacherous. Even his courage has been denied, probably unjustly. Swátí fanaticism has been a source of much trouble on the Pesháwar border. The last serious outbreak was in 1897, when a determined, but unsuccessful, attack was made on our posts at Chakdarra and the Malakand Pass. The Swátís are Yúsafzai Patháns of the Akozai clan, and are divided into five sections, one of which is known as Ránízai.

(b) Sam Ránízai.—A small tract between the Pesháwar border and the hills is occupied by the Sam Ránízais, who were formerly servants and tenants of the Ránízais, but are now independent.

(c) Utmán Khel.—The country of the Utmán Khels begins where the Pesháwar boundary turns to the south. This tribe occupies the tract on both sides of the Swát river to the west of Swát and Sam Ránízai. On the south-west the Swát river divides the Utmán Khels from the Mohmands. Their country is very barren, but a good many of them cultivate land in the Pesháwar district. The Utmán Khels are quite independent of the surrounding tribes and have been troublesome neighbours to ourselves.

(d) Bajaur.—Bajaur is a very mountainous tract lying to the north-west of the Utmán Khel country and between it and the Durand line. It includes four valleys, through which flow the Rud river and its affluents with the exception of that known as Jandol. The valley of the last is now included in Dír. The Rud, also known as the Bajaur, is a tributary of the Panjkora. The people consist mainly of Mamunds and other sections of the Tarkanrí clan, which is related to the Yúsafzais. They own a very nominal allegiance to the Khán of Nawagai, who is recognised as the hereditary head of the Tarkanrís. They manage their affairs in quasi-republican fashion through a council consisting of the particular party which for the time being has got the upper hand.

(e) Dír.—Dír is the mountainous country drained by the Panjkora and its tributaries, to the north of its junction with the Rud river in Bajaur. It is separated from Chitrál by the Uchiri Range, which forms the watershed of the Panjkora and Kunar rivers. The military road to Kila Drosh crosses this chain by the Lowari Pass at a height of 10,200 feet. The people of Dír are mostly Yúsafzais, relations of the Swátís, whom they much resemble in character. They pay one-tenth of their produce to their overlord, the Khán of Dír, when he is strong enough to take it. The higher parts of the country have a good climate and contain fine deodár forests. The Khán derives much of his income from the export of timber, which is floated down the Panjkora and Swát rivers.

(f) Chitrál.—The Pathán country ends at the Lowari Pass. Beyond, right up to the main axis of the Hindu Kush, is Chitrál. It comprises the basin of the Yárkhun or Chitrál river from its distant source in the Shawar Shur glacier to Arnawai, where it receives from the west the waters of the Bashgul, and is thenceforth known as the Kunar. Its western boundary is the Durand line, which follows a lofty chain sometimes called the Káfiristán range. Another great spur of the Hindu Kush known as the Shandur range divides Chitrál on the east from the basin of the Yasín river and the territories included in the Gilgit Agency (see Chapter XXVIII). Chitrál is a fine country with a few fertile valleys, good forests below 11,000 feet, and splendid, if desolate, mountains in the higher ranges. The Chitrálís are a quiet pleasure-loving people, fond of children and of dancing, hawking, and polo. They are no cowards and no fanatics, but have little regard for truth or good faith. The common language is Khowár (see page 112). The chief, known as the Mehtar, has his headquarters at Chitrál, a large village on the river of the same name. It is dominated at a distance by the great snow peak of Tirach Mír (see page 22). The British garrison is stationed at Kila Drosh on the river bank about halfway between Chitrál and the Lowari Pass[16].

Mohmands and Mallagorís.—South of the Utmán Khel country and north of the Khaibar are the rugged and barren hills held by that part of the Mohmand tribe which lives inside the Durand line. The clan can muster about 20,000 fighting men and is as convenient a neighbour as a nest of hornets. The southern edge of the tract, where it abuts on the Khaibar, is held by the little Mallagorí tribe, which is independent of the Mohmands. Their country is important strategically because a route passes through it by which the Khaibar can be outflanked. It is included in the charge of the Political Agent for the Khaibar.

Afrídís.—The pass and the tract lying to the south of it including the Bazár valley and part of Tirah are the home of the six sections of the Pass Afrídís, the most important being the Zakha Khel, whose winter home is in the Khaibar and the Bazár valley, a barren glen hemmed in by barren hills, the entrance to which is not far from Ali Masjid. Its elevation is 3000 to 4000 feet. The valleys in Tirah proper, where the Pass Afrídís for the most part spend the summer, are two or three thousand feet higher. When the snow melts there is excellent pasturage. The climate is pleasant in summer, but bitterly cold in winter. The Bára river with its affluents drains the glens of Tirah. The Aka Khel Afrídís, who have no share in the Pass allowances, own a good dear of land in the lower Bára valley and winter in the adjoining hills. The fighting strength of the above seven sections may be put at 21,000. When they have been able to unite they have shown themselves formidable enemies, for they are a strong and manly race, and they inhabit a very difficult country[17]. But the Afrídí clan is torn by dissensions. Blood feuds divide house from house, and the sections are constantly at feud one with another. Apart from other causes of quarrel there is the standing division into two great factions, Gar and Samil, which prevails among Afrídís and Orakzais. Afrídís enlist freely in our regiments and in the Khaibar Rifles, and have proved themselves excellent soldiers. The eighth section of the Afrídís, the Adam Khel, who hold the Kohát Pass and the adjoining hills, have very little connection with the rest of the clan. The Jowákís, against whom an expedition had to be sent in the cold weather of 1877-78, are a sub-section of the Adam Khel.

Orakzais, Chamkannís, and Zaimukhts.—The Orakzais, who in numbers are even stronger than the Pass and Aka Khel Afrídís, occupy the south of Tirah, the Samáná Range on the border of Kohát, and the valley of the Khánkí river. The tribal territory extends westwards as far as the Khurmana, a tributary of the Kurram. The Orakzais do some trade and Sikh banias and artizans are to be found in some of their villages. The clan is honey-combed with feuds. North-west of the Orakzais beyond the Khurmana are the Chamkannís, and on the south is a small tribe of vigorous mountaineers called Zaimukhts. One of these Zaimukhts, Sarwar Khán, nicknamed Chikai, was a notorious frontier robber, and a person of considerable importance on the border till his death in 1903.

The Kurram Valley.—The Kurram Valley, which is drained by the Kurram river and its affluents, lies to the south of the lofty Safed Koh range, and reaches from Thal in Kohát to the Peiwar Kotal on the borders of Afghán Khost. It has an area of nearly 1300 square miles and in 1911 the population was estimated at 60,941 souls. Though under British administration, it does not form a part of any British district. The people are Patháns of various clans, the predominant element being the Turís, who are Shias by religion and probably of Turkish origin. It was at their request that the valley was annexed in 1892. The political agent has his headquarters at Parachinár in Upper Kurram, which is divided from Lower Kurram by a spur of the Khost hills, through which the river has cut a passage. Such part of the Indian penal law as is suitable has been introduced, and civil rights are governed by the customary law of the Turís. A complete record of rights in land and water has been framed, and the land revenue demand is 88,000 rupees (£5889). Upper Kurram is a wide and fertile valley set in a frame of pine-clad hills. It is not fully cultivated, but has great possibilities, especially in the matter of fruit growing. The snowfall is heavy in winter, but the summer climate is excellent. Lower Kurram is a poor and narrow glen unpleasantly hot and cold according to the season of the year. Parachinár is connected with the railhead at Thal by a good tonga road.

Wazíristán.—The country of the Darwesh Khel and Mahsud Wazírs extends from the Kurram valley to the Gomal river. It is divided into the North Wazíristán (2300 square miles) and the South Wazíristán (2700 square miles) Agencies. North Wazíristán consists of four valleys and some barren plateaux. The principal valley is that of Daur (700 square miles) drained by the Tochí. In 1894 the Dauris sought refuge from Darwesh Khel inroads by asking for British administration. In the eyes of the Darwesh Khel they are a race of clodhoppers. Their sole virtue consists in patient spade industry in the stiff rich soil of their valley, their vices are gross, and their fanaticism is extreme. The political agent's headquarters are at Miram Shah. South Wazíristán is the home of the troublesome Mahsuds, who can muster 11,000 fighting men. But parts of the country, e.g. the Wána plain, are held by the Darwesh Khel. Much of South Wazíristán consists of bare hills and valleys and stony plains scored with torrents, which are dry most of the year. The streams are salt. Part of the hinterland is however a more inviting tract with grassy uplands and hills clad with oak, pine, and deodár. Wána, where the political agent has his headquarters, was occupied on the invitation of the Darwesh Khel in 1894.

Sheránís.—The Sherání country stretches along the Dera Ismail Khán border from the Gomal to the Vihoa torrent. The Lárgha or lower part has been under direct administration since 1899, the Upper part belongs to the Biluchistán Agency.

Tribal Militias.—In the greater part of India beyond the border there is no British administration. Respect for our authority and the peace of the roads are upheld, and raiding on British territory is restrained, by irregular forces raised from among the tribesmen. There are Hunza and Nagar levies, Chitrál and Dír levies, Khaibar Rifles, Samána Rifles, and Kurram, North Wazíristán, and South Wazíristán militias.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Modern history.—Some mention has been made of the early history of Kashmír (pages 165, 166, 172, 173). Even the hard Sikh rule was a relief to a country which had felt the tyranny of the Durání governors who succeeded the Moghals. Under the latter small kingships had survived in the Jammu hills, but the Jammuwál Rajas met at Ranjít Singh's hands the same fate as the Kángra Rájas. Three cadets of the Jammu royal house, the brothers Dhián Singh, Suchet Singh, and Guláb Singh, were great men at his court. In 1820 he made the last Rája of Jammu. Guláb Singh was a man fit for large designs. In 20 years he had made himself master of Bhadráwah, Kishtwár, Ladákh, and Báltistán, and held the casket which enclosed the jewel of Kashmír. He acquired the jewel itself for 75 lakhs by treaty with the British at the close of the first Sikh war.

Excluding a large but little-known and almost uninhabited tract beyond the Muztagh and Karakoram mountains, the drainage of which is northwards into Central Asia, the country consists of the valleys of the Chenáb, Jhelam, and Indus, that of the last amounting to three-fourths of the whole. There is a trifling area to the west of Jammu, which contains the head-waters of small streams which find their way into the Ráví.

Divisions.—The following broad divisions may be recognised:

Chenáb Valley.—(a) Plain and Kandí. This tract extends from Mírpur on the Jhelam to Kathua near the Ráví and close to the head-works of the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal at Mádhopur. It is coterminous with the Panjáb districts of Jhelam, Gujrát, Siálkot, and Gurdáspur, and comprises four of the five districts of the Jammu Province, Mírpur, Riásí, Jammu, and Jasrota, and a part of the fifth, Udhampur. The plain is moist and unhealthy. The rough country behind with a stony and thirsty red soil covered in its natural state with garna (Carissa spinarum), sanatan (Dodonaea viscosa), and bhekar (Adhatoda vasica) does not suffer in this respect. The chief crops of the Kandí are wheat, barley, and rape in the spring, and maize and bájra in the autumn, harvest. Behind the Kandí is a higher and better tract, including Naoshera, with wide valleys, in which maize replaces bájra.

(b) Uplands. The greater part of the Upper Chenáb Valley is occupied by Kishtwár and Jagír Bhadráwah. The rainfall is heavy and there is copious irrigation from kuhls (page 142), but elevation and rapid drainage make the climate healthy. In the upper parts snow and cold winds sometimes prevent the ripening of the crops. The poppy is grown in Kishtwár and Bhadráwah. Kishtwár is a part of the Udhampur district.

Jhelam Valley.—(a) Vale of Kashmír with adjoining glens and mountains. This first division of the Jhelam Valley extends from the source above Vernág to Báramúla, and embraces not only the Vale of Kashmír, over 80 miles long and from 20 to 25 miles in breadth, but the glens which drain into it and the mountains that surround it. It therefore includes cultivation of all sorts from rich irrigated rice fields to narrow plots terraced up mountain slopes on which buckwheat and the beardless Tibetan barley are grown. The administrative divisions are the wazárat or district of South Kashmir and the southern part of North Kashmír. The central valley has an elevation of 6000 feet. It was undoubtedly once a lake bed. Shelving fan-shaped "karewas" spread out into it from the bases of the hills. The object of the Kashmírí is to raise as much rice as he possibly can on the alluvium of his valley and on the rich soil deposited on the banks of mountain streams. Manure and facilities for irrigation exist in abundance, and full use is made of them in the cultivation of the favourite crop. Kangní takes the place of rice in many fields if there is any deficiency of water. On reclaimed swamps near the Jhelam heavy crops of maize are raised. The tillage for wheat and barley is as careless as that for rice is careful. The cultivation of saffron (Crocus sativus) on karewas is famous, but the area is now limited, as the starving people ate up the bulbs in the great famine of 1877 and recovery is slow. Saffron is used as a pigment for the sectarian marks on the forehead of the orthodox Hindu and also as a condiment. The little floating vegetable gardens on the Dal lake are a very curious feature. The "demb" lands on the borders of the same lake are a rich field for the market gardener's art. He fences a bit of land with willows, and deposits on it weeds and mud from the lake bed. He is of the boatman or Hanz caste, whose reputation is by no means high, and can himself convey by water his vegetables and fruits to the Srínagar market. The production of fruit in Kashmír is very large, and the extension of the railway to Srínagar should lead to much improvement in the quality and in the extent of the trade. It may also improve the prospects of sericulture.

Indus Valley.—(a) Ladákh including Zánskar and Rupshu. Some description of Ladákh and its scenery has already been given in Chapter II. It may be divided into Rupshu, Zánskar, and Ladákh proper with Leh as its centre. Rupshu in the south-east is a country of great brackish lakes in no part less than 13,500 feet above sea level. At such a height cultivation must be very difficult, but a little beardless Tibetan barley is raised. The scanty population consists mainly of nomad shepherds. In Ladákh the people are divided into shepherds or champas, who roam over the Alpine pastures, and Ladákhís, who till laboriously every available patch of culturable land in the river valleys. Though both are Buddhists they rarely intermarry. Zánskar to the N.W. of Rupshu is drained by the river of the same name, which flows northwards to join the Indus below Leh. It forms part of the Kargil tahsíl. Zánskar is a bleak inaccessible region where the people and cattle remain indoors for six months of the year. Its breed of ponies is famous. In Ladákh proper cultivation ranges from 9000 to 15,000 feet. The sandy soil must be manured and irrigated, and is often refreshed by top-dressings of fresh earth from the hill sides. The crops are wheat and barley, rape, lucerne, peas and beans, in spring, and buckwheat, millets, and turnips, in autumn. There is a great lack of wood for building and for fuel, and the deficiency in the latter case has to be supplied by cow-dung cakes. Notwithstanding their hard life the people are cheerful and fairly well off, for polyandry has prevented overcrowding.

(c) Astor and Gilgit.—Where the Gilgit road from Kashmír descends from the Burzil pass (13,500 feet) the country of Astor is reached. It is drained by the Astor river, which joins the Indus to the south of Bunjí. The bridge which crosses it at Ramghát is only 3800 feet above sea level. The village of Astor itself is at a height of 7853 feet. The cultivation is of the same description as that in Báltistán. The aspect of the country is bleak till the Indus is crossed, and Gilgit (4890 feet) is reached. Here there is a fertile well-watered oasis from which on every side great mountain peaks are visible. The lands are heavily manured. Rice, maize, millet, buckwheat, cotton, wheat, barley, rape, and lucerne are grown. There is a second and easier road to Gilgit from India over the Bábusar pass at the top of the Kágan Glen in Hazára. But the posts are sent by the Kashmír road. The Astorís and Gilgitís are a simple easy-going folk, and, like the Báltís, very fond of polo. A British Political Agent is stationed at Gilgit. He is responsible to the Government of India for the administration of Hunza, Nagar, and Yasín, and of the little republics in the neighbourhood of Chilás. Hunza and Nagar lie to the north of Gilgit near the junction of the Muztagh and Hindu Kush ranges, and Yasín far to the west about the upper waters of the Gilgit river.

In Astor and Gilgit also Guláb Singh's Dogras replaced the Sikh troops. But across the Indus Guláb Singh was never strong, and after 1852 that river was his boundary. He died in 1857, having proved himself a hard and unscrupulous, but a capable and successful ruler. His son, Randhír Singh, was a better man, but a worse king. A good Hindu, tolerant, and a friend of learning, he had not the force of character to control the corrupt official class, and the people suffered much in consequence. He was a loyal ally in the Mutiny. In 1860 his forces recovered Gilgit, a conquest which for years after was a fruitful source of suffering to his Cis-Indus subjects. The present Mahárája, Sir Pratáp Singh, G.C.S.I., succeeded in 1885. While he lived his brother, Rája Amar Singh, played a very important part in Kashmír affairs. From 1887 to 1905 the administration was managed by a small council, of which after 1891 the Mahárája was President and Rája Amar Singh Vice-President. It was abolished in 1905. There are now under the Mahárája a chief minister and ministers in charge of the home and revenue departments. Judicial business is controlled by the Judge of the High Court. Death sentences must be confirmed by the Mahárája. The highest executive officers are the governors of Jammu and Kashmír, and the Wazírs Wazárat of Ladákh and Gilgit. In Jammu and Kashmír each of the eight districts is in charge of a Wazír Wazárat. In connection with the land revenue settlement, forests, etc., the services of British officers have been lent to the State. The Government of India is represented at Srínagar by a Resident, and a political agent at Gilgit exercises a general supervision over the Wazír Wazárat.

During the reign of the present Mahárája great reforms have been effected. The construction of the Gilgit road has done away with the blood tax, which the conveyance of supplies to that remote post formerly involved. The land revenue settlement has largely substituted cash for kind payments and done away with many abuses. Official corruption and oppression have been scotched, but would speedily revive if vigilance were relaxed. The different peoples ruled by the Mahárája are easily governed if properly treated, and violent crime is rare.

Note. In the map appended to Dr Arthur Neve's Thirty Years in Kashmír the heights of Gasherbrum and Masherbrum (see page 21) are given respectively as 26,360 and 25,560 feet, and that of Hidden Peak, S.E. of Gasherbrum, as 26,470 feet. These with K² are the highest mountains round the Baltoro Glacier. Further east is the Siachen, "the greatest glacier in Asia," which feeds the Nubra river (page 36). N.E. of the Siachen is the Teram Kangrí mountain, the height of which does not probably exceed 25,000 feet. The actual height of the Nun Kun (page 12) is 23,447 feet. Dr Neve gives that of the Karakoram Pass as 18,110 feet, not 18,550 as stated on page 20.

CHAPTER XXIX

The visitor to Delhi will be repaid if he can devote a week to the City and the neighbourhood. It is impossible here to give any adequate account of the objects of historic and architectural interest. No visitor should be without Mr H. C. Fanshawe's Delhi Past and Present, a work of great interest. The value of the text is enhanced by good maps and excellent illustrations. In the Civil Station, which lies to the north of the City and east of the Ridge, is Ludlow Castle, from the roof of which General Wilson and his Staff watched the assault on 14th September, 1857, when Delhi was retaken. Ludlow Castle is now the Delhi Club. Between it and the northern rampart of the City, a defence against the Mahrattas built by British officers fifty years earlier, grim fighting took place on that historic day when the little British and Indian force, till then rather besieged than besiegers, was at last strong enough to attack. Here are the sites of the four batteries which breached that rampart, and here is the grave of John Nicholson and the statue recently erected in his honour (page 190). The Ridge to which the little army had clung obstinately from May to September in scorching heat and drenching rain, undismayed by repeated assaults and the ravages of cholera, starts about half-a-mile to the west of the Morí bastion, at the north-west corner of the city wall, and runs north by east to Wazírábád on an old bed of the Jamna. Ascending to the Flagstaff Tower one looks down to-day on the Circuit House and the site of the principal camps at the great darbár of 1911. Here was the old Cantonment and its parade ground, on which the main encampment of the British force stood in 1857. The position was strong, being defended by the ridge on the east and the Najafgarh Canal on the west. It is open to the south, where are the Savzí Mandí (Vegetable Market), now the site of factories, and the Roshanára Gardens. It was on this side that the mutineers made their most dangerous attacks. The road along the Ridge from the Flagstaff Tower passes the Chauburjí Mosque and Hindu Rao's house, which was the principal target of the City batteries and was gallantly held by Major Reid with his Sirmur Gurkhas, the Guides, and the 60th Rifles. Beyond Hindu Rao's house is one of the stone pillars of Aşoka, which Firoz Sháh Tughlak transported to Delhi. Still further south is the Mutiny Memorial. As one reads the tale of the losses of the different regiments one realizes in some measure the horrors and the heroism of which the Ridge was witness.

The City.—When visiting the City from the Civil Lines it is well to follow the road, which passing the Kudsia Gardens leads straight to the Kashmír Gate, one of two places in India (the Lucknow Residency is the other) which must stir with grateful pride the heart of the most phlegmatic of Englishmen. The road from the Gate to the Fort and the Jama Masjid is rich in memories of the Mutiny. It has on its left S. James' Church, with memorial tablets within and outside the shot-riddled globe which once surmounted its dome. Further on are the obelisk to the telegraph officers who stuck to their posts on the fatal 11th of May, and on a gateway of the Old Magazine a record of the heroism of the nine devoted men, who blew it up, losing five of their number in the explosion. Passing under the railway bridge one comes out on the open space in front of Sháhjahán's palace fort, which was finished about 1648 A.D. To the beautiful buildings erected by his father Aurangzeb added the little Motí Masjid or Pearl Mosque. But he never lived at Delhi after 1682. The palace is therefore associated with the tragedies and squalor of the decline and fall of the Moghal Empire rather than with its glories. In 1739 it was robbed of the Kohinur and the Peacock throne by Nádir Shah, in 1788 it saw the descendants of Akbar tortured and the aged Emperor blinded by the hateful Ghulám Kádir, and on 16th May, 1857 the mutineers massacred fifty Christians captive within its walls. When viewing the public and private halls of audience, known as the Diwán i 'Ám and the Diwán i Kháss, it is however natural to think rather of scenes of splendour such as Bernier described when Aurangzeb sat in royal apparel on the Peacock throne with a king's ransom in the aigrette of his turban and the rope of pearls which hung from his neck. On such an occasion, the pillars of the Diwán i 'Ám were hung with gold brocades and the floors covered with rich silken carpets. Half the court outside was occupied by a magnificent tent and the arcade galleries surrounding it were decked with brocades and covered with costly carpets. The marble Diwán i Kháss with its lovely pillars decorated with gold and precious stones is surely the most splendid withdrawing room that a monarch ever possessed. There is nothing in the Moorish palace at Granada which can for a moment be compared with these two halls. For a description of them and of the other buildings in the Fort the reader must refer to Mr Fanshawe's book. In the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon and since much has been done to restore their surroundings to some semblance of their former state. But the heavy British barracks occupied by the little garrison are very incongruous with the remains of Moghal grandeur. Leaving the Fort by the Southern or Delhi Gate and turning to the right one is faced by the Jama Masjid, another monument of the taste of Sháhjahán. The gateway and the lofty ascent into this House of God are very fine. The mosque in the regular beauty and grandeur of its lines, appealing to the sublimity rather than to the mystery of religion, is a fitting symbol of the faith for whose service it was raised. South of the Jama Masjid in a part of the city once included in Firozábád stands the Kalán or Kála Masjid with low cupolas and heavy square black pillars, a striking example of the sombre architecture of the Tughlak period. A narrow street called the Daríba leads from the Jama Masjid to the wide Chándní (Silver) Chauk. The Daríba was formerly closed by the Khúní Darwáza or Gate of Blood, so called because here occurred that terrible massacre of the citizens of Delhi which Nádir Shah witnessed from the neighbouring Golden Mosque. Besides its width there is nothing remarkable about the Chándní Chauk. But the visitor in quest of silver work, jewellery, or embroidery will find there many shopkeepers ready to cater for his wants. It was while passing down the Chándní Chauk in an elephant procession on 23rd December, 1912, that Lord Hardinge was wounded by a bomb thrown from one of the houses. From the Chauk one may pass through the Queen's Gardens and Road to the opening in the wall where the Kábul Gate once stood and so leave the City. A tablet in the vicinity marks the spot where John Nicholson fell.