gods, and promised to punish the offender. He proceeded to the seat of Brahma to implore his aid and that of the other gods. His prayer being granted, the whole host of heaven took up their position on the lofty peaks about Kashmir, and ordered Jalodbhava to leave his watery home. This the demon, who was invincible while in the water, refused to do. Vishnu thereupon called on his brother, Balabhadra, to drain the lake by piercing the mountain with his weapon, the plowshare. When the lake had become dry, Jalodbhava was attacked by Vishnu, and, after a fierce combat, slain with the god's war-disc.
Kasyapa then settled the land of Kashmir, which had thus been produced, the gods as well as the fountain-spirits taking up their abodes in it, while the various goddesses adorned the land in the shape of rivers. At first men inhabited the land only during the six summer months, and withdrew to warmer regions each winter, leaving Kashmir during the cold season to the Pisacas, the vilest and most malignant of Hindu demons. At length, however, after four yugas or ages, the Brahman Caandradera learned certain rites which freed the country from the Pisacas and from excessive cold ; and Kashmir became habitable throughout the year. Stein and Drew, two of the most careful writers on Kashmir, regard this tradition as founded not on historical fact, hut on inference from the lake-like appearance of the basin, and from the fact that during floods Lake Wular is subject to considerable fluctuations in size. It is possible that the legend of an ancient lake, drained by the plowshare of a god, might originate in this way, but there is nothing in the physical features of Kashmir to give rise
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