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| 0049 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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The topographical facts just explained justify the conclusion that the choice of the circuitous Later
route represented by the ' Gilgit Road ' was due mainly, if not solely, to the political and military change to
conditions prevailing at the time when the Sikhs, in 1842, first extended their conquest to Gilgit. Road '.
The story has been recorded by Mr. Drew with his usual accuracy and need not be repeated here.¹¹
It makes it quite clear that the Sikhs took this line for their advance because the Dard Rāja of
Astōr had long since been tributary to them, whereas the tribal communities of Chilās and the
adjoining valleys of the Indus Kōhistān maintained a sturdy independence and were foes whom
it was wise to leave alone. Of the political conditions in these tracts during earlier times we have
no direct historical information. But from the indications I shall have to discuss below as regards
Darēl, and from the Chilās tradition that the whole of Shinkāri or the Dard portion of the Indus
Kōhistān was under the rule of one Rāja during pre-Muhammadan times,¹² it seems safe to conclude
that the region comprising Chilās and the Kōhistān valleys westwards must have been during
certain periods far more accessible to peaceful traffic than it has been in recent times.
If we turn once more to the map for the physical features that determined the lines of such Routes
traffic between Kashmīr and India in the south and that portion of the Hindukush in the north divided
which the Chinese records know by the name of P'o-lü, we cannot fail to realize an important pārbat
geographical fact. The direct routes available for this intercourse are divided into two distinct massif.
and very unequal groups by the huge glacier-clad mountain mass that rises above the Indus
valley between Astōr and Chilās and culminates in the grand ice peak of Nangaparbat, 26,620
feet above the sea. To the east of it there is practically only a single line of communication, that
which the present ' Gilgit Road ' follows across the Burzil pass (13,650 feet), with a branch route
over the slightly lower Kamri pass which rejoins it in the main Astōr valley. The few routes
from the Kishangangā to be found farther east all lead into Baltistān or Skardo, situated much
higher up the Indus.
To the west of the impassable barrier of the Nangaparbat massif conditions are quite different. Easier
Beginning with the Barai pass, which skirts the westernmost spur of Nangaparbat that carries routes west
permanent snow, we find quite a series of passes with practicable routes leading from comparatively pārbat.
well-inhabited parts across to the heads of the several valleys constituting Chilās.¹³ These routes
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