National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

houses and graves. The sitting platform (Fig. 23) outside the gate of the enclosing wall, which
serves as a favourite gathering-place of the greybeards of Chaturkand, the fine panelled shrine
at Dodō-kōt (Fig. 28) and the elaborately decorated wooden enclosure of a grave outside Samagiāl,
reproduced in Fig. 24, may help to illustrate this local craft. A number of the prevalent motifs,
including the four-leaved clematis-like flower within a rectangular or round frame, the scrolls
of half-open lotus buds or twining vine-leaves, seemed to me directly derived from relievo ornaments
common in the Graeco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra. Both in design and style of work they recalled
the decorative wood-carving on various architectural or domestic objects that I had excavated in
the sand-buried ruins of the Niya and Lou-lan Sites.¹⁸ I deeply regretted that time was not available
for a closer study of these Darēl carvings and for similar antiquarian research.

Descent From Chaturkand I moved down the open ground in the middle of the valley towards the old
towards site of Rajī-kōt. The rocky hill that it occupies, an almost detached offshoot of the high spur
Rajī-kōt. flanking the Bachai valley on the north, forms a conspicuous landmark, as seen in the
photograph Fig. 18, where it appears in the distance above Mankiāl. After descending by the
road for over a mile I was shown on steep cliffs by the mouth of a side valley westwards the ruined
terraces and walls of Bodō-kōt and Diwāri-kōt, but was obliged to pass them unvisited. We
reached Galī-kōt after crossing another mile or so of fertile ground where, however, the fields are
sown only at intervals, obviously a mark of under-population and inadequate labour. The ruins,
of only moderate extent, found at Galī-kōt were of the usual type and occupied the extreme northern
offshoot of the Rajī-kōt hill. Ascending towards this over boulder-strewn ridges south-westwards
we everywhere passed terraces built up of big blocks of stone and completely overrun by scrub.
Of the irrigation channels which once must have brought water here from the Bachai stream no
trace could be found. At a point known as Ranōt I came, to my surprise, upon a narrow perfectly
levelled strip of ground, embedded between two low rocky ridges, which according to local tradition
was used as a polo ground in old times when Rajī-kōt was the residence of the ' Rās ' or kings
of Darēl. The tradition is all the more curious that the practice of the noble game so common
in all the Dard valleys from Astōr to Chitrāl has completely disappeared from Darēl. Nor does it
appear now to be known in Chilās and the other Kōhistān communities down the Indus.

' Darband ' A little above Ranōt we struck a steep ridge which, running NNW. to SSE., connects the
of Ranōt. Rajī-kōt hill with the spur above the Bachai valley. Its slopes were covered with a thick growth
of old Ilex, while along the whole length of its bare and narrow crest there extended the ruinous
remains of a massive wall which my guides spoke of as a ' Darband ' or chiusa. It was evident
that it had been intended primarily for this purpose of closing the valley west of Rajī-kōt and
protecting the flank of the latter. But the ' Jyeshtēros ' or headmen of Mankiāl accompanying
me volunteered the further information that the wall was intended also to safeguard an earthen
pipe line laid underneath it, which had once served to carry water from the Bachai stream to the
ruined fort on the top of the Rajī-kōt hill. No trace of this pipe line could be seen where we followed
the crest, nor had I time to make a search for possible remains. But considering that the use of
water pipes or underground conduits appears to be now quite unknown in Darēl the statement
is of distinct interest, whether it be based on tradition or on some actual find. As the fortified
top of Rajī-kōt rises considerably above the crest of the connecting ridge just described it is obvious
that no water-supply could have been brought to it except by the means just indicated.

Remains on The hill-top, which, as seen in Figs. 21, 22, is fairly clear of vegetation, lies about 5,680 feet
Rajī-kōt above sea-level and rises probably about 500 feet above the river bed at its east foot. On reaching
hill.