Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 87 ページ（カラー画像）

0087	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

of prayer and of accommodation for pilgrims, we found there a Ziārat wholly built in carved timber
and believed to mark his grave (Fig. 30). The legend I heard at the site tells of Shāha-khēl Bāba
as a holy man who came from Swāt to convert the heathen and show them the path which leads
to bliss in Muḥammad's Paradise. He was a 'Chishti' and much rejoiced in music. In the
course of his pious wanderings he was killed at Poguch by the 'Kāfirs', who cut off his head and
carried it hundreds of 'Kōs' down the Indus valley. But miraculously the head flew back through
the air and rejoined the martyr's corpse. By this proof of his holiness he converted the Darēl
people to the true faith and has ever since been worshipped at the place of his death as the most
effective protector of the pious who need help. His shrine is certainly the best known in Darēl
and the valleys immediately adjoining it. We were told that, on account of the saint's miraculous
powers, it was visited by pilgrims from places as far as 'twenty days' journey' all over the Indus
and Swāt Kōhistān and elsewhere in the Hindukush mountains.

In view of what we know from other sources of the continuity of local worship in these regions,² Location of
we may be justified in looking upon Poguch as the most likely site of that colossal image in wood miraculous
representing Maitreya Bodhisattva which the above-quoted accounts of Fa-hsien and Hsüan- Maitreya
tsang mention as a special object of worship in what is now Darēl. The material and the size image.
of the image as they describe it are both in keeping with what we now know of the magnificent
timber of the valley. If it was gilded all over, as Hsüan-tsang's notice seems to imply, its complete
disappearance is still more easily accounted for. Whether the proposed identification can also
be supported by philological indications is a matter on which, in views of my lack of special qualifica-
tions, I can only venture to touch with hesitation in the note below.³

The view from Shāha-khēl Bāha's Ziārat had shown the increasing barrenness of the lower Ruins of
slopes of the valley, suggestive of the vicinity of the Indus gorge and changed climatic conditions. Lohilo-kōt.
So I was not surprised, when proceeding below Poguch along a narrow plateau which rises steeply
to a height of some 400 feet above the left bank of the river, to find that it was almost bare of vegeta-
tion and the ruined fort crowning its highest point built of stamped clay. The use of such material
clearly indicated that this ground received little of the abundant moisture enjoyed by the higher
portion of Darēl. The walls of Lohilo-kōt—the 'Red Fort', a name derived from the reddish
hue of the clay—were for the most part badly decayed, but in places still stood to a height of over
ten feet (Fig. 16). They enclosed a rectangle about 174 feet long from NNW. to SSE. and 115
feet across. There were remains of corner bastions, about twelve feet square, and indications

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ