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

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0058 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 58 (Color Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000234
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

I was heartily glad when I succeeded within five busy days
in disposing of these preliminaries. The few weeks which
remained to me in Kashmir were none too long for the literary
tasks that had to be completed before my departure. For
over ten years past I had devoted whatever leisure I could
spare from official duties to work connected in one form or
another with Kalhana's "Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir."
The Sanskrit text of the great poem, the only record of a truly
historical nature that exists in the classical literature of India,
and one full of interest for the student of Indian antiquities,
religion, geography, &c., had long ago been edited by me.
But my translation and commentary required protracted
researches into all that has survived of ancient Kashmir in
records, traditions, and antiquarian lore, and the two stout
quarto volumes which they filled in print were only now
approaching completion. The introduction which was to
give an account of these labours still remained to be
written, and in order to complete it in time, together with
some minor tasks of a similar kind, seclusion was indis-
pensable.
"To go into Purdah," as our Lahore phrase ran, within
Srinagar or its immediate environs, was well-nigh impossible,
and Mohand Marg, my mountain retreat of former seasons,
was still covered with snow. My knowledge of Kashmir
topography, however, stood me in good stead, and after a short
search at the debouchure of the great Sind Valley over which
Mohand Marg rises, I found near the hamlet of Dudarhom a
delightfully quiet grove by the river-bank where I could pitch
my tents. There under the shade of majestic Chinars and
within view of the snow-covered spurs of Mount Haramukh,
I was soon hard at work from morning till evening. It was
not an easy task to sum up and review the results of labours
that had extended over so long a period and over so wide a
field. Yet I felt grateful that I was able to bid farewell to
them, while having that Alpine scenery before my eyes with