Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 29 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0029	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

CHAPTER I

FROM KASHMĪR TO THE PĀMĪRS

Section I.—THE GILGIT ROAD AND KIṢANGAṄGĀ VALLEY

KASHMĪR, where in 1898 the first plan of my explorations had been formed, and where Kashmir,
two years later, in May 1900, I completed the practical preparations of my journey, was the starting-
by reason of historical associations and geographical position alike a most appropriate starting- place.
point for my archaeological enterprise. I may therefore fitly commence this detailed account
of my antiquarian observations from the same ground.

The labours which I devoted during the preceding ten years to the elucidation of Kalhaṇa's
Chronicle of Kashmīr, and the manifold historical researches necessitated by this task, had
made me eagerly look out for whatever traces survived of ancient relations between Kashmir
and the Central-Asian regions lying beyond its great mountain barriers. The information to be
gleaned from the sources accessible to me was scanty, even in regard to the tracts immediately
adjoining Kashmir, which were undoubtedly subject from early times to its cultural influence.
But the results of the close study I bestowed on the ancient topography of Kashmir, assured
me of at least one interesting fact, which at the time of my start (May 31, 1900) appeared
like an auspicious omen : there could be no doubt from the first that the route I was to follow
through the mountains on leaving the Kashmir Valley for the north had a claim to considerable
antiquity and historical importance.

Practical advantages as well as geographical interests had made me decide for the route Antiquity of
through Gilgit and Hunza, and over the Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr, as the most suitable line of approach the 'Gilgit
to Kāshgar, my immediate goal in Chinese Turkestān. The 'Gilgit Transport Road', which I was Road'.
authorized to use for the first portion of my journey, from Kashmīr to Gilgit, dates in its present
form only from the years 1890–92, when the placing of an Imperial garrison in Gilgit and in the
adjoining valleys leading towards the Eastern Hindukush necessitated the construction of a military
road fit for laden transport during at least a portion of the year. But the route which it follows,
between and over the high ranges separating the Kashmir Valley from that of the Indus, is marked
out by nature as the most accessible line of communication from Kashmir to the Dard territories
northward, and there is historical evidence to prove its use at an early period.

In the Memoir on the Ancient Geography of Kashmīr, accompanying my annotated translation Routes
of Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅgiṇī, I had occasion to point out the historical interest of the mountain into the
routes leading from the north shore of the Volur Lake into the part of the Upper Kiṣangaṅgā Kiṣangaṅgā
Valley which is known as Gurēz¹. Only through the valley of the Burzil stream, here joining Valley.
the Kiṣangaṅgā from the north, is it possible to gain the high passes which cross the snowy
watershed between the Kiṣangaṅgā and the Indus and give access to Astōr and thence to the
other Dard Valleys. The Kiṣangaṅgā itself, though draining an extensive mountain area, flows

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