Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 31 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0031	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

regarding Kashmīr contained in his itinerary have been fully discussed by me elsewhere⁴.
Wu-k'ung correctly described the kingdom of Kashmīr as enclosed on all sides by mountains
forming its natural ramparts. Only three roads had been opened through them, and these
were secured by gates. The road in the east, leading to T'u-fan or Tibet, corresponds plainly
to the present route over the Zōji-Lā to Ladāk and thence to Tibet. By another road, which
started from 'the western gate' and went to Ch'ien-t'o-lo or Gandhāra, the route following the
Jehlam river in its course to the west is clearly meant. The third road, in the north, is described
as reaching into P'o-lü. Its identity with the route represented in its main direction by the
present 'Gilgit Road' was beyond all doubt, even before Professor Chavannes' lucid analysis
of the original Chinese records had conclusively proved that the term P'o-lü or Pu-lu applied
to modern Gilgit as well as to Baltistān.

Of the territory into which that route first takes us, one important historical fact can still The Dards
be established from Kalhaṇa's Chronicle. Several passages relating to events on this side of of the
the Kashmīr frontier show plainly that the hill tract formed by the drainage area of the Upper Kiṣangaṅgā
Kiṣangaṅgā was occupied, in ancient times as now, by a population belonging to the Dard race⁵. Valley.
The tenacity with which the ethnographic watershed has been here maintained during long
centuries creates a reasonable presumption that the occupation by Dard tribes of the mountain
territories extending north-westwards of Kashmīr up to Chitrāl and the Hindukush likewise
dates back to a very early period.

We must attach the more value to this evidence because the indications which Sanskrit
texts and the works of classical geographers have preserved for us as to the early seats of
the Dards (Skr. Darad, Dārada; the Δαράδραι of Ptolemy, Dardae of Pliny, &c.), are by no
means as exact as we should wish. From the account given by Kalhaṇa of events among
the Dards of the Kiṣangaṅgā Valley near his own time, it may be concluded that this hill tract
then formed a small chiefship. The division of the territory inhabited by the Dards into
a considerable number of more or less independent principalities has prevailed also during recent
periods of their history, and is amply accounted for by geographical features. Mountain ranges
of exceptional ruggedness, covered by eternal snows on their summit lines and culminating in
some of the highest peaks of the world, render communication between the narrow valleys
difficult even for the hardy hillmen who have succeeded during so many centuries in maintaining
here their struggle with a harsh climate and a barren soil. Frequently the confined valleys
themselves present almost equal difficulties, where they narrow to rock-bound gorges filled
completely for considerable periods of the year by snow-fed rivers. The formidable nature of
the mountain-barriers in this region is reflected in the notice which Ptolemy records of 'the
Daradrai in whose country the mountains are of surpassing height'⁶. Nor is there need to
search far in the accounts of modern travellers in order to find ample illustration of the
difficulties and dangers so graphically described by the old Chinese pilgrims who made their
way along the precipitous rock walls of the Dard Valleys⁷.

I have fully discussed elsewhere the results of that remarkable seclusion which Kashmīr Kalhaṇa's
enjoyed during a long period of its history, owing to the natural strength of its mountain Daraddeia.

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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

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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