Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 45 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0045	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

notwithstanding a nominal tribute, and their turbulent disposition and the danger it represented
for the newly-constructed 'Gilgit Road' ultimately led, in 1892, to the occupation of their
territory by an Imperial garrison.

The Chilāsis, in race, language, and ethnic peculiarities, are closely allied to the other
Dard communities which, organized in small republics, extend far down both banks of the Indus,
and collectively form the tract known as Shinkāri or the Kōhistān of the Indus Valley.
Though this region is still inaccessible to the European traveller, it is certain that the several
sections of the valley are not separated from each other by great natural barriers. Hence
constant relations are kept up between these Dard communities which used to combine when
threatened by an external foe. In fact, tradition at Chilās distinctly asserts that in pre-
Muhammadan times the whole of Shinkāri was under the rule of one Rājā ³⁴.

We have seen already that, according to the indications furnished by the T'ang Annals
and Hsüan-tsang, this tract in the Indus Valley was at one time politically dependent on the
kingdom of Udyāna. The supremacy exercised from the Swāt Valley may, at the period
when we hear of the alliance between the Tibetans and Chieh-shih, have been replaced by
predominant influence from the side of Chitrāl. Both from Chitrāl proper and from Upper
Kāshkār or Mastūj the Indus Valley can readily be reached by a number of routes leading
across the headwaters of the Swāt and Panjkōra rivers, and the remarkable extension which
in recent years the Khān of Dīr's power has taken in the direction of the Swāt Kōhistān and
the Indus Valley presents a curious parallel. Chilās and the other Dard communities along the
Indus, if left to themselves, could without great difficulty have been overawed by the Chinese
garrison placed in Gilgit and Yasin; but when controlled and supported by a neighbouring hill-
state of such resources as Chitrāl, they were bound to become a serious menace to the Kashmīr–
Gilgit route, which they flanked, and upon which the maintenance of that garrison depended.

Section IV.—ANCIENT REMAINS IN GILGIT AND HUNZA

The total absence of reliable records makes it impossible at present to trace more of the
early history of Gilgit and the adjoining regions than is revealed for a brief period by the
illuminating notices of the Chinese Annals. A patient study of local traditions and ethnology,
and a systematic search for ancient remains would, no doubt, bring to light materials likely
to help us in restoring some aspects of the life and culture that prevailed there during pre-
Muhammadan times. But for such labours the series of rapid and often trying marches which,
between June 11 and 28, carried me through the valleys of Gilgit and Hunza to the Hindukush
watershed, as described in chapters ii and iii of my Personal Narrative, left no opportunity.

Among the few relics of Buddhist worship which are extant above ground in the main
valley of Gilgit, and to which Major J. Manners Smith very kindly drew my attention, I was
able to visit only the great rock-carved relief at the entrance of the Kergah Nullah, some four
miles above Gilgit Fort and not far from the village of Naupūr. This relief, which appears
to have been first described by Colonel Biddulph ¹, occupies a conspicuous position, more than

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