Serindia : vol.1 / 84 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0084	Serindia : vol.1
セリンディア : vol.1

Deodar, all black with the smoke of ages. The ornamentation chiefly consisted of a diaper of
four-petalled flowers, closely resembling in style those familiar to me from the ancient wood-carvings
of the Niya Site and from Gandhāra relievos. The work was somewhat rough in execution, but
much stronger in line and contrast than the floral design and tracery met with in the modern
carvings of Chitrāl. The square pillars supported large corbels ending in elaborate volutes,
and recalled those I subsequently found among the ruins of the Lop-nōr Site.⁴ The volutes in
particular were declared to be characteristic of 'old Kāfir' work. The opening in the centre of
the roof (called aiwān or kumal in Khōwār), which alone admits light and air, showed the typical
construction. It consists of successive overlapping courses of massive beams gradually reducing
the square opening, and will be found illustrated in the photograph secured of such an 'Aiwān'
at Mirāgrām.⁵ It has its exact counterpart in the stone-constructed ceiling still intact in several
Kashmīr temples, like that at Pandrēthan.⁶ Owing to the dim light at the time prevailing in this
ancient abode, no photograph could be taken. The owner of the house was a Mullah, practising
also as a carpenter. The manifest pride with which he claimed the original 'Kāfir' builder of it
a fellow craftsman, seemed to me like the conscious expression of an unbroken living tradition in
this local art.

Remains of Far less instructive were the remains found above Jughōr village, about one and a half miles
old forts. below the bridge which spans the river opposite the modern fort. On the last offshoot of the spur
which flanks the Jughōr-gul gorge on the north are the remains of ancient walls known as Mochian-
deh, 'the blacksmiths' village'. They appeared to have been constructed of large uncut stones
which were now being quarried by the villagers, and to have formed an oblong of over forty yards
in length and about seventeen yards across. There were traces left of dividing walls. I noticed
no other remains on the surface of the narrow knoll and its slopes. But Waffadār Khān, the
observant Diwān-bēgī, who accompanied me, asserted that in his youth arrow-heads, beads, and
small débris of superior pottery used to turn up here. The archaeological indications were equally
vague at Uchust, a village situated about two miles to the south of the Agency on the hill-side
above Lomāri. There, most of the houses were said to have been built with stones taken from
walls going back to 'Kāfir' or 'Kalāsh' times. My visit to the place showed massive walls
evidently of earlier date, now used as foundations of houses and as supports of terraces occupying
the edge of a small plateau; but I was not able to discover any carved stones or other structural
indications.

Importance More interesting, actually, than these scanty remains were the rides which took me to visit
of Chitrāl them. They showed me how fertile and open the ground is for some miles above and below castle
capital. and Agency. One hamlet with its orchards and avenues almost touches the other, and all receive
ample irrigation from a convergence of lively side-streams. The whole forms a closely cultivated
and relatively large oasis such as the configuration of the main valley nowhere else allows space
for. Hence Chitrāl must have been at all times, independent of political conditions, in economic
respects the most important place of the Kāshkār State.

Route along I had no time to visit the remains of two other 'forts of the Kāfir time' which were mentioned
Chitrāl to me at Noghorghi, near Chumarkhon, and at Gankōrini, near Blach, both in the vicinity of Chitrāl
River. and on the left and right bank of the river respectively. The loss was scarcely great, since at either
site the ruins were described as consisting of mere walls of unhewn stones. But fortunately, oppor-
tunities for more interesting archaeological observations offered on the three marches which between
May 9 and 11 took me up to Mastūj along the Upper Chitrāl River, or, as it is here called, the

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

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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