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THE PANJAB, NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE AND KASHMIR
by
SIR JAMES DOUIE, M.A., K.C.S.I.
Seema Publications
Seema Publications C-3/19, R. P. Bagh, Delhi-110007.
First Indian Edition 1974
Printed in India at Deluxe Offset Press, Daya Basti, Delhi-110035 and Published by Seema Publications, Delhi-110007.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
In his opening chapter Sir James Douie refers to the fact that the area treated in this volume--just one quarter of a million square miles--is comparable to that of Austria-Hungary. The comparison might be extended; for on ethnographical, linguistic and physical grounds, the geographical unit now treated is just as homogeneous in composition as the Dual Monarchy. It is only in the political sense and by force of the ruling classes, temporarily united in one monarch, that the term Osterreichisch could be used to include the Poles of Galicia, the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia, the Szeklers, Saxons and more numerous Rumanians of Transylvania, the Croats, Slovenes and Italians of "Illyria," with the Magyars of the Hungarian plain.
The term Punjabi much more nearly, but still imperfectly, covers the people of the Panjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir and the associated smaller Native States. The Sikh, Muhammadan and Hindu Jats, the Kashmiris and the Rajputs all belong to the tall, fair, leptorrhine Indo-Aryan main stock of the area, merging on the west and south-west into the Biluch and Pathan Turko-Iranian, and fringed in the hill districts on the north with what have been described as products of the "contact metamorphism" with the Mongoloid tribes of Central Asia. Thus, in spite of the inevitable blurring of boundary lines, the political divisions treated together in this volume, form a fairly clean-cut geographical unit.
Sir James Douie, in this work, is obviously living over again the happy thirty-five years which he devoted to the service of North-West India: his accounts of the physiography, the flora and fauna, the people and the administration are essentially the personal recollections of one who has first studied the details as a District Officer and has afterwards corrected his perspective, stage by stage, from the successively higher view-point of a Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, and finally as Officiating Lieut.-Governor. No one could more appropriately undertake the task of an accurate and well-proportioned thumb-nail sketch of North-West India and, what is equally important to the earnest reader, no author could more obviously delight in his subject.
T. H. H.
ALDERLEY EDGE,
March 9th, 1916.
NOTE BY AUTHOR
My thanks are due to the Government of India for permission to use illustrations contained in official publications. Except where otherwise stated the numerous maps included in the volume are derived from this source. My obligations to provincial and district gazetteers have been endless. Sir Thomas Holdich kindly allowed me to reproduce some of the charts in his excellent book on India. The accuracy of the sections on geology and coins may be relied on, as they were written by masters of these subjects, Sir Thomas Holland and Mr R. B. Whitehead, I.C.S. Chapter XVII could not have been written at all without the help afforded by Mr Vincent Smith's Early History of India. I have acknowledged my debts to other friends in the "List of Illustrations."
J. M. D.
8 May 1916.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. Areas and Boundaries 1
II. Mountains, Hills, and Plains 8
III. Rivers 32
IV. Geology and Mineral Resources 50
V. Climate 64
VI. Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees 71
VII. Forests 86
VIII. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Insects 90
IX. The People: Numbers, Races, and Languages 96
X. The People: Religions 114
XI. The People: Education 122
XII. Roads and Railways 127
XIII. Canals 132
XIV. Agriculture and Crops 142
XV. Handicrafts and Manufactures 152
XVI. Exports and Imports 159
XVII. History: Pre-Muhammadan Period, 500 B.C.-1000 A.D. 160
XVIII. History: Muhammadan Period, 1000 A.D.-1764 A.D. 168
XIX. History: Sikh Period, 1764 A.D.-1849 A.D. 181
XX. History: British Period, 1849 A.D.-1913 A.D. 188
XXI. Archaeology and Coins 200
XXII. Administration: General 212
XXIII. Administration: Local 217
XXIV. Revenue and Expenditure 219
XXV. Panjab Districts and Delhi 224
XXVI. The Panjab Native States 271
XXVII. The North-west Frontier Province 291
XXVIII. Kashmir and Jammu 314
XXIX. Cities 325
XXX. Other Places of Note 347
TABLES
I. Tribes of Panjab including Native States and of N.W.F. Province 359
II. Rainfall, Cultivation, Population, and Land Revenue 360
III. Agricultural Diagrams 362
IV. Crops 364
V. Revenue and Expenditure of Panjab 366
Index 367
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Arms of Panjab 1
2. Orographical Map (Holdich's India) 9
3. Nanga Parvat (Watson's Gazetteer of Hazara) 11
4. Burzil Pass (Sir Aurel Stein) 13
5. Rotang Pass (J. Coldstream) 15
6. Mt Haramukh (Sir Aurel Stein) 16
7. R. Jhelam in Kashmir--View towards Mohand Marg (Sir Aurel Stein) 18
8. Near Naran in Kagan Glen, Hazara (Watson's Gazetteer of Hazara) 19
9. Muztagh-Karakoram and Himalayan Ranges in Kashmir (Holdich's India) 21
10. The Khaibar Road (Holdich's India) 23
11. Panjab Rivers (Holdich's India) 33
12. The Indus at Attock (Sir Aurel Stein) 37
13. Indus at Kafirkot, D.I. Khan dt. (Sir Aurel Stein) 38
14. Fording the River at Lahore (E. B. Francis) 42
15. Bias at Manali (J. Coldstream) 44
16. Rainfall of different Seasons (Blanford) 62, 63
17. Average Barometric and Wind Chart for January (Blanford) 65
18. Average Barometric and Wind Chart for July (Blanford) 66
19. Banian or Bor trees (Sir Aurel Stein) 75
20. Deodars and Hill Temple (J. Coldstream) 80
21. Firs in Himalaya (J. Coldstream) 82
22. Chinars (Sir Aurel Stein) 83
23. Rhododendron campanulatum (J. Coldstream) 84
24. Big Game in Ladakh 92
25. Yaks (J. Coldstream) 93
26. Black Buck 95
27. Map showing density of population (Panjab Census Report, 1911) 97
28. Map showing increase and decrease of population (Panjab Census Report, 1911) 98
29. Map showing density of population in N.W.F. Province (N.W. Provinces Census Report, 1911) 99
30. Map showing density of population in Kashmir (Kashmir Census Report, 1911) 100
31. Jat Sikh Officers (Nand Ram) 103
32. Blind Beggar (E. B. Francis) 107
33. Dards (Sir Aurel Stein) 108
34. Map showing races (from The People of India, by Sir Herbert Risley. With permission of W. Thacker and Co., London) 109
35. Map showing distribution of languages (Panjab Census Report, 1911) 111
36. Map showing distribution of religions (Panjab Census Report, 1911) 115
37. Raghunath Temple, Jammu 116
38. Golden Temple, Amritsar (Mrs B. Roe) 117
39. Mosque in Lahore City (E. B. Francis) 118
40. God and Goddess, Chamba (H.H. the Raja of Chamba) 120
41. A Kulu godling and his attendants (J. Coldstream) 121
42. A School in the time preceding annexation 124
43. Poplar lined road to Srinagar (Miss M. B. Douie) 128
44. Map showing railways 129
45. Map--Older Canals 134
46. Map--Canals 137
47. Map of Canals of Peshawar district 141
48. Persian Wheel Well and Ekka (Sir Aurel Stein) 143
49. A drove of goats--Lahore (E. B. Francis) 144
50. A steep bit of hill cultivation, Hazara (Watson's Gazetteer of Hazara) 146
51. Preparing rice field in the Hills (J. Coldstream) 147
52. Carved doorway (Sir Aurel Stein) 151
53. Shoemaker's craft (Baden Powell Panjab Manufactures) 153
54. Carved windows (Sir Aurel Stein) 155
55. Papier mache work of Kashmir (Baden Powell Panjab Manufactures) 156
56. The Potter 157
57. Coin--obverse and reverse of Menander 163
58. Martand Temple (Miss Griffiths) 166
59. Baba Nanak and the Musician Mardana 174
60. Guru Govind Singh 176
61. Maharaja Ranjit Singh 182
62. Maharaja Kharak Singh 185
63. Nao Nihal Singh 185
64. Maharaja Sher Singh 185
65. Zamzama Gun (E. B. Francis) 187
66. Sir John Lawrence (from picture in National Portrait Gallery) 189
67. John Nicholson's Monument at Delhi (Lady Douie) 190
68. Sir Robert Montgomery 191
69. Panjab Camels at Lahore (E. B. Francis) 193
70. Sir Charles Aitchison (Bourne and Shepherd) 194
71. Sir Denzil Ibbetson (Albert Jenkins) 198
72. Sir Michael O'Dwyer (R. Ramlal Bhairulal and Son) 199
73. Group of Chamba Temples (H.H. the Raja of Chamba) 201
74. Payer Temple--Kashmir (Sir Aurel Stein) 202
75. Reliquary (Government of India) 203
76. Colonnade in Kuwwat ul Islam Mosque 204
77. Kutb Minar (Miss M. B. Douie) 205
78. Tomb of Emperor Tughlak Shah (Miss M. B. Douie) 206
79. Jama Masjid, Delhi 207
80. Tomb of Humayun (Miss M. B. Douie) 207
81. Badshahi Mosque, Lahore (E. B. Francis) 208
82. Coins 210
83. Skeleton District Map of Panjab 223
84. Delhi Enclave 225
85. Hissar district with portions of the Phulkian States etc. 226
86. Rohtak district 228
87. Gurgaon district 230
88. Karnal district 231
89. Ambala district with Kalsia 233
90. Kangra district 235
91. Bias at Manali (J. Coldstream) 237
92. Religious Fair in Kulu (J. Coldstream) 238
93. Kulu Women (J. Coldstream) 239
94. Hoshyarpur district 240
95. Jalandhar district and Kapurthala 242
96. Ludhiana district and adjoining Native States 243
97. Ferozepore district and Faridkot 244
98. Gurdaspur district 246
99. Sialkot district 247
100. Gujranwala district 248
101. Amritsar district 250
102. Lahore district 251
103. Gujrat district 252
104. Jhelam district 254
105. Rawalpindi district 255
106. Shop in Murree Bazar (Lady Douie) 256
107. Attock district 257
108. Mianwali district 259
109. Shahpur district 261
110, Montgomery district 263
111. Lyallpur district 264
112. Jhang district 265
113. Multan district 266
114. Muzaffargarh district 268
115. Dera Ghazi Khan district 269
116. Maharaja of Patiala (C. Vandyk) 272
117. Maharaja of Jind 277
118. Maharaja Sir Hira Singh of Nabha (Bourne and Shepherd) 278
119. Maharaja of Kapurthala 279
120. Raja of Faridkot (Julian Rust) 280
121. Nawab of Bahawalpur 281
122. Native States of Chamba, Mandi, Suket, Bilaspur 284
123. Raja Surindar Bikram Parkash of Sirmur 285
124. Raja of Chamba (F. Bremner) 287
125. Bashahr (Sketch Map by H. W. Emerson) 289
126. Sir Harold Deane (F. Bremner) 292
127. North-west Frontier Province 293
128. Dera Ismail Khan district 294
129. Bannu district 295
130. Kohat district 297
131. Peshawar district 298
132. Hazara district 300
133. Sir George Roos Keppel (Maull and Fox) 303
134. Tribal Territory north of Peshawar 304
135. Tribal Territory to west of N.W.F. Province 308
136. Khaibar Rifles 310
137. North Waziristan Militia and Border Post 313
138. Maharaja of Kashmir 315
139. Jammu and Kashmir 316
140. Takht i Suliman in Winter (Sir Aurel Stein) 318
141. Ladakh Hills (Mrs Wynyard Brown) 320
142. Zojila Pass (Mrs Wynyard Brown) 322
143. Delhi Mutiny Monument 327
144. Kashmir Gate, Delhi 328
145. Map of Delhi City 329
146. Darbar Medal 334
147. Street in Lahore (E. B. Francis) 336
148. Shahdara 338
149. Trans-border traders in Peshawar 343
150. Mosque of Shah Hamadan (F. Bremner) 345
Map of territories of Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir at end of volume Map of Panjab at end of volume
CHAPTER I
AREAS AND BOUNDARIES
~Introductory.~--Of the provinces of India the Panjab must always have a peculiar interest for Englishmen. Invasions by land from the west have perforce been launched across its great plains. The English were the first invaders who, possessing sea power, were able to outflank the mountain ranges which guard the north and west of India. Hence the Panjab was the last, and not the first, of their Indian conquests, and the courage and efficiency of the Sikh soldiery, even after the guiding hand of the old Maharaja Ranjit Singh was withdrawn, made it also one of the hardest. The success of the early administration of the province, which a few years after annexation made it possible to use its resources in fighting men to help in the task of putting down the mutiny, has always been a matter of just pride, while the less familiar story of the conquests of peace in the first sixty years of British rule may well arouse similar feelings.
Fig. 1. Arms of Panjab.
~Scope of work.~--A geography of the Panjab will fitly embrace an account also of the North-West Frontier Province, which in 1901 was severed from it and formed into a separate administration, of the small area recently placed directly under the government of India on the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, and of the native states in political dependence on the Panjab Government. It will also be convenient to include Kashmir and the tribal territory beyond the frontier of British India which is politically controlled from Peshawar. The whole tract covers ten degrees of latitude and eleven of longitude. The furthest point of the Kashmir frontier is in 37 deg. 2' N., which is much the same as the latitude of Syracuse. In the south-east the Panjab ends at 27 deg. 4' N., corresponding roughly to the position of the southernmost of the Canary Islands. Lines drawn west from Peshawar and Lahore would pass to the north of Beirut and Jerusalem respectively. Multan and Cairo are in the same latitude, and so are Delhi and Teneriffe. Kashmir stretches eastwards to longitude 80 deg. 3' and the westernmost part of Waziristan is in 69 deg. 2' E.
~Distribution of Area.~--The area dealt with is roughly 253,000 square miles. This is but two-thirteenths of the area of the Indian Empire, and yet it is less by only 10,000 square miles than that of Austria-Hungary including Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area consists of:
sq. miles
(1) The Panjab 97,000 (2) Native States dependent on Panjab Government 36,500 (3) Kashmir 81,000 (4) North West Frontier Province 13,000 (5) Tribal territory under the political control of the Chief Commissioner of North West Frontier Province, roughly 25,500
Approximately 136,000 square miles may be classed as highlands and 117,000 as plains, and these may be distributed as follows over the above divisions:
Highlands Plains
sq. miles sq. miles
(1) Panjab, British 11,000 86,000 (2) Panjab, Native States 12,000 24,500 (3) Kashmir 81,000 -- (4) North West Frontier Province 6,500 6,500 (5) Tribal Territory 25,500 --
On the north the highlands include the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan (Siwalik) tracts to the south and east of the Indus, and north of that river the Muztagh-Karakoram range and the bleak salt plateau beyond that range reaching almost up to the Kuenlun mountains. To the west of the Indus they include those spurs of the Hindu Kush which run into Chitral and Dir, the Buner and Swat hills, the Safed Koh, the Waziristan hills, the Suliman range, and the low hills in the trans-Indus districts of the North West Frontier Province.
~Boundary with China.~--There is a point to the north of Hunza in Kashmir where three great mountain chains, the Muztagh from the south-east, the Hindu Kush from the south-west, and the Sarikol (an offshoot of the Kuenlun) from the north-east, meet. It is also the meeting-place of the Indian, Chinese, and Russian empires and of Afghanistan. Westwards from this the boundary of Kashmir and Chinese Turkestan runs for 350 miles (omitting curves) through a desolate upland lying well to the north of the Muztagh-Karakoram range. Finally in the north-east corner of Kashmir the frontier impinges on the great Central Asian axis of the Kuenlun. From this point it turns southwards and separates Chinese Tibet from the salt Lingzi Thang plains and the Indus valley in Kashmir, and the eastern part of the native state of Bashahr, which physically form a portion of Tibet.
~Boundary with United Provinces.~--The south-east corner of Bashahr is a little to the north of the great Kedarnath peak in the Central Himalaya and of the source of the Jamna. Here the frontier strikes to the west dividing Bashahr from Teri Garhwal, a native state under the control of the government of the United Provinces. Turning again to the south it runs to the junction of the Tons and Jamna, separating Teri Garhwal from Sirmur and some of the smaller Simla Hill States. Henceforth the Jamna is with small exceptions the boundary between the Panjab and the United Provinces.
~Boundary with Afghanistan.~--We must now return to our starting-point at the eastern extremity of the Hindu Kush, and trace the boundary with Afghanistan. The frontier runs west and south-west along the Hindu Kush to the Dorah pass dividing Chitral from the Afghan province of Wakhan, and streams which drain into the Indus from the head waters of the Oxus. At the Dorah pass it turns sharply to the south, following a great spur which parts the valley of the Chitral river (British) from that of its Afghan affluent, the Bashgol. Below the junction of the two streams at Arnawai the Chitral changes its name and becomes the Kunar. Near this point the "Durand" line begins. In 1893 an agreement was made between the Amir Abdurrahman and Sir Mortimer Durand as representative of the British Government determining the frontier line from Chandak in the valley of the Kunar, twelve miles north of Asmar, to the Persian border. Asmar is an Afghan village on the left bank of the Kunar to the south of Arnawai. In 1894 the line was demarcated along the eastern watershed of the Kunar valley to Nawakotal on the confines of Bajaur and the country of the Mohmands.
Thence the frontier, which has not been demarcated, passes through the heart of the Mohmand country to the Kabul river and beyond it to our frontier post in the Khaibar at Landikhana.
From this point the line, still undemarcated, runs on in a south-westerly direction to the Safed Koh, and then strikes west along it to the Sikaram mountain near the Paiwar Kotal at the head of the Kurram valley. From Sikaram the frontier runs south and south-east crossing the upper waters of the Kurram, and dividing our possessions from the Afghan province of Khost. This line was demarcated in 1894.
At the south of the Kurram valley the frontier sweeps round to the west leaving in the British sphere the valley of the Tochi. Turning again to the south it crosses the upper waters of the Tochi and passes round the back of Waziristan by the Shawal valley and the plains about Wana to Domandi on the Gomal river, where Afghanistan, Biluchistan, and the North West Frontier Province meet. The Waziristan boundary was demarcated in 1895.
~Political and Administrative Boundaries.~--The boundary described above defines spheres of influence, and only in the Kurram valley does it coincide with that of the districts for whose orderly administration we hold ourselves responsible. All we ask of Wazirs, Afridis, or Mohmands is to leave our people at peace; we have no concern with their quarrels or blood feuds, so long as they abide in their mountains or only leave them for the sake of lawful gain. Our administrative boundary, which speaking broadly we took over from the Sikhs, usually runs at the foot of the hills. A glance at the map will show that between Peshawar and Kohat the territory of the independent tribes comes down almost to the Indus. At this point the hills occupied by the Jowaki section of the Afridi tribe push out a great tongue eastwards. Our military frontier road runs through these hills, and we actually pay the tribesmen of the Kohat pass for our right of way. Another tongue of tribal territory reaches right down to the Indus, and almost severs the Peshawar and Hazara districts. Further north the frontier of Hazara lies well to the east of the Indus.
~Frontier with Biluchistan.~--At Domandi the frontier turns to the east, and following the Gomal river to its junction with the Zhob at Kajuri Kach forms the boundary of the two British administrations. Henceforth the general direction of the line is determined by the trend of the Suliman range. It runs south to the Vehoa pass, where the country of the Pathans of the North West Frontier Province ends and that of the Hill and Plain Biluches subject to the Panjab Government begins. From the Vehoa pass to the Kaha torrent the line is drawn so as to leave Biluch tribes with the Panjab and Pathan tribes with the Biluchistan Agency. South of the Kaha the division is between Biluch tribes, the Marris and Bugtis to the west being managed from Quetta, and the Gurchanis and Mazaris, who are largely settled in the plains, being included in Dera Ghazi Khan, the trans-Indus district of the Panjab. At the south-west corner of the Dera Ghazi Khan district the Panjab, Sind, and Biluchistan meet. From this point the short common boundary of the Panjab and Sind runs east to the Indus.
~The Southern Boundary.~--East of the Indus the frontier runs south-east for about fifty miles parting Sind from the Bahawalpur State, till a point is reached where Sind, Rajputana, and Bahawalpur join. A little further to the east is the southern extremity of Bahawalpur at 70 deg. 8' E. and 27 deg. 5' N. From this point a line drawn due east would at a distance of 370 miles pass a few miles to the north of the south end of Gurgaon and a few miles to the south of the border of the Narnaul tract of Patiala. Between Narnaul and the south-east corner of the Bahawalpur State the great Rajputana desert, mainly occupied in this quarter by Bikaner, thrusts northwards a huge wedge reaching almost up to the Sutlej. To the west of the wedge is Bahawalpur and to the east the British district of Hissar. The apex is less than 100 miles from Lahore, while a line drawn due south from that city to latitude 27'5 deg. north would exceed 270 miles in length. The Jaipur State lies to the south and west of Narnaul, while Gurgaon has across its southern frontiers Alwar and Bharatpur, and near the Jamna the Muttra district of the United Provinces.
CHAPTER II
MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND PLAINS
~The Great Northern Rampart.~--The huge mountain rampart which guards the northern frontier of India thrusts out in the north-west a great bastion whose outer walls are the Hindu Kush and the Muztagh-Karakoram ranges. Behind the latter with a general trend from south-east to north-west are the great valley of the Indus to the point near Gilgit where it turns sharply to the south, and a succession of mountain chains and glens making up the Himalayan tract, through which the five rivers of the Panjab and the Jamna find their way to the plains. To meet trans-Indus extensions of the Himalaya the Hindu Kush pushes out from its main axis great spurs to the south, flanking the valleys which drain into the Indus either directly or through the Kabul river.
~The Himalaya.~--Tibet, which from the point of view of physical geography includes a large and little known area in the Kashmir State to the north of the Karakoram range, is a lofty, desolate, wind swept plateau with a mean elevation of about 15,000 feet. In the part of it situated to the north of the north-west corner of Nipal lies the Manasarowar lake, in the neighbourhood of which three great Indian rivers, the Tsanpo or Brahmaputra, the Sutlej, and the Indus, take their rise. The Indus flows to the north-west for 500 miles and then turns abruptly to the south to seek its distant home in the Indian Ocean. The Tsanpo has a still longer course of 800 miles eastwards before it too bends southwards to flow through Assam into the Bay of Bengal. Between the points where these two giant rivers change their direction there extends for a distance of 1500 miles the vast congeries of mountain ranges known collectively as the "Himalaya" or "Abode of Snow." As a matter of convenience the name is sometimes confined to the mountains east of the Indus, but geologically the hills of Buner and Swat to the north of Peshawar probably belong to the same system. In Sanskrit literature the Himalaya is also known as "Himavata," whence the classical Emodus.
Fig. 2. Orographical Map.
~The Kumaon Himalaya.~--The Himalaya may be divided longitudinally into three sections, the eastern or Sikkim, the mid or Kumaon, and the north-western or Ladakh. With the first we are not concerned. The Kumaon section lies mainly in the United Provinces, but it includes the sources of the Jamna, and contains the chain in the Panjab which is at once the southern watershed of the Sutlej and the great divide between the two river systems of Northern India, the Gangetic draining into the Bay of Bengal, and the Indus carrying the enormous discharge of the north-west Himalaya, the Muztagh-Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush ranges into the Indian Ocean. Simla stands on the south-western end of this watershed, and below it the Himalaya drops rapidly to the Siwalik foot-hills and to the plains. Jakko, the deodar-clad hill round which so much of the life of the summer capital of India revolves, attains a height of 8000 feet. The highest peak within a radius of 25 miles of Simla is the Chor, which is over 12,000 feet high, and does not lose its snow cap till May. Hattu, the well-known hill above Narkanda, which is 40 miles from Simla by road, is 1000 feet lower. But further west in Bashahr the higher peaks range from 16,000 to 22,000 feet.
Fig. 3. Nanga Parvat.
~The Inner Himalaya or Zanskar Range.~--The division of the Himalaya into the three sections named above is convenient for descriptive purposes. But its chief axis runs through all the sections. East of Nipal it strikes into Tibet not very far from the source of the Tsanpo, is soon pierced by the gorge of the Sutlej, and beyond it forms the southern watershed of the huge Indus valley. In the west this great rampart is known as the Zanskar range. For a short distance it is the boundary between the Panjab and Kashmir, separating two outlying portions of the Kangra district, Lahul and Spiti, from Ladakh. In this section the peaks are from 19,000 to 21,000 feet high, and the Baralacha pass on the road from the Kulu valley in Kangra to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is at an elevation of about 16,500 feet. In Kashmir the Zanskar or Inner Himalaya divides the valley of the Indus from those of the Chenab and Jhelam. It has no mountain to dispute supremacy with Everest (29,000 feet), or Kinchinjunga in the Eastern Himalaya, but the inferiority is only relative. The twin peaks called Nun and Kun to the east of Srinagar exceed 23,000 feet, and in the extreme north-west the grand mountain mass of Nanga Parvat towers above the Indus to a height of 26,182 feet. The lowest point in the chain is the Zojila (11,300 feet) on the route from Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, to Leh on the Indus
The road from Srinagar to Gilgit passes over the Burzil pass at an elevation of 13,500 feet.
The Zojila is at the top of the beautiful valley of the Sind river, a tributary of the Jhelam. The lofty Zanskar range blocks the inward flow of the monsoon, and once the Zojila is crossed the aspect of the country entirely changes. The land of forest glades and green pastures is left behind, and a region of naked and desolate grandeur begins.
"The waste of snow ... is the frontier of barren Tibet, where sandy wastes replace verdant meadows, and where the wild ridges, jutting up against the sky, are kept bare of vegetation, their strata crumbling under the destructive action of frost and water, leaving bare ribs of gaunt and often fantastic outline.... The colouring of the mountains is remarkable throughout Ladakh and nowhere more so than near the Fotula (a pass on the road to Leh to the south of the Indus gorge).... As we ascend the peaks suggest organ pipes, so vertical are the ridges, so jagged the ascending outlines. And each pipe is painted a different colour ... pale slate green, purple, yellow, grey, orange, and chocolate, each colour corresponding with a layer of the slate, shale, limestone, or trap strata" (Neve's Picturesque Kashmir, pp. 108 and 117).
Fig. 4. Burzil Pass.
In all this desolation there are tiny oases where level soil and a supply of river water permit of cultivation and of some tree growth.
~Water divide near Baralacha and Rotang Passes in Kulu.~--We have seen that the Indus and its greatest tributary, the Sutlej, rise beyond the Himalaya in the Tibetan plateau. The next great water divide is in the neighbourhood of the Baralacha pass and the Rotang pass, 30 miles to the south of it. The route from Simla to Leh runs at a general level of 7000 to 9000 feet along or near the Sutlej-Jamna watershed to Narkanda (8800 feet). Here it leaves the Hindustan-Tibet road and drops rapidly into the Sutlej gorge, where the Luri bridge is only 2650 feet above sea level. Rising steeply on the other side the Jalauri pass on the watershed between the Sutlej and the Bias is crossed at an elevation of 10,800 feet. A more gradual descent brings the traveller to the Bias at Larji, 3080 feet above sea level. The route then follows the course of the Bias through the beautiful Kulu valley to the Rotang pass (13,326 feet), near which the river rises. The upper part of the valley is flanked on the west by the short, but very lofty Bara Bangahal range, dividing Kulu from Kangra and the source of the Bias from that of the Ravi. Beyond the Rotang is Lahul, which is divided by a watershed from Spiti and the torrents which drain into the Sutlej. On the western side of this watershed are the sources of the Chandra and Bhaga, which unite to form the river known in the plains as the Chenab.
~Mid Himalaya or Pangi Range.~--The Mid Himalayan or Pangi range, striking west from the Rotang pass and the northern end of the Bara Bangahal chain, passes through the heart of Chamba dividing the valley of the Chenab (Pangi) from that of the Ravi. After entering Kashmir it crosses the Chenab near the Kolahoi cone (17,900 feet) and the head waters of the Jhelam. Thence it continues west over Haramukh (16,900 feet), which casts its shadow southwards on the Wular lake, to the valley of the Kishnganga, and probably across it to the mountains which flank the magnificent Kagan glen in Hazara.
Fig. 5. Rotang Pass.
Fig. 6. Mt Haramukh.
~Outer Himalaya or Dhauladhar-Pir Panjal Range.~--The Outer Himalaya also starts from a point near the Rotang pass, but some way to the south of the offset of the Mid Himalayan chain. Its main axis runs parallel to the latter, and under the name of the Dhauladhar (white ridge) forms the boundary of the Chamba State and Kangra, behind whose headquarters, at Dharmsala it stands up like a huge wall. It has a mean elevation of 15,000 feet, but rises as high as 16,000. It passes from Chamba into Bhadarwah in Kashmir, and crossing the Chenab is carried on as the Pir Panjal range through the south of that State. With an elevation of only 14,000 or 15,000 feet it is a dwarf as compared with the giants of the Inner Himalayan and Muztagh-Karakoram chains. But it hides them from the dwellers in the Panjab, and its snowy crest is a very striking picture as seen in the cold weather from the plains of Rawalpindi, Jhelam, and Gujrat. The Outer Himalaya is continued beyond the gorges of the Jhelam and Kishnganga rivers in Kajnag and the hills of the Hazara district. Near the eastern extremity of the Dhauladhar section of the Outer Himalaya it sends out southwards between Kulu and Mandi a lower offshoot. This is crossed by the Babbu (9480 feet) and Dulchi passes, connecting Kulu with Kangra through Mandi. Geologically the Kulu-Mandi range appears to be continued to the east of the Bias and across the Sutlej over Hattu and the Chor to the hills near Masuri (Mussoorie), a well-known hill station in the United Provinces. Another offshoot at the western end of the Dhauladhar passes through the beautiful hill station of Dalhousie, and sinks into the low hills to the east of the Ravi, where it leaves Chamba and enters the British district of Gurdaspur.
~River Valleys and Passes in the Himalaya.~--While these principal chains can be traced from south-east to north-west over hundreds of miles it must be remembered that the Himalaya is a mountain mass from 150 to 200 miles broad, that the main axes are linked together by subsidiary cross chains dividing the head waters of great rivers, and flanked by long and lofty ridges running down at various angles to the gorges of these streams and their tributaries. The typical Himalayan river runs in a gorge with mountains dipping down pretty steeply to its sides. The lower slopes are cultivated, but the land is usually stony and uneven, and as a whole the crops are not of a high class. The open valleys of the Jhelam in Kashmir and of the Bias in Kulu are exceptions. Passes in the Himalaya are not defiles between high cliffs, but cross the crest of a ridge at a point where the chain is locally depressed, and snow melts soonest. In the Outer and Mid Himalaya the line of perpetual snow is at about 16,000 feet, but for six months of the year the snow-line comes down 5000 feet lower. In the Inner Himalaya and the Muztagh-Karakoram, to which the monsoon does not penetrate, the air is so dry that less snow falls and the line is a good deal higher.
Fig. 7. R. Jhelam in Kashmir--View towards Mohand Marg.
Fig. 8. Near Naran in Kagan Glen, Hazara.
~Himalayan Scenery.~--Certain things strike any observant traveller in the Himalaya. One is the comparative absence of running or still water, except in the height of the rainy season, away from the large rivers. The slope is so rapid that ordinary falls of rain run off with great rapidity. The mountain scenery is often magnificent and the forests are beautiful, but the absence of water robs the landscape of a charm which would make it really perfect. Where this too is present, as in the valley of the Bias in Kulu and those of the Jhelam and its tributaries in Kashmir and Hazara, the eye has its full fruition of content. Another is the silence of the forests. Bird and beast are there, but they are little in evidence. A third feature which can hardly be missed is the contrast between the northern and the southern slopes. The former will often be clothed with forest while the latter is a bare stony slope covered according to season with brown or green grass interspersed with bushes of indigo, barberry, or the hog plum (Prinsepia utilis). The reason is that the northern side enjoys much more shade, snow lies longer, and the supply of moisture is therefore greater. The grazier for the same reason is less tempted to fire the hill side in order to promote the growth of grass, a practice which is fatal to all forest growth. The rich and varied flora of the Himalaya will be referred to later.
~Muztagh-Karakoram Ranges.~--The Muztagh-Karakoram mountains form the northern watershed of the Indus. The range consists of more than one main axis. The name Karakoram is appropriated to the eastern part of the system which originates at E. longitude 79 deg. near the Pangong lake in the Tibetan plateau a little beyond the boundary of Kashmir. Beyond the Karakoram pass (18,550 ft.) is a lofty bleak upland with salt lakes dotted over its surface. Through this inhospitable region and over the Karakoram pass and the Sasser-la (17,500 ft.) the trade route from Yarkand to Leh runs. The road is only open for three months in the year, and the dangers and hardships are great. In 1898 Dr Bullock Workman and his wife marched along it across the Shyok river, up the valley of the Nubra, and over the Sasser-la to the Karakoram pass. The scenery is an exaggeration of that described by Dr Neve as seen on the road from the Zoji-la to Leh. There is a powerful picture of its weird repellent grandeur in the Workmans' book entitled In the Ice World of Himalaya (pp. 28-29, 30-32). The poet who had found ideas for a new Paradiso in the Vale of Kashmir might here get suggestions for a new Inferno.
Fig. 9. Muztagh-Karakoram and Himalayan Ranges in Kashmir.
The Karakoram range culminates in the north-west near the Muztagh pass in a group of majestic peaks including K 2 or Mount Godwin Austen (28,265 feet), Gasherbrum, and Masherbrum, which tower over and feed the vast Boltoro glacier. The first of these giants is the second largest mountain in the world. The Duke of the Abruzzi ascended it to the height of 24,600 feet, and so established a climbing record. The Muztagh chain carries on the northern bastion to the valley of the Hunza river and the western extremity of the Hindu Kush. It has several peaks exceeding 25,000 feet. The most famous is Rakiposhi which looks down on Hunza from a height of 25,550 feet.
~The Hindu Kush.~--The Muztagh chain from the south-east, the Sarikol from the north-east, and the Hindu Kush from the south-west, meet at a point to the north of Hunza. The last runs westward and south-westward for about 200 miles to the Dorah pass (14,800 feet), separating the valleys which drain into the Indus from the head waters of the Oxus, and Hunza and Gilgit in Kashmir and Chitral in British India from the Afghan province of Wakhan. The highest point in the main axis, Sad Istragh (24,171 feet), is in this section. But the finest mountain scenery in the Hindu Kush is in the great spurs it thrusts out southwards to flank the glens which feed the Gilgit and Chitral rivers. Tirach Mir towers above Chitral to a height of 25,426 feet. From Tibet to the Dorah pass the northern frontier of India is impregnable. It is pierced by one or two difficult trade routes strewn with the bones of pack animals, but no large army has ever marched across it for the invasion of India. West of the Dorah pass the general level of the Hindu Kush is a good deal lower than that of its eastern section. The vital point in the defences of India in this quarter lies near Charikar to the north of Kabul, where the chain thins out, and three practicable passes debouch on the valley of the Kabul river. It is this fact that gives the town of Kabul its great strategic importance. The highest of the three passes, the Kaoshan or Hindu Kush (dead Hindu), crosses the chain at an elevation of 14,340 feet. It took its own name from the fate that befel a Hindu army when attempting to cross it, and has handed it on to the whole range. It is the pass which the armies of Alexander and Babar used. The historical road for the invasion of India on this side has been by Charikar and the valley of the Kabul river to its junction with the Kunar below Jalalabad, thence up the Kunar valley and over one of the practicable passes which connect its eastern watershed with the Panjkora and Swat river valleys, whence the descent on Peshawar is easy. This is the route by which Alexander led the wing of the Grecian army which he commanded in person, and the one followed by Babar in 1518-19. Like Alexander, Babar fought his way through Bajaur, and crossed the Indus above Attock.
Fig. 10. The Khaibar Road.
~The Khaibar.~--A British force advancing on Kabul from Peshawar has never marched by the Kunar and Kabul valley route. It has always taken the Khaibar road, which only follows the Kabul river for less than one-third of the 170 miles which separate Peshawar from the Amir's capital. The military road from Peshawar to Landikhana lies far to the south of the river, from which it is shut off by difficult and rugged country held by the Mohmands.
~Safed Koh.~--From Landikhana the political boundary runs south-west to the Safed Koh (white mountain) and is continued westwards along that range to the Paiwar Kotal or pass (8450 feet). The Safed Koh forms the watershed of the Kabul and Kurram rivers. It is a fine pine clad chain with a general level of 12,000 feet, and its skyline is rarely free from snow. It culminates in the west near Paiwar Kotal in Sikaram (15,620 feet). To the west of the Peshawar and Kohat districts is a tangle of hills and valleys formed by outlying spurs of the Safed Koh. This difficult country is in the occupation of Afridis and Orakzais, who are under our political control.
~The Kurram Valley.~--The line of advance into Afghanistan through the Kurram valley is easy, and Lord Roberts used it when he marched towards Kabul in 1898. After the war we annexed the valley, leaving however the head waters of the Kurram in Afghan territory. The road to Kabul leaves the river far to the south before it crosses our frontier at Paiwar Kotal.
~Waziristan Hills.~--Between the Kurram valley and the Gomal river is a large block of very rough mountainous country known as Waziristan from the turbulent clan which occupies it. In the north it is drained by the Tochi. Westwards of the Tochi valley the country rises into lofty mountains. The upper waters of the Tochi and its affluents drain two fine glens known as Birmal and Shawal to the west of the country of the Mahsud Wazirs. The Tochi valley is the direct route from India to Ghazni, and nine centuries ago, when that decayed town was the capital of a powerful kingdom, it must often have heard the tramp of armed men. The loftiest peaks in Waziristan, Shuidar (11,000 feet) and Pirghal (11,600 feet), overhang Birmal. Further south, Wana, our post in south-west Waziristan, overlooks from its plateau the Gomal valley.
~The Gomal Pass as a trade route.~--East of Kajuri Kach the Gomal flows through tribal territory to the Gomal pass from which it debouches into the plains of the Dera Ismail Khan district. "The Gomal route is the oldest of all trade routes. Down it there yearly pours a succession of kafilas (caravans) led and followed up by thousands of well-armed Pathan traders, called Powindahs, from the plains of Afghanistan to India. The Powindahs mostly belong to the Ghilzai tribes, and are not therefore true Afghans[1]. Leaving their women and children encamped within British territory on our border, and their arms in the keeping of our frontier political officials, the Powindah makes his way southwards with his camel loads of fruit and silk, bales of camel and goat hair or sheepskin goods, carpets and other merchandise from Kabul and Bokhara, and conveys himself through the length and breadth of the Indian peninsula.... He returns yearly to the cool summits of the Afghan hills and the open grassy plains, where his countless flocks of sheep and camels are scattered for the summer grazing" (Holdich's India, pp. 80-81).
~Physical features of hilly country between Peshawar and the Gomal river.~--The physical features of the hill country between Peshawar and the Gomal pass may best be described in the words of Sir Thomas Holdich:
"Natural landscape beauty, indeed, may here be measured to a certain extent by altitude. The low ranges of sun-scorched, blackened ridge and furrow formation which form the approaches to the higher altitudes of the Afghan upland, and which are almost as regularly laid out by the hand of nature in some parts of the frontier as are the parallels ... of the engineer who is besieging a fortress--these are by no means 'things of beauty,' and it is this class of formation and this form of barren desolation that is most familiar to the frontier officer.... Shades of delicate purple and grey will not make up for the absence of the living green of vegetation.... But with higher altitudes a cooler climate and snow-fed soil is found, and as soon as vegetation grasps a root-hold there is the beginning of fine scenery. The upper pine-covered slopes of the Safed Koh are as picturesque as those of the Swiss Alps; they are crowned by peaks whose wonderful altitudes are frozen beyond the possibility of vegetation, and are usually covered with snow wherever snow can lie. In Waziristan, hidden away in the higher recesses of its great mountains, are many valleys of great natural beauty, where we find the spreading poplar and the ilex in all the robust growth of an indigenous flora.... Among the minor valleys Birmal perhaps takes precedence by right of its natural beauty. Here are stretches of park-like scenery where grass-covered slopes are dotted with clumps of deodar and pine and intersected with rivulets hidden in banks of fern; soft green glades open out to view from every turn in the folds of the hills, and above them the silent watch towers of Pirghal and Shuidar ... look down from their snow-clad heights across the Afghan uplands to the hills beyond Ghazni." (Holdich's India, pp. 81-82.)
~The Suliman Range.~--A well-marked mountain chain runs from the Gomal to the extreme south-west corner of the Dera Ghazi Khan district where the borders of Biluchistan, Sind, and the Panjab meet. It culminates forty miles south of the Gomal in the fine Kaisargarh mountain (11,295 feet), which is a very conspicuous object from the plains of the Derajat. On the side of Kaisargarh there is a shrine called Takht i Suliman or Throne of Solomon, and this is the name by which Englishmen usually know the mountain, and which has been passed on to the whole range. Proceeding southwards the general elevation of the chain drops steadily. But Fort Munro, the hill station of the Dera Ghazi Khan district, 200 miles south of the Takht, still stands 6300 feet above sea level, and it looks across at the fine peak of Ekbhai, which is more than 1000 feet higher. In the south of the Dera Ghazi Khan district the general level of the chain is low, arid the Giandari hill, though only 4160 feet above the sea, stands out conspicuously. Finally near where the three jurisdictions meet the hills melt into the Kachh Gandava plain. Sir Thomas Holdich's description of the rugged Pathan hills applies also to the Suliman range. Kaisargarh is a fine limestone mountain crowned by a forest of the edible chilgoza pine. But the ordinary tree growth, where found at all, is of a much humbler kind, consisting of gnarled olives and dwarf palms.
~Passes and torrents in Suliman Hills.~--The drainage of the western slopes of the Suliman range finding no exit on that side has had to wear out ways for itself towards the plains which lie between the foot of the hills and the Indus. This is the explanation of the large number of passes, about one hundred, which lead from the plains into the Suliman hills. The chief from north to south are the Vehoa, the Sangarh, the Khair, the Kaha, the Chachar, and the Siri, called from the torrents which flow through them to the plains. There is an easy route through the Chachar to Biluchistan. But unfortunately the water of the torrent is brackish.
~Sub Himalaya or Siwaliks.~--In its lowest ridges the Himalaya drops to a height of about 5000 feet. But the traveller to any of the summer resorts in the mountains passes through a zone of lower hills interspersed sometimes with valleys or "duns." These consist of Tertiary sandstones, clays, and boulder conglomerates, the debris in fact which the Himalaya has dropped in the course of ages. To this group of hills and valleys the general name of Siwaliks is given. East of the Jhelam it includes the Nahan hills to the north of Ambala, the low hills of Kangra, Hoshyarpur, Gurdaspur, and Jammu, and the Pabbi hills in Gujrat. But it is to the west of the Jhelam that the system has its greatest extension. Practically the whole of the soil of the plains of the Attock, Rawalpindi, and Jhelam districts consists of disintegrated Siwalik sandstone, and differs widely in appearance and agricultural quality from the alluvium of the true Panjab plains. The low hills of these districts belong to the same system, but the Salt Range is only in part Siwalik. Altogether Siwalik deposits in the Panjab cover an area of 13,000 square miles. Beyond the Indus the hills of the Kohat district and a part of the Suliman range are of Tertiary age.
~The Great Panjab Plain.~--The passage from the highlands to the plains is as a rule abrupt, and the contrast between the two is extraordinary. This is true without qualification of the tract between the Jamna and the Jhelam. It is equally true of British districts west of the Jhelam and south of the Salt Range and of lines drawn from Kalabagh on the west bank of the Indus southwards to Paniala and thence north-west through the Pezu pass to the Waziristan hills. In all that vast plain, if we except the insignificant hills in the extreme south-west of the province ending to the north in the historic ridge at Delhi, some hillocks of gneiss near Tosham in Hissar, and the curious little isolated rocks at Kirana, Chiniot, and Sangla near the Chenab and Jhelam, the only eminences are petty ridges of windblown sand and the "thehs" or mounds which represent the accumulated debris of ancient village sites. At the end of the Jurassic period and later this great plain was part of a sea bed. Far removed as the Indian ocean now is the height above sea level of the Panjab plain east of the Jhelam is nowhere above 1000 feet. Delhi and Lahore are both just above the 700 feet line. The hills mentioned above are humble time-worn outliers of the very ancient Aravalli system, to which the hills of Rajputana belong. Kirana and Sangla were already of enormous age, when they were islands washed by the waves of the Tertiary sea. A description of the different parts of the vast Panjab plain, its great stretches of firm loam, and its tracts of sand and sand hills, which the casual observer might regard as pure desert, will be given in the paragraphs devoted to the different districts.
~The Salt Range.~--The tract west of the Jhelam, and bounded on the south by the Salt Range cis-Indus, and trans-Indus by the lines mentioned above, is of a more varied character. Time worn though the Salt Range has become by the waste of ages, it still rises at Sakesar, near its western extremity, to a height of 5000 feet. The eastern part of the range is mostly in the Jhelam district, and there the highest point is Chail (3700 feet). The hill of Tilla (3242 feet), which is a marked feature of the landscape looking westwards from Jhelam cantonment, is on a spur running north-east from the main chain. The Salt Range is poorly wooded, the dwarf acacia or phulahi (Acacia modesta), the olive, and the sanattha shrub (Dodonea viscosa) are the commonest species. But these jagged and arid hills include some not infertile valleys, every inch of which is put under crop by the crowded population. To geologists the range is of special interest, including as it does at one end of the scale Cambrian beds of enormous antiquity and at the other rocks of Tertiary age. Embedded in the Cambrian strata there are great deposits of rock salt at Kheora, where the Mayo mine is situated. At Kalabagh the Salt Range reappears on the far side of the Indus. Here the salt comes to the surface, and its jagged pinnacles present a remarkable appearance.