CHAPTER VI
Past the masses hoary
Of cities great in story,
Past their towers and temples drifting lone and free ;
Gliding, never hasting;
Gliding, never resting;
Ever with the river th a t glideth to the sea.
—James Thomson.
Some ru in s—Fragments of th eir supposed histories—Dry-as-
dust details and a short discourse on religion in the valley.
O n my way down the river I stopped at various places
to visit different temples and ancient ruins, for there
is not a village in the whole of the valley that does not
boast of some relic of old days. Fragments of beautiful
carvings and pieces of sculpture may often be found
lying about or built into the miserable edifices that
represent all that a Kashmiri can accomplish in the
present day. The people take little or no interest in
these things, using them merely as easy quarries where
all that they need in the way of stonework is provided,
or turning them to account to increase their incomes,
our countrymen seldom caring to visit what has ever
been a place of worship without leaving some small
contribution, though the showman is seldom a follower
of the faith which the shrine was erected to honour.
If questions are asked,' the inevitable answer is,
* Built by the Pandus if one presses for more details,
the only reward is a shrug of the shoulders, and “ they
or others; we are ignorant people, and the Huzur knows
best; Sahibs come long way to see this, and always
give poor man much backsheesh.” Owing to the
constant state of anarchy and the depredations of
greedy conquerors, no traditions of real value exist in
the present day, and the “ great men,” the men of
authority who write books, are only to be believed until,
as inevitably occurs, an exponent of newer theories
arises. The best plan is to see everything one can, for
these old builders were so skilful they could not place
one stone upon another without a graceful touch or
delicate piece of pleasant fancy, and then make one’s
own theory about them, regardless of what others have
written or may write. By this system much poring over
dull descriptions and “ dry-as-dust ” discussions will
be avoided, the memory relieved of a great strain in
balancing contradictory statements, and the shock
spared of discovering that two of the greatest authorities
are capable of differing to the extent of three hundred
years in their respective dating of buildings. As for
style, the Kashmirian architects of old time may have
been under influences that- seem to us strangely remote
to have had power, but the whole matter is much
disputed, and nothing can be stated with certainty.
That no one may be disappointed of the pleasures of
argument, I give for what they are worth in my
description of the various holy places some of the
different theories that have been propounded. Avanti-
pura, close to the river, was my first halting-place. I t
has a stray likeness to Martand, but situated