To those for whose perusal the following pages were originally written
they are affectionately dedicated.
Preface.
With the fullest sense of the responsibility incurred by the addition
of another volume to the countless numbers already existing, and daily
appearing in the world, the following Diary has been committed to the
press, trusting that, as it was not written WITH INTENT to publication,
the unpremeditated nature of the offence may be its extenuation, and
that as a faithful picture of travel in regions where excursion trains
are still unknown, and Travellers' Guides unpublished, the book may
not be found altogether devoid of interest or amusement. Its object
is simply to bring before the reader's imagination those scenes and
incidents of travel which have already been a source of enjoyment to
the writer, and to impart, perhaps, by their description, some portion
of the gratification which has been derived from their reality. With
this view, the original Diary has undergone as little alteration of
form or matter as possible, and is laid before the reader as it was
sketched and written during the leisure moments of a wandering life,
hoping that faithfulness of detail may atone in it for faults and
failings in a literary and artistic point of view.
Although the journey it describes was written without the advantages
of a previous acquaintance with the writings of those who had already
gone over the same ground, subsequent research has added much to the
interest of the narrative, and information thus obtained has been
added either in the form of Notes or Appendix. Under the latter head,
acknowledgment is principally due to an able and interesting essay
on the architecture of Cashmere, by Capt. Cunningham, and also to a
paper by M. Klaproth, both of whom appear to have treated more fully
than any other writers the subjects to which they refer.
As differences will be found to occur in the names of places,
&c. between the parts thus added and the remainder of the book,
it may be well to explain that in the former only are they spelt
according to the usually received method of rendering words of Eastern
origin in the Roman character. By this system the letters A, E, I,
O, and U, are given the sounds of the corresponding Italian vowels;
I and U are pronounced as in "hit" and "put;" and the letter A is
made to represent the short U in the word "cut." In this way it is
that Cashmere, correctly pronounced Cushmere, comes to be written
Kashmir, and Mutun, pronounced as the English word "mutton,"[1] is
written Matan, both of which, to the initiated, represent the true
sound of the words. Those who have adopted the system, however, have
not always employed it throughout, nor given with it the key by which
it alone becomes intelligible; and the result has been that in many
ways, but principally from the un-English use made of the letter A,
it has tended quite as much to mislead and confuse, as to direct.
In the narrative, therefore, wherever custom has not already
established a particular form of spelling, the explanation of the
sound has been attempted in the manner which seemed least liable to
misconception, and, except as regards the letters A and U no particular
system has been followed. These have been invariably given the sounds
they possess in the words "path" and "cut" respectively, a circumflex
being placed over the latter to denote the short U in the word "put."
Such names, therefore, as Cushmere, Tibbut, Muhummud, Hijra, &c. have
been left as custom has ruled them, and will appear in their more
well-known costume of Cashmere, Thibet, Mahomet, and Hegira.
The concluding sketch was originally intended to accompany a series
of brightly-coloured Cashmerian designs illustrative of the life of
"Krishna;" and the reproduction of these, in their integrity, not
having been found feasible, the sketch itself may appear DE TROP.
It has, however, been retained on the possibility of the translations
which occur in it being of interest to those who may not be acquainted
with the style of Eastern religious literature; while the outline it
presents of some of the religions of the East, bare and simple as
it is, may be acceptable to such as are not inclined to search out
and study for themselves the necessarily voluminous and complicated
details.
London.
Contents.
Illustrations.
Ladak
View in Sirinugger
Solomon's Throne
Hurree Purbut
Martund
Pandreton
Lamieroo
Road to Egnemo
Rajah's Palace, Ladak
Monastery of Hemis
Seventh Bridge, Sirinugger
Hindoo Temple in the Himalayas
Gunesh
Birth of Krishna
Temple Decoration, Himalayas
Ancient Jain Temple
Chubootra, or Resting-place in the Himalayas
The Head of Affairs
An Unpropitious Moment
Kismut
Crossing the Sutlej
A Halting-place in Cashmere
Latticed Window, Sirinugger
Sacred Tank, Islamabad
Painting VERSUS Poetry
Love-lighted Eyes
Vernagh
Cashmerian Temple Sculpture
Patrun
Roadside Monument, Thibet
Road to Moulwee
Rock Sculpture
Thibetian Monument
Natives and Lama
Thibetian Religious Literature
Inscribed Stones
Inscribed Stones
Monument at Hemis
Painted Stone
Buddha
Snow Bridge
Kangree
Ancient Hindoo Temple
Fukeer of Solomon's Throne
Erratum.
Page 116, line 5, FOR A.D. 1612, READ A.D. 1619.
"Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,
With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,
Its temples, and grottoes, and fountains as clear
As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave?"
Introduction.
More than a year and a half had been spent in the hottest parts of the
plains of India, and another dreaded hot season was rapidly making its
approach, when, together with a brother officer, I applied for and
obtained six months' leave of absence for the purpose of travelling
in Cashmere and the Himalayas, otherwise called by Anglo-Indians
"The Hills."
We had been long enough in the country to have discovered that the
gorgeous East of our imagination, as shadowed forth in the delectable
pages of the "Arabian Nights," had little or no connexion with the
East of our experience - the dry and dusty East called India, as it
appeared, wasted and dilapidated, in its first convalescence from the
fever into which it had been thrown by the Mutiny of 1857 - 58.
