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Rh storms in the monsoon pass over the crests of the Panjal and give heavy rain on the elevated plateaus on the Kashmir side. And again clouds pass over the valley and are arrested by the higher hills on the north-east side. Snow falls on the surrounding hills at intervals from October to March. In the valley the first snow generally falls about the end of December, but never to any great amount. The hottest months are July, August and the greater part of September, during which the noon shade temperature varies from 85° to 90° and occasionally 95º at Srinagar, probably the hottest place in the valley. The coldest months are January and February, when for several weeks the average minimum temperature is about 15º below freezing. As a health resort the province, excluding Srinagar, which is insanitary and relaxing, has no rival anywhere in the neighbourhood of India. Its climate is admirably adapted to the European constitution, and in consequence of the varied range of temperature and the facility of moving about the visitor is enabled with ease to select places at elevations most congenial to him. Formerly only 200 passes a year were issued by the government, but now no restriction is placed on visitors, and their number increases annually. European sportsmen and travellers, in addition to residents of India, resort there freely. The railway to Rawalpindi, and a driving road thence to Srinagar make the valley easy of access. When the temperature in Srinagar rises at the beginning of June, there is a general exodus to Gulmarg, which has become a fashionable hill-station. This great influx of visitors has resulted in a corresponding diminution of game. Special game preservation rules have been introduced, and nullahs are let out for stated periods with a restriction on the number of head to be shot. The wild animals of the country include ibex, markhor, oorial, the Kashmir stag, and black and brown bears. Many sportsmen now cross into Ladakh and the Pamirs.

People.—The great majority of the inhabitants of Kashmir are professedly Mahommedans, but their conversion to the faith of Islam is comparatively recent and they are still strongly influenced by their ancient superstitions. At the census of 1901 out of a total population in the whole state of 2,905,578, there were 2,154,695 Mahommedans, 689,073 Hindus, 35,047 Buddhists and 25,828 Sikhs. The Hindus are mostly found in Jammu, and the Buddhists are confined to Ladakh. In Kashmir proper the few Hindus (60,682) are almost all Brahmans, known as Pundits. Superstition has made the Kashmiri timid; tyranny has made him a liar; while physical disasters have made him selfish and pessimistic. Up to recent times the cultivator lived under a system of begar, which entitled an official to take either labour or commodities free of payment from the villages. Having no security of property, the people had no incentive to effort, and with no security for life they lost the independence of free men. But the land settlement of 1889 swept all these abuses away. Restrictive monopolies, under which bricks, lime, paper and certain other manufactures were closed to private enterprise, were abolished. The results of the settlement are thus enumerated by Sir Walter Lawrence: “Little by little, confidence has sprung up. Land which had no value in 1889 is now eagerly sought after by all classes. Cultivation has extended and improved. Houses have been rebuilt and repaired, fields fenced in, orchards planted, vegetable gardens well stocked and new mills constructed. Women no longer are seen toiling in the fields, for their husbands are now at home to do the work, and the long journeys to Gilgit are a thing of the past. When the harvest is ripe the peasant reaps it at his own good time, and not a soldier ever enters the villages.” In consequence of this improvement in their conditions of life and of the influx of wealth into the country brought by visitors, the Kashmiri grows every year in material prosperity and independence of character. The Kashmir women have a reputation for beauty which is not altogether deserved, but the children are always pretty.

The language spoken in Kashmir is akin to that of the Punjab, though marked by many peculiarities. It possesses an ancient literature, which is written in a special character (see ).

Natural Calamities.—The effect of physical calamities partly incidental to the climate of Kashmir, upon the character of its inhabitants has been referred to. The list includes fires, floods, earthquakes, famines and cholera. The ravages of fire are chiefly felt in Srinagar, where the wood houses and their thatched roofs fall an easy prey to the flames. The national habit of carrying a kangar, or small brazier, underneath the clothes for the purpose of warming the body, is a fruitful cause of fires. Srinagar is said to have been burnt down eighteen times. Many disastrous floods are recorded, the greatest being the terrible inundation which followed the slipping of the Khadanyar mountain below Baramula in 879. The channel of the Jhelum river was blocked and a large part of the valley submerged. In 1841 a serious flood caused great damage to life and property; there was another in 1893, when six out of the seven bridges in Srinagar were washed away, 25,426 acres under crops were submerged and 2225 houses were wrecked; another flood occurred in July 1903, when the bund between the Dal Lake and the canal gave way, and the lake rose 10 ft. in half an hour. Between two and three thousand houses in and around Srinagar collapsed, while over 40 miles of the tonga road were submerged. Since the 15th century eleven great earthquakes have occurred, all of long duration and accompanied by great loss of life. During the 19th century there were four severe earthquakes, the last two occurring in 1864 and 1885, when some 3500 people were killed. Native historians record nineteen great famines, the last two occurring in 1831 and 1877. In 1878 it was reported that only two-fifths of the total population of the valley survived. During the 19th century also there were ten epidemics of cholera, all more or less disastrous, while the worst (in 1892) was probably the last. During that year 5781 persons died in Srinagar and 5931 in the villages. The centre of infection is generally supposed to be the squalid capital of Srinagar, and some efforts to improve its sanitation have been made of recent years.

Crops.—The staple crop of the valley is rice, which forms the chief food of the people. Indian corn comes next; wheat, barley and oats are also grown. Every kind of English vegetable thrives well, especially asparagus, artichoke, seakale, broad beans, scarlet-runners, beetroot, cauliflower and cabbage. Fruit trees are met with all over the valley, wild but bearing fruit, and the cultivated orchards yield pears, apples, peaches, cherries, &c., equal to the best European produce. The chief trees are deodar, firs and pines, chenar or plane, maple, birch and walnut. There are state departments of viticulture, hops, horticulture and sericulture. A complete list of the flora and fauna of the valley will be found in Sir Walter Lawrence’s book on Kashmir.

Industries.—The chief industry of Srinagar was formerly the weaving of the celebrated Kashmir shawl, which dates back to the days of the emperor Baber. These shawls first became fashionable in Europe in the reign of Napoleon, when they fetched from £10 to £100; but the industry received a blow at the time of the Franco-German War, and the famine of 1877 scattered the weavers. The place of the Kashmir shawl has to some extent been taken by the Kashmir carpet, but the most thriving industry now is that of silk-weaving. Srinagar is also celebrated for its silver-work, papier mâché and wood-carving. The minerals and metals of the Jammu district are promising, and a company has been formed to work them. Coal of fair quality has been found, but the difficulties of transport interfere with its working.

History.—The metrical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, called Rajatarangini, was pronounced by Professor H. H. Wilson to be the only Sanskrit composition yet discovered to which the title of history can with any propriety be applied. It first became known to the Mahommedans when, on Akbar’s invasion of Kashmir in 1588, a copy was presented to the emperor. A translation into Persian was made by his order, and a summary of its contents, from this Persian translation, is given by Abu’l Fazl in the Á’īn–i-Akbarī. The Rajataranginī, the first of a series of four Sanskrit histories, was written about the middle of the 12th century by P. Kalhana. His work, in six books, makes use of earlier writings now lost. Commencing with traditional history of very early times, it comes down to the reign of Sangrama Deva, 1006; the second work, by Jonaraja, takes up the history in continuation of Kalhana’s, and, entering the Mahommedan period, gives an account of the reigns down to that of Zain-ul-ab-ad-din, 1412. P. Srivara carried on the record to the accession of Fah Shah, 1486. And the fourth work, called Rājāvalipataka, by Prajnia Bhatta, completes the history to the time of the incorporation of Kashmir in the dominions of the Mogul emperor Akbar, 1588.

In the Rājātarangini it is stated that the valley of Kashmir was formerly a lake, and that it was drained by the great rishi or sage, Kasyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma, by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula). When Kashmir had been drained, he brought in the Brahmans to occupy it. This is still the local tradition, and in the existing physical condition of the country we may see some ground for the story which has taken this form. The name of Kasyapa is by history and tradition connected with the draining of the lake, and the chief town or collection of dwellings in the valley was called Kasyapa-pur—a name which has been plausibly identified with the of Hecataeus (Steph. Byz., s.v.) and of Herodotus (iii. 102, iv. 44). Kashmir is the country meant also by Ptolemy’s . The ancient