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204
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1905.
as the rock itself, they are usually passed by unobserved. In this part of Ladakh, cliffs constantly assume the appearance and forms of houses, forts, and ramparts, and this fact has often been taken advantage of by the inhabitants to turn them into real dwellings easily defended. (Vide figs. 1 and 2, Plate II.)
The object of placing a fortified building at this spot was to control the traffic over a rope bridge that formerly existed over the Indus at this point. The site of the piers of the bridge on the opposite side of the river is still marked by a heap of loose stones. Such forts are usual in Ladakh and Western Tibet, generally where such bridges crossed the rivers. (Vide fig. 2, Plate III.)
The bridge was apparently only approachable through the fort, by a precipitous masonry stair, of which the remains are still quite clear. (Vide fig. 1, Plate III.) The approach to the fort on the land side is now very difficult, being up a fissure in the rocks, about three feet wide, with a boulder here and there by way of a stop.
A general date for the fort can be conjectured thus. At the foot of the rock were found some potsherds (vide Plate IV.) which seemed to be parts of large vessels, similar in shape to those still in use, except that the patterns were traced in a red pigment. Modern Ladakhi pottery is never so ornamented, but in an ancient grave, presumably of Darde who died during the old Dard colonisation, opened at Leh in January, 1904, by Mr. Francke and Dr. Shawe, some whole dramas or jars were found with the same colour used in the ornamentation. These dzamas were of the same size as the modern ones, viz., 18 to 24 inches high, and of about the same diameter. In this grave entire skeletons were found, which showed it to belong to a period anterior to the conversion of Ladakh to Lamaism by the Tibetans, because under that rite the dead are burned, not buried. To this period presumably the fragments found in the fort belonged also.
This fact supports the inference to be gathered from an Inscription on the rocks, beneath two large incised stupas, with a group of smaller ones below and around it (vide fig. 2, Plate II.), placed so high up as only to be decipherable from below by means of a field-glass. From it we find that the place belonged to the king or monastery of Lamayuru, a large village, 15 miles to the South-west on the. Leh road and 38 miles from Shergol, where the first Buddhist monastery is met with on the way from Kashmir. The facts stated in the inscription, given and explained below in the Notes on the Inscriptions, and the expressions used in it go to show that it belongs to a date about 800-1000 A. D.
Several interesting finds resulted from the investigations. In one room was found a stone anvil with a marked deposit of iron on it from long usage. Bits of charcoal and iron slag were also lying about. The villagers of Khalatae are in the habit of searching the fort for iron arrow-heads for melting down into implements, as iron is extremely scarce and valuable in Western Tibet, where the ponies are not in consequence shod.
Beads are also found on the site and are highly prized by the local inhabitants who will not readily part with them. Two, however, were procured from the people. One was a small barrel of light brown and white agate, highly polished, three-quarters of an inch long. The other was of black wood, roughly shaped and worn smooth with use. Both were hand-bored in the manner usual in beads from ancient sites in North India.
Several stone mortars (vide fig. 2, Plate V.) were found, such as are usual at the present day for grinding pepper and apricot kernels for oil, and also walnuts for oil and pounding dried apricots. Traditionally the Balu-mkhar mortars were used for grinding wheat and barley for flour, as at the time of its occupation water-mills for this purpose were not in use.
