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SEPTEMBER, 1906.)
ARCHÆOLOGY IN WESTERN TIBET.
239
miles of bad road. The king of Leh, who made Khalatse into a Tibetan town, built a third bridge on the present site and saved the trying journey on the left bank altogether. The Balu-mkhar Bridge and the second bridge then lost their importance and decayed, but the castle of Balu-mkhar seems to have been kept up down to about the Balti invasion in 1600.
(C) Inscription of king rGya-shin. On another boulder, in the near neighbourhood of the preceding inscriptions, is one of a similar type to that inscribed by king Shirima. It is written in dBu-med cheracters and very roughly executed. The lower part is illegible, as a more recent inscription has been carved straight across it. The first lines run thus: - Tibetan Text.
Translation. 1. rgyalpo chenpo
1. The great king. 2. rgya shin[sk]a yzhon
2. Gya-shin-[sk]n-yzhon 3. Khalastse) ....
3. [of] Kbalatse] ....
Notes, We have here possibly a record of another petty king of Khalatee of the line of Shirima. * This line has, perhaps, been ignored in looal history for having given offence to the suzerain kings of
Leh. At any rate it seems to have disappeared about 1200 A. D. The last witnesses of its existence, besides the ruined castle on the banks of the Indus above-mentioned, are a number of stapas, partly in ruins, but still the highest in Khalatse. These stepas go to prove that, during its last days, the dynasty had become Lamaist, while traces of several graves close to the ruined castle go to prove that these kings, before they came into touch with the Leh Dynasty, were true Dards, whose custom it was to bury their dead.
There is another Dard Castle on the brook of Khalatse, about a mile above the Indus. This castle seems to have escaped destruction from the Tibetans. It was deserted later on, when its inhabitants joined the Khalatse people and became Tibetanized. (D) The Lost Stone Inscription of King bDe-ldan-rnam-rgyal, c. 1650–1680 A. D.
A little below the Brag-nag Castle at Khalatse, there used to be an inscribed stone, which was destroyed only a few years ago. As there are many people alive, who have seen and read it, and have a good reason for accurately handing down its contents, I give them as told to me.
Tibetan Text. Chos rgyal chenpo bde Idan rnam rgyalgyis Khalatsepala ; sabon 'adebspai dus ni, lcangrinas Itaste, nyima bragkhungla nubna btabdgos; drongpa chu drenpai res ni, dangpo bsod rnams phelpa dang grong đponpa dang gongmapa ysum; yayispa gnumpa dang starapa dang dragcbospa ysum;
sumpa ni sabipa dang sherabpa dang bedapa yum; bzhipa ni rkang chagpa dang khrollepa dang rallups youm; Ingapa ni dragchospa dang gadcanpa dang grambucanpa ysum; drugpa ni byabapa dang phanba dang bragcanpa yum; bdunpa ni rkyallapa dang skamburpa dang monpa ysummo,
Translation, The religious king bDe-lden-rnam-rgyal (tells the people of Khalatso: This is the time for sowing: when the sun sets in the cavity in the rock, looking from the Willow Hill, you must sow. The order of watering the fields (irrigating) for the peasants is this : bSod-rnams-phelpa and Grong
Besides the ancient Tibetan insoviptions, there are several ancient non-Tibetan inscriptions at Khalatse. One of them was reprodneod ante, Vol. XXXI. P. 401, Plate III., fig. 1, and Vol. XXXII. p. 351, Plate II., fig. 1. My colleotion of non-Tibetan inscriptions (mostly from Khalatse) numbers tea insoripion. Three of them were sent to Dr. Ph. Vogel, Arobmological Surveyor, Panjab, who pronounoed one of them to be Kharostht, and another Ancient Brahmt of the first oentury. Thus the theory of the presence of the ancient pre-Lamaiat Buddhism in Ladakh is becoming an established faet.
