Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 242

228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OCTOBER, 1917
was easy to recognize those topographical features which clearly point to the Yeshil-köl having derived its existence from a similar cataclysm at some earlier period. To the eyes of the non-geologist the formation of the Buruman ridge, which closes the western end of the lake, seemed to bear a close resemblance to the newly formed barrage which has created the Sarez Lake. Of glacier action, which might have produced the same result, I could see to trace on either side of the Yeshil-köl exit. On the other hand, what I observed on my way up the open Alichur Pamir, and subsequently in the Shughnan Valley below it, bore clear evidence to the advantages which the route leading through them had offered for Chinese expansion to the Upper Oxus and Badakhshan, ever since Kao Hsien-chih's memorable Pamir and Hindukush campaign of A.D. 747.
Having crossed the Bash-gumbaz, our fourth pass over 15,000 feet since leaving the Alai. I descended to the glittering big expanse of Lake Victoria or Zor-köl, where the Great Pamir branch of the Oxus rises, and the Pamir borders of Russia and Afghanistan meet. Ever since my youth I had longed to see this, the truly “Great” Pamir and its fine lake, famous in early local legends, and the “Great Dragon Lake" of the old Chinese pilgrims. As I looked across its deep blue waters to where in the east they seemed to fade away on the horizon, I thought it quite worthy to figure in early tradition as the legendary central lake from which the four greatest rivers of Asia were supposed to take their rise. It was a delightful sensation to find myself on ground closely associated with the memories of those great travellers, Hsuan-tsang, the saintly Chinese pilgrim-geographer, Marco Polo, and Captain Wood, the first modern explorer of the Pamir region.
The day of halt. August 27, spent by the sunny lake-shore, undisturbed by any sign of human activity, was most enjoyable, in spite of the bitterly cold wind sweeping across the big alpine basin, circ. 13,400 feet above sea level. It allowed me to gather local information, which once more confirmed in a striking fashion the accuracy of the Chinese historical records. In describing Kao Hsein-chih's expedition across the Hindukush, the Tang Annals siecially mention the concentration of the Chinese forces by three routes from east, west, and north, upon Sarhad, the point on the Ab-i-Panja branch of the Oxus, which gives direct access to the Baroghil and Darkot Passes. The routes from the east and west, i.e., down and up the Ab-i-Panja Valley, were clear beyond all doubt. But of the northern route no indication could be traced in maps or books, and the existence of a pass, vaguely mentioned in native intelligence reports as possibly leading to Sarhad, across the high snowy range south of the Great Pamir, had been denied by members of the British Boundary Commission of 1895 who visited this region.
It was hence a pleasant surprise when inquiries from two much-travelled Kirghiz among our party elicited definite and independent evidence as to an old track still used by Tajik herdsmen, which leads from Sarhad across the range to the glacier-filled head of the Shor-jilga Valley, clearly visible from Lake Victoria, and thence down to the western shore of the latter. All I could observe through my glasses, and what I had seen in 1906 from the other side of the mountain range, seemed to plead for the accuracy of the Kirghiz' information. My only regret was the impossibility of testing it on the spot. This, alas, would have necessitated my trespassing on His Afghan Majesty's territory. How often did I later on, too, look wistfully across the boundary drawn by the River Oxus with the fond wish that I might yet be allowed to pass through the gate of favour" into those fascinating valleys and mountains on the Afghan side of the border, which I was now able to skirt for hundreds of miles