Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 58
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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MAY, 1929)
ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN ON THE N.-W. FRONTIER
below the middle of the spur they become somewhat easier and here allow room for the small hamlet of Chîr, permanently tenanted by about a dozen of Gujar households. But as its terraced fields occupy the angle between two deep-cut ravinos, with rocky scarps descending precipitously for some 500 feet, access to Pir-sar is made very difficult from this side too.
It only remains for me briefly to describe the top of the Pir-sar spur. This presents itself for a distance of a little over 11 miles as an almost level plateau, occupied along practi. cally its whole length by fields of wheat. The width of the flat ground on the top varies from about 100 to 200 yards, with strips available for grazing by the side of the fields. Fine old trees form small groves in places (Fig. 9), and one of these near the middle of the ridge shelters a much frequented zidrat, or shrine. There are several small springs in the little gullies which furrow the steep slopes close below the ridge, and these feed the streams which pass near the fields of Chir or drain into the valley above Talun. But in addition two large reservoirs, have been constructed with bands of rough stonework in order to store plentiful water from rain or melting snow, and thus to meet the need of the herds of cattle brought for grazing during the summer months. We found them filled to a depth of several feet. Over two dozen of homesteads, roughly built in the Gujar fashion, and scattered in groups over the plateau, serve to shelter the families which move up from Chir and Talun with their cattle and occupy Pir-sar from the latter portion of spring till the autumn. The mosque to be referred to below forms the centre of the settlement. The fact that the Pirsar ridge stretches from north to south and is nowhere shaded by higher ground assures abundance of sunshine to its top. In consequence this gets clear of snow very early in the year. This explains also why. in spite of an abnormally late spring and the bitterly cold winds still blowing down from the Indus Kohistån at the time of our stay (April 27-29), we found the wheat already standing high.
At its southern end Pir-sar is guarded, as it were, by the hill of Kuz-sar already mentioned, which rises about 100 feet above the plateau and completely commands the difficult paths leading up from the Maju and Asharai crests. At the northern extremity the plateau is still more effectively protected by the bold conical hill of Bar-sar, which rises to a height of about 7,900 feet, and is thus on its top about 800 feet higher than the plateau. The approach from the latter to the thickly wooded top lies first over easy grassy slopes (Fig. 8), but from about 300 feet below it becomes very steep and rocky. The top portion of Bar-sar, as the plan shows, has a distinctly triangular shape. The sides of the triangle to the cast and southwest are lined with crags and very precipitous. The same is the case with the side facing north-west. From the angle pointing north there leads an easier slope down 200 feet to a narrow saddle, and beyond it there rises close by a small flat-topped outlier of Bar-sar known as LAnde-sar ("the lower height"). Its elevation is but little less than that of Bar-sar, and the Blopes below it are very steep and rocky on all sides except where the saddle links it with Bar-sar.
It is by the angle pointing west that Bar-sar joins up with the main range, in the axial line of which it lies. But it is just here that the continuity of the range is broken by the deep and precipitous ravine which we encountered on our first approach to Pir-sar. The bottom of this ravine lies approximately on the same level as the plateau of Pir-sar and about 600 feet below the alp of Burimêr which, as we have seen, faces Bar-sar. I have already had occasion to describe the troublesome descent from Bûrimar to the bottom of this ravine known as Burimár-kandao. But the angle at which the narrow rocky arête from the top of Bar-sar runs down to it is still steeper. The succession of crags, in places almost vertical, is here, however, broken at one point by a projecting small shoulder, called Mashlun. This, visible in the distance in Fig. 8, is quite flat on its top and extends for about half a furlong westwards, with a width of some 30 yards at its end. Trees grow on it thickly, just as on the rocky slopes above and below too. This shoulder of Mâshlun juts out at a height of about 450 feet above the bottom of the ravine, and behind it precipitous cliffs rise for another 350 feet or so higher to the summit of Bar-sar. I shall have to recur further on to the remaing
