Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 103

MAY, 1933)
ON ANCIENT TRACKS PAST THE PAMIRS
91
what exact route we do not know-he and the large gafila of merchants to which he had attached himself had at the hamlets of the province of Sarcil,' i.e., Sarikol,"halted two days to rest the horses. And then in two days more they reached the foot of the mountain called Ciecialith 'Chichiklik). It was covered deep with snow, and during the ascent many were frozen to death and our brother barely escaped, for they were altogether six days in the snow here. At last they reached Tanghetar (Tangi-tar), a place belonging to the kingdom of Cascar (Kashgar). Here Isaac the Armenian fell off the bank of the great river into the water, and lay, as it were, dead for some.eight hours till Benedict's exertions at last brought him to. In fifteen days more they reached the town of laconich [Yaka-arik), and the roads were so bad that six of our brother's horses died of fatigue. After five days more our Benedict going on by himself in advance reached the capital which is called Hiarchan (Yarkand]."
It is clear that the route followed by Goëz was identical with the present main caravan track which, after descending the Tangi-tar gorge and crossing the Tor-art, as already referred to, diverges at Chihil-gumbaz towards Yarkand. The accident which befell his faithful companion, Isaac the Armenian, obviously took place at one of the deep pools of Tangi-tar.
There still remains to be briefly mentioned the route which from Sarikol leads northward past the meridional range of Muz-tågh-atâ and Kungur and then, turning the flank of the latter in the deep-cut gorges of Gez, follows the narrow valley of the Yamân-yâr down to Tashmalik and thence across the fertile plain to Kashgar. This route offers splendid views of the huge ice-crowned peaks of the range along the foot of which it passes from above Tagharma, and has often been followed by modern travellers.26 After crossing the easy saddle of Ulugh-rabat it leads over open Påmir-like ground past the lakes of Little Karakul and Bulun-kul as far as Tar-b&shi, where the tortuous gorges of Gez are entered. 27
Whether it is owing to the difficult passage offered by the latter and the total absence of grazing there and for several marches lower down or owing to some other reason, this route to Kashgar is not ordinarily followed by caravans, and I know of no early account of it. It has, however, been conjectured, not altogether without reason, that Marco Polo may have travelled at least over the lower part of it, after leaving the Great Pâmîr. He tells: "Now if we go on with our journey towards the east-north-east, we travel a good forty days, continually passing over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way you find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, but must carry with you whatever you require."28 The absence of any reference to the inhabited tract of Sarikol might suggest that, for some reason we shall never know, the Venetian traveller's caravan, after leaving the Great Pâmîr, moved down the Ak-su river and then, crossing the watershed eastwards by one of the several available passes, struck the route leading past the Muz-tågh-atà massif and on towards the Gez defile. The duration of forty days counted for such a journey is certainly much in excess of what an ordinary traveller would need. But it must be remembered that Goëz, too, speaks of the desert of Pamech' (Påmir) taking forty days to cross if the snow was extensive.29
I have had to leave to the last the tracing of that route leading past the Pamirs of which the earliest record has come down to us. I mean the ancient trade route skirting the Pâmirs on the north by which the 'silk of Seres' was carried from China to the Oxus basin. The notice has been preserved for us in the 'Geography of Ptolemy, who wrote about the middle of the second century A.D. Short as it is, it claims considerable interest, be it only on the
20 For a description of it, see Stein, Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, pp. 76-105. 37 Sand buried Ruins of Kholan, pp. 108 sqq.
29 See Yule, Marco Polo, 3rd edition, i, pp. 171 sqq.; Prof. H. Cordier's notes, ibid., i, pp. 175; 782; also Stein, Ancient Khotan, i, pp: 41 sq.
26 Cf. Yulo, Cathay and the Way Thither, 2nd ed., iv, p. 217 (n. 1).