CHAPTER III

SRINAGAR AND NEIGHBOURHOOD

ENTERING now into greater detail, first among the places of interest to be described must be Srinagar the City of the Sun, the capital of the country, and the dwelling-place of 120,000 inhabitants. From both the sanitary and the esthetic point of view I am disappointed that Srinagar was not placed either on the plateau of Pariansipura in the centre of the valley, or on the plateau just above Pampur on the west. The former was chosen by the great king Lalataditya for the site of his capital, of which the ruins remain to this day. It is a karewa just opposite the junction of the Sind River with the Jhelum, high and dry above all floods and marshes, And it stands well away from the mountain ranges on either hand, right out in the centre of the valley, so that all the

higher peaks and the complete circle of snowy 49 4