CHAPTER XXVIII
KASHMÍR AND JAMMU
Kashmír.—Some account has already been given of the topography and scenery of the wide territory, covering an area about equal to that of the Panjáb less the Ambála division, ruled by the Mahárája of Kashmír and Jammu. The population, races, languages, and religions have been referred to in Chapters IX and X.
Modern history.—Some mention has been made of the early history of Kashmír (pages 165, 166, 172, 173). Even the hard Sikh rule was a relief to a country which had felt the tyranny of the Durání governors who succeeded the Moghals. Under the latter small kingships had survived in the Jammu hills, but the Jammuwál Rajas met at Ranjít Singh's hands the same fate as the Kángra Rájas. Three cadets of the Jammu royal house, the brothers Dhián Singh, Suchet Singh, and Guláb Singh, were great men at his court. In 1820 he made the last Rája of Jammu. Guláb Singh was a man fit for large designs. In 20 years he had made himself master of Bhadráwah, Kishtwár, Ladákh, and Báltistán, and held the casket which enclosed the jewel of Kashmír. He acquired the jewel itself for 75 lakhs by treaty with the British at the close of the first Sikh war.
Excluding a large but little-known and almost uninhabited tract beyond the Muztagh and Karakoram mountains, the drainage of which is northwards into Central Asia, the country consists of the valleys of the Chenáb, Jhelam, and Indus, that of the last amounting to three-fourths of the whole. There is a trifling area to the west of Jammu, which contains the head-waters of small streams which find their way into the Ráví.
Fig. 138. Mahárája of Kashmír.