The Town lies near the Bára stream in a canal-irrigated tract. On the north-west it is commanded by the Bála Hissár, a fort outside the walls. The suburbs with famous fruit gardens are on the south side, and the military and civil stations to the west. The people to be seen in the bazárs of Pesháwar are more interesting than any of its buildings. The Gor Khatrí, part of which is now the tahsíl, from which a bird's-eye view of the town can be obtained, was successively the site of a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, a rest-house built by Jahángír's Queen, Nur Jahán, and the residence of Avitabile. The most noteworthy Muhammadan building is Muhabbat Khán's mosque. Avitabile used to hang people from its minarets. The Hindu merchants live in the quarter known as Andar Shahr, the scene of destructive fires in 1898 and 1913. Pesháwar is now a well-drained town with a good water supply. It is an entrepôt of trade with Kábul and Bokhára. From the former come raw silk and fruit, and from the latter gold and silver thread and lace en route to Kashmír. The Kábulí and Bokháran traders carry back silk cloth, cotton piece goods, sugar, tea, salt, and Kashmír shawls.
Simla (31.6 N., 77.1 E.) lies on a spur of the Central Himálaya at a mean height exceeding 7000 feet. A fine hill, Jakko, rising 1000 feet higher, and clothed with deodár, oak, and rhododendron, occupies the east of the station and many of the houses are on its slopes. The other heights are Prospect Hill and Observatory Hill in the western part of the ridge. Viceregal Lodge is a conspicuous object on the latter, and below, between it and the Annandale race-course, is a fine glen, where the visitor in April from the dry and dusty plains can gather yellow primroses (Primula floribunda) from the dripping rocks. The beautiful Elysium Hill is on a small spur running northwards from the main ridge. Simla is 58 miles by cart road from Kálka, at the foot of the hills, and somewhat further by the narrow gauge railway.
Fig. 149. Trans-border traders in Pesháwar.
History.—Part of the site was retained at the close of the Gurkha war in 1816, and the first English house, a wooden cottage with a thatched roof, was built three years later. The first Governor General to spend the summer in Simla was Lord Amherst in 1827. After the annexation of the Panjáb in 1849 Lord Dalhousie went there every year, and from 1864 Simla may be said to have become the summer capital of India. It became the summer headquarters of the Panjáb Government twelve years later. The thirty houses of 1830 have now increased to about 2000. Six miles distant on the beautiful Mahásu Ridge the Viceroy has a "Retreat," and on the same ridge and below it at Mashobra there are a number of European houses. There are excellent hotels in Simla, and the cold weather tourist can pay it a very pleasant visit, provided he avoids the months of January and February.
Srínagar (34.5 N., 74.5 E.), the summer capital of the Mahárája of Kashmír, is beautifully situated on both banks of the river Jhelam at a level of 5250 feet above the sea. To the north are the Hariparvat or Hill of Vishnu with a rampart built by Akbar and the beautiful Dal lake. Every visitor must be rowed up its still waters to the Násím Bágh, a grove of plane (chenâr) trees, laid out originally in the reign of the same Emperor. Between the lake and the town is the Munshí Bágh, in and near which are the houses of Europeans including the Residency. The splendid plane trees beside the river bank, to which house boats are moored, and the beautiful gardens attached to some of the houses, make this a very charming quarter. The Takht i Sulimán to the west of Srínagar is crowned by a little temple, whose lower walls are of great age. The town itself is intersected by evil-smelling canals and consists in the main of a jumble of wooden houses with thatched roofs. Sanitary abominations have been cleansed from time to time by great fires and punished by severe outbreaks of cholera. The larger part of the existing city is on the left side. The visitor may be content to view the parts of the town to be seen as he is rowed down the broad waterway from the Munshí Bágh passing under picturesque wooden bridges, and beside temples with shining metal roofs and the beautiful mosque of Sháh Hamadán. On the left bank below the first bridge is the Shergarhí with the Mahárája's houses and the Government Offices. Opposite is a fine ghát or bathing place with stone steps. Between the third and fourth bridges on the right bank is Sháh Hamadán's mosque, a carved cedar house with Buddhist features, totally unlike the ordinary Indian mosque. The stone mosque close by on the opposite side, built by Mir Jahán, was seemingly rejected by Muhammadans as founded by a woman, and is now a State granary. The Jama Masjid is on the north side, but not on the river bank. The tomb of the great king, Zain ul Ábidín, is below the fourth bridge, which bears his name. In the same quarter are the storehouses of the dealers in carpets and art wares and the Mission School. The last should be visited by anyone who wishes to see what a manly education can make of material in some respects unpromising.
