History of the Panjab Hill States

We also find numerous and detailed references to some of the Panjab Hill States in the works of the Muhammadan historians from the time of Mahmud of Ghazni and more especially during the Mughal period ; and in the possession of many of the royal families of the hills are letters and sanads 1 Ancient Geography of India page 138. [...] The donations of land to Brahmans and temples recorded on the coppe-plates had likewise the character of pious acts calculated to increase the religious merit of the donor and the same is true of the fountain-slabs erected in memory of dceased ancestors and for the sake of their bliss in the next world. [...] In some of the inscriptions we find in addtion to the Sastra date the regnal year of the ruling Raja and in such cases the century can usually be ascertained with the aid of the Rajatarangini and the Vansavali. [...] Of the image inscriptions the oldest in Chamba belong to the beginning of the eighth century and they have enabled us to correct the Chamba V ausavali and to fix the chronologcal succession of four of the earliest Rajas of the State. [...] Again in the outer hills nearer the plains between the Ravi and the Jehlam local tradition points to the presence of both Ranas and Thakurs : thus the Thakkuras of Lohara are several times mentioned in the Rajatarangini in the latter part of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries.' As regards the countrbetween the Jehlam and the Indus we have no reliable iformation abo