History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c9.52

c9.52

somewhere in the territory now covered by the Garhwal and Kamayun districts bordering on the Tarai. Colonel Yule writes that Karāchil is doubtless a corruption of the Sanskrit Kuverāchal, a name of mount Kailas where lies the city of Kuvera, the Indian Plutus, and is here used for the Himalaya.²⁰ Two other explanations suggest themselves. Himachal may have become Qarāchil or Qarājal through the carelessness of the scribes and Nizam-al-Din Ahmad, Amin Ahmad Rāzi and Firishta all of whom consulted Barani write Himachal. Kūmāchal is the old name of Kamayun and it is suggested by a distinguished scholar from these hills that the Qarachil of Ibn Batūṭah and Qarajal of Barani may be its Arabicised or Persianised forms. Barani and Ibn Batūṭah both give Qarajal and Qarachil as the names of the mountain which Muhammad Tughluq wished to conquer. Though Qarachil may not be Kūmāchal, it is probable that the country attacked was the Himalayan region now comprised in the Kamayun district, which stretched to the borders of the Tarai. The difficulty is set at rest by Ibn Batūṭah himself who in another place says: ‘The emperor of China solicited permission to rebuild the temples in the Qarachil mountain. In this mountain there is a place called Samhal where the Chinese used to come for pilgrimage. When the Sultan led an attack against the mountain, the city and the temples were ravaged.’²¹ Now modern Sambhal²² is not a place of archæological importance, but Buddhist remains have been discovered to the north of Sambhal