The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s3.7

c5.s3.7

of the Jammu family, on which they were generally dependent. Punach was sometimes independent; but its proximity to Kashmir placed it at the mercy of its more powerful neighbour. *Rajaori* and *Kotali* were held in later times by two branches of the royal family of Kashmir, to which they were usually tributary. But in the middle ages, under the Hindu rulers, Kotali formed part of Punach, to which it naturally belonged as part of the same valley. *Bhimbar* and *Khariáli* were divisions of the Chibh, or Chibhân, branch of the Somvansi Rajas of Kângra and Jâlandhar. In early times the name of Bhimbar was little used, the common appellation being *Chibhân*, which is found in Sharifuddin's history of Timur, under the form of *Jibhâl*. The conversion of the family to Muhammadanism is probably of late date, as Ferishta mentions *Howns* Raja of Bhimbar in A.H. 891, or A.D. 1486.* But so many of these hill chiefs retained their Hindu names after they became Muhamadans, that the Hindu name alone cannot be taken as a decisive proof of his being unconverted. *Káshtwár* and *Bhadrwár* are situated on opposite banks of the upper Chenâb river, to the south-east of Kashmir, to which they were generally subject. These nine chiefships of the central division, added to the thirteen of the western division, form the twenty-two Muhamadan states which the popular belief assigns to the western half of the Alpine Panjâb.