The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.76

c5.s9.76

Kasmira—Kâśmîr (Brahma P., ch. 54). It is said to have been originally colonised by Kâśyapa, and the hermitage of the Ṛishi is still pointed out in the Hari mountain near Śrînagar. But see Kâśyapapura. He gave his name to Kasgar and Kasmir, and to the people originally called Kâsas or Kassias. Vishnu is said to have incarnated in Kâśmîra as the fish (Matsya-avatâra), and bound the ship (Nau) (into which form Durga had converted herself to save the creatures from destruction in the great deluge) to the westernmost and highest peak of the three snowy peaks situated on the west of Banhal Pass in the eastern portion of the Pir Pantsal range: hence this peak is called Naubandhana-tîrtha. It is the Nâvaprabhraṁśana of the Atharva-Veda and the Manoravasarpaṇa of the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa (Macdonell’s Hist. of Sanskrit Literature, p. 144). At the foot of this peak is the Kramasara lake (now called Konsarnâg) which marks a foot-step (Krama) of Viṣṇu (Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa in SBE., XII; Mbh., Vana, ch. 186; Dr. Stein’s Rājatarangiṇī, II, p. 392). Viṣṇu is also said to have incarnated as the boar (Varāha-avatāra) at Baramula, thirty-two miles from Srinagar on the right bank of the Vitastā (see Śukara-kṣhetra). Asoka sent here a Buddhist missionary named Majjantika in 245 B.C. (Mahāvaṃsa, ch. XII). For the history of Kāśmīr, see Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī. It appears from the Jātaka stories that Kāśmīr once formed a part of the kingdom of Gandhāra (Jātakas, Cam. Ed., vol. III, pp. 222, 229).