In Ariora-Keshemur The
First Portion Only Is Perplexing.
I will mention the most probable of the
solutions that have occurred to me, and a second, due to that eminent
archaeologist, General A. Cunningham.
(1) Ariora may be some corrupt or
Mongol form of Aryavartta, a sacred name applied to the Holy Lands of
Indian Buddhism, of which Kashmir was eminently one to the Northern
Buddhists. Oron, in Mongol, is a Region or Realm, and may have taken the
place of Vartta, giving Aryoron or Ariora. (2) "Ariora," General
Cunningham writes, "I take to be the Harhaura of Sanscrit - i.e. the
Western Panjab. Harhaura was the North-Western Division of the Nava-
Khanda, or Nine Divisions of Ancient India. It is mentioned between
Sindhu-Sauvira in the west (i.e. Sind), and Madra in the north (i.e.
the Eastern Panjab, which is still called Madar-Des). The name of
Harhaura is, I think, preserved in the Haro River. Now, the Sind-Sagor
Doab formed a portion of the kingdom of Kashmir, and the joint names, like
those of Sindhu-Sauvira, describe only one State." The names of the Nine
Divisions in question are given by the celebrated astronomer, Varaha
Mihira, who lived in the beginning of the 6th century, and are repeated by
Al Biruni. (See Reinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde, p. 116.) The only objection to
this happy solution seems to lie in Al Biruni's remark, that the names in
question were in general no longer used even in his time (A.D. 1030).
There can be no doubt that Asidin Soldan is, as Khanikoff has said,
Ghaiassuddin Balban, Sultan of Delhi from 1266 to 1286, and for years
before that a man of great power in India, and especially in the Panjab,
of which he had in the reign of Ruknuddin (1236) held independent
possession.
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