Chapter 2 (3)

Of the latter stock he gives us a list of seventeen princes. Gladwin’s
translation of _Ayeen Akberi_, vol. ii. p. 122. [This has been
replaced by that of Jarrett, _Āīn_, ii. 343 ff.]

Footnote 8.2.23:

See Briggs’ _Ferishta_, vol. iv. pp. 411 and 422.

Footnote 8.2.24:

[For Minnagara see Vol. I. p. 255.]

Footnote 8.2.25:

The four races called Agnikula (of which the Pramar was the most
numerous), at every step of ancient Hindu history are seen displacing
the dynasty of Yadu. Here the struggle between them is corroborated by
the two best Muhammadan historians, both borrowing from the same
source, the more ancient histories, few of which have reached us. It
must be borne in mind that the Sodhas, the Umars, the Sumras, were
Pramars (vulg. _Puar_); while the Sammas were Yadus, for whose origin
see Annals of Jaisalmer, p. #1185# above.

Footnote 8.2.26:

[This is very doubtful. See Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 447.]

Footnote 8.2.27:

[Sora is supposed to represent the Chola Kingdom in S. India
(McCrindle, _Ptolemy_, 64 f.).]

Footnote 8.2.28:

Of these, the author was so fortunate as to obtain one of Menander and
three of Apollodotus, whose existence had heretofore been questioned:
the first of the latter from the wreck of Suryapura, the capital of
the Surasenakas of Manu [_Laws_, ii. 19, vii. 193] and Arrian; another
from the ancient Avanti, or Ujjain, whose monarch, according to
Justin, held a correspondence with Augustus; and the third, in company
with a whole jar of Hindu-Scythic and Bactrian medals, at Agra, which
was dug up several years since in excavating the site of the more
ancient city. This, I have elsewhere surmised, might have been the
abode of Aggrames, Agra-gram-eswar, the “lord of the city of Agra,”
mentioned by Arrian as the most potent monarch in the north of India,
who, after the death of Porus, was ready to oppose the further
progress of Alexander. Let us hope that the Panjab may yet afford us
another peep into the past. For an account of these medals, see
_Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 313.
[Aggrames, King of the Gangaridae and Prasii, also known as Xandrames,
probably the Hindu Chandra, belonged to the Nanda dynasty (Smith,
_EHI_, 40; McCrindle, _Ancient India in Classical Literature_, 43).]

Footnote 8.2.29:

Captain, now Colonel, Pottinger, in his interesting work on Sind and
Baluchistan, in extracting from the Persian work Mu’jamu-l Waridat,
calls the ancient capital of Sind, Ulaor, and mentions the overthrow
of the dynasty of ‘Sahir’ (the Siharas of Abu-l Fazl), whose ancestors
had governed Sind for two thousand years.

Footnote 8.2.30:

[The present population is 4924.]

Footnote 8.2.31:

[In Shikārpur, Sind, near the frontier of Bahāwalpur.]

Footnote 8.2.32:

[By another story, Abdu-n-nabi Khān, brother of Ghulām Nabi Khān,
prince of Sind, assassinated his too successful general, Mīr Bijar, in
A.D. 1781 (_IGI_, xxii. 399).]

Footnote 8.2.33:

The memoir adds: Fateh Ali was succeeded by his brother, the present
Ghulam Ali, and he by his son, Karam Ali. The general correctness of
this outline is proved by a very interesting work (which has only
fallen into my hands in time to make this note), entitled _Narrative
of a Visit to the Court of Sinde_, by Dr. Burnes. Bijar Khan was
minister to the Kalhora rulers of Sind, whose cruelties at length gave
the government to the family of the minister. As it is scarcely to be
supposed that Raja Bijai Singh would furnish assassins to the Kalhora,
who could have little difficulty in finding them in Sind, the insult
which caused the fate of Bijar may have proceeded from his master,
though he may have been made the scapegoat. It is much to be regretted
that the author of the _Visit to Sinde_ did not accompany the Amirs to
Sehwan (of which I shall venture an account obtained nearly twenty
years ago). With the above memoir and map (by his brother, Lieut.
Burnes) of the Rann, a new light has been thrown on the history and
geography of this most interesting and important portion of India. It
is to be desired that to a gentleman so well prepared may be entrusted
the examination of this still little-known region. I had long
entertained the hope of passing through the desert, by Jaisalmer to
Uchh, and thence, sailing down to Mansura, visiting Aror, Sehwan,
Sammanagari, and Bamanwasa. The rupture with Sind in 1820 gave me
great expectations of accomplishing this object, and I drew up and
transmitted to Lord Hastings a plan of marching a force through the
desert, and planting the cross on the insular capital of the Sogdoi;
but peace was the order of the day. I was then in communication with
Mir Sohrab, governor of Upper Sind, who, I have little doubt, would
have come over to our views.

Footnote 8.2.34:

[The chief connexion of the Sodhas with Cutch is through the marriage
of their daughters with leading Jāreja and Musalmān families. Their
women are of great natural ability, but ambitious and intriguing, not
scrupling to make away with their husbands in order that their sons
may obtain the estate (_BG_, v. 67).]

Footnote 8.2.35:

See sketch of the tribes, Vol. I. p. 98.

Footnote 8.2.36:

_Nayyad_ is the noviciate, literally new (_naya_), or original
converts, I suppose. [In other parts of India they are known as
Naumuslim.]

Footnote 8.2.37:

_Dagra_ is very common in Rajputana for a ‘path-way’; but the
substitute here used for _rassa_, a rope, I am not acquainted with.
[For a large collection of similar taboo names for persons, animals,
and things see Sir J. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, “Taboo and Perils of
the Soul,” 318 ff.]

Footnote 8.2.38:

[The name cannot be traced in recent Census Reports.]

Footnote 8.2.39:

[_Salvadora oleoides_ or _persica_ (Watt, _Econ. Dict._ vi. Part ii.
447 ff.).]

Footnote 8.2.40:

[In Cutch they claim to be Rāthors from Multān, and are said to have
been driven by the Muhammadans from the Panjāb into Cutch. In Gujarāt
they are Vaishnavas, and are particular about their food and drink,
but in Sind they are more lax (_BG_, v. 54 ff., ix. Part i. 122;
Burton, _Sindh_, 314).]

Footnote 8.2.41:

[They are numerous in S.W. Panjāb, where Rose (_Glossary_, ii. 16 ff.)
gives a full account of them.]

Footnote 8.2.42:

[On their connexion with the Bhatti Rājputs see Crooke, _Tribes and
Castes N.W.P. and Oudh_, ii. 37; Russell, _Tribes and Castes Central
Provinces_, i. 380; _BG_, v. 37 f.]

Footnote 8.2.43:

[About 45 miles S. of Umarkot.]

Footnote 8.2.44:

[These desert Brāhmans, whose laxity of custom is notorious, have no
connexion with other orthodox Brāhmans, and are probably priests or
medicine-men who now claim that rank.]

Footnote 8.2.45:

[_Census Report, Bombay_, 1911, i. 298.]

Footnote 8.2.46:

Abu-l Fazl, in describing the province of Bajaur, inhabited by the
Yusufzais, says: “The whole of the tract [Swāt] of hill and plain is
the domain of the Yūsufzai clan. In the time of Mīrza Ulugh Beg of
Kābul, they migrated from Kābul to this territory and wrested it from
the Sultāns who affected to be descendants of Alexander Bicornutus”
_(Āīn_, ii. 392 f.). Mr. Elphinstone inquired in vain for this
offspring of Alexander the Great.

Footnote 8.2.47:

[These derivations are impossible; the name is possibly connected with
that of the Savara tribe.]

Footnote 8.2.48:

[Nawakot and Mitti in the interior of Thar-Pārkar; Baliāri on the
shore of the Great Rann.]

Footnote 8.2.49:

[The Rājar are recorded as a section of the Saman, an aboriginal tribe
in Sind (_Census Report, Bombay_, 1911, i. 233).]

Footnote 8.2.50:

[See Elliot-Dowson i. 489.]

Footnote 8.2.51:

[The true reading is Nohmardi (_Āīn_, ii. 337).]

Footnote 8.2.52:

[Cf. Hindi _lokri_ or _lokhri_.]

Footnote 8.2.53:

[Max Müller derived Baloch from Skt. _mlechchha_, ‘a barbarian,’ but
this is doubtful.]

Footnote 8.2.54:

[Zott is the Arabic form of Jat or Jāt (Sykes, _Hist. of Persia_, ii.
79).]

Footnote 8.2.55:

[The ascription of Bhatti origin to the Mers is obviously intended to
correspond with the assertion that they are a branch of the Mīna or
Maina tribe (Elliot-Dowson i. 523 f.).]

Footnote 8.2.56:

[In the Panjāb Mor is the name of a Jāt sept which worship the peacock
(_mor_) because it is said to have saved their ancestor from a snake
(Rose, _Glossary_, iii. 129). There was a settlement of this tribe at
Sārangpur on the Kāli Sind River (_ASR_, ii. 228).]

Footnote 8.2.57:

[_Account of the Kingdom of Caubul_, 2nd ed. (1842) i. 22 ff. For a
full account of the Abbāsi Dāūdputras of Bahāwalpur see the _State
Gazetteer_ by Malik Muhammad Din (1908), i. 47 ff..]

Footnote 8.2.58:

[The succession runs: Bahāwal Khān II. (A.D. 1772-1809); Sādik
Muhammad Khān (1809-25); Muhammad Bahāwal Khān III. (1825-52); Sādik
Muhammad Khān II. (1853-58); Muhammad Bahāwal Khān IV. (1858-66);
Sādik Muhammad Khān III., a minor, installed in 1879.]

Footnote 8.2.59:

This memorandum was written, I think, in 1811 or 1812.

Footnote 8.2.60:

My friend Dr. Joseph Duncan (attached to the Residency when I was
Political Agent at Udaipur) was attacked by the _narua_ in a very
aggravated form. It fixed itself in the ankle-joint, and being broken
in the attempt to extricate it, was attended by all the evil results I
have described, ending in lameness, and generally impaired health,
which obliged him to visit the Cape for recovery, where I saw him on
my way home eighteen months after, but he had even then not altogether
recovered from the lameness. [Guinea-worm (Dracontiasis), a disease
due to the _Filaria medinensis_ or _Dracunculus_, known in Persia as
rīshtah, infests the Persian Gulf and many parts of India. See Curzon,
_Persia_, ii. 234; Fryer, _New Account of East India and Persia_, ed.
1912, i. 175; Sleeman, _Rambles_, 76; _Asiatic Researches_, vi. 58
ff.; _EB_, 11th ed. xix. 361. The disease from which Job suffered (Job
ii. 7) is generally believed to be elephantiasis (A. B. Davidson, _The
Book of Job_, 13).]

Footnote 8.2.61:

[Since this was written Rājputāna has suffered from terrible famines
in 1868-69, 1877-78, 1891-92, and 1899-1900, besides several seasons
of scarcity.]

Footnote 8.2.62:

[These camel corps have been placed at the service of the Indian
Government, and have done excellent service in several recent
campaigns.]

Footnote 8.2.63:

[The wild ass (_Equus hemionus_) seems to have almost entirely
disappeared in Jaisalmer. It is seldom seen in Mārwār, and no specimen
has appeared in Bīkaner for many years (Erskine iii. A. 7, 50, 311;
Blanford, _Mammalia of India_, 470 f.). Herodotus (vii. 86) says that
the Indian chariots in the army of Xerxes were drawn by horses or wild
asses.]

Footnote 8.2.64:

[Nīlgāē, _Boselaphus tragocamelus_, is not a deer, but belongs to the
order Bovidae (Blanford, 517 ff.).]

Footnote 8.2.65:

[The fruits or small red berries of the _pilu_ (_Salvadora persica_)
have a strong aromatic smell and a pungent taste, like mustard or
garden cress, while the shoots and leaves are eaten as a salad (Watt,
_Econ. Dict._ vi. Part ii. 449; Burnes, _Travels into Bokhara_, iii.
122).]

Footnote 8.2.66:

_Chittram_, the name applied to these flats of hard soil (which Mr.
Elphinstone happily describes, by saying that it rings under the
horses’ hoofs in marching over it), is literally ‘the picture,’ from
the circumstance of such spots almost constantly presenting the
mirage, here termed _chittram_. How far the soil, so deeply
impregnated with alkaline matter, may tend to heighten, if not to
cause this, we have elsewhere noted in a general account of this
optical phenomenon in various parts of northern India.

Footnote 8.2.67:

[Sarkanda, _Saccharum sara_ or _arundinaceum_; dhāman, _Pennisetum
cenchroides_; dūb, _Cynodon dactylon_; gokhru, _Tribulus
lancigenosus_; bharūt, _Cenchrus catharticus_.]

Footnote 8.2.68:

[The tomato, introduced in modern times into India, generally called
_wilāyati baingan_, ‘the foreign egg-plant.’]

Footnote 8.2.69:

[Many of the places named in this Itinerary are merely temporary
halting-places in the desert, which do not appear in modern maps.
Hence, in several cases, the transliteration is conjectural, and
depends on the method of the Author in the case of well-known
localities. A series of similar routes is given by Lieut. A. H. E.
Boileau, _Narrative of a Tour through Rajwara in 1835_ (Calcutta,
1837), p. 192 ff.]

Footnote 8.2.70:

There are two routes from Mulana to Sehwan. The Dhati went the longest
on account of water. The other is by Sakrand, as follows:

Coss. Coss. Palri 5 Sakrand 3 ┐ [8.2.70.A] Padshah-ki-basti 6 Nala 0-½ │ This Udani 5 Makrand 4 │ appears Mitrao 10 Koka-ki-basti 6 │ very Mir-ki-khoi 6 The Sind 10 │ circuitous. Supari 5 Sehwan 0-½ ┘ Kambhar-ka-nala 9

Footnote 8.2.70.A:

Town high road from Upper to Lower Sind.

Footnote 8.2.71:

Sehwan is erected on an elevation within a few hundred yards of the
river, having many clumps of trees, especially to the south. The
houses are built of clay, often three stories high, with wooden
pillars supporting the floors. To the north of the town are the
remains of a very ancient and extensive fortress, sixty of its
bastions being still visible; and in the centre the vestiges of a
palace still known as Raja Bhartrihari-ka-Mahall, who is said to have
reigned here when driven from Ujjain by his brother Vikramaditya.
Although centuries have flown since the Hindus had any power in these
regions, their traditions have remained. They relate that Vikrama, the
eldest son of Gandharap Sen, was so devoted to his wife, that he
neglected the affairs of government, which made his brother
expostulate with him. This coming to his wife’s ears, she insisted on
the banishment of Vikrama. Soon after a celebrated ascetic reached his
court, and presented to Bhartrihari the Amarphul, or ‘fruit of
immortality,’ the reward of years of austere devotion at the shrine of
Mahadeo. Bhartrihari gave it to his wife, who bestowed it on an
elephant-driver, her paramour; he to a common prostitute, his
mistress; who expecting to be highly rewarded for it, carried it to
the raja. Incensed at such a decided proof of infidelity, Bhartrihari,
presenting himself before his queen, asked for the prize—she had lost
it. Having produced it, she was so overwhelmed with shame that she
rushed from his presence, and precipitating herself from the walls of
the palace, was dashed to pieces. Raja Bhartrihari consoled himself
with another wife, Rani Pingula, to whose charms he in like manner
became enslaved; but experience had taught him suspicion. Having one
day gone a-hunting, his huntsman shot a deer, whose doe coming to the
spot, for a short time contemplated the body, then threw herself on
his antlers and died. The Shikari, or huntsman, who had fallen asleep,
was killed by a huge snake. His wife came to seek him, supposing him
still asleep, but at length seeing he was dead, she collected leaves,
dried reeds, and twigs, and having made a pyre, placed the body under
it; after the usual perambulations she set fire to, and perished with
it. The raja, who witnessed these proceedings, went home and conversed
with Pingulani on these extraordinary Satis, especially the Shikari’s,
which he called unparalleled. Pingulani disputed the point, and said
it was the sacrifice of passion, not of love; had it been the latter,
grief would have required no pyre. Some time after, having again gone
a-hunting, Bhartrihari recalled this conversation, and having slain a
deer, he dipped his clothes in the blood, and sent them by a
confidential messenger to report his death in combat with a tiger.
Pingulani heard the details; she wept not, neither did she speak, but
prostrating herself before the sun, ceased to exist. The pyre was
raised, and her remains were consuming outside the city as the raja
returned from his excursion. Hastening to the spot of lamentation, and
learning the fatal issue of his artifice, he threw off the trappings
of sovereignty, put on the pilgrim’s garb, and abandoned Ujjain to
Vikrama. The only word which he uttered, as he wandered to and fro,
was the name of his faithful Pingulani! “Hae Pingula! Hae Pingula!”
The royal pilgrim at length fixed his abode at Sehwan; but although
they point out the ruins of a palace still known even to the Islamite
as the Am-khass of Raja Bhartrihari, it is admitted that the fortress
is of more ancient date. There is a _mandir_, or shrine, to the south
of the town, also called, after him, Bhartri-ka-mandir. In this the
Islamite has deposited the mortal remains of a saint named Lal Pir
Shahbaz, to whom they attribute their victorious possession of
Sind.[8.2.71.A] The cenotaph of this saint, who has the character of a
proselyte Hindu, is in the centre of the mandir, and surrounded by
wooden stakes. It is a curious spectacle to see both Islamite and
Hindu paying their devotions in the same place of worship; and
although the first is prohibited from approaching the sacred enceinte
of the Pir, yet both adore a large salagram, that vermiculated fossil
sacred to Vishnu, placed in a niche in the tomb. The fact is a curious
one, and although these Islamite adorers are the scions of conversion,
it perhaps shows in the strongest manner that this conversion was of
the sword, for, generally speaking, the converted Hindu makes the most
bigoted and intolerant Musalman. My faithful and intelligent
emissaries, Madari Lal and the Dhati, brought me a brick from the
ruins of this fortress of Sehwan. It was about a cubit in length, and
of symmetrical breadth and thickness, uncommonly well burnt, and rang
like a bell. They also brought me some charred wheat, from pits where
it had been burned. The grains were entire and reduced to a pure
carbon. Tradition is again at work, and asserts its having lain there
for some thousand years. There is very little doubt that this is the
site of one of the antagonists of the Macedonian conqueror, perhaps
Mousikanos,[8.2.71.B] or Mukh-Sehwan, the chief of Sehwan. The passage
of the Grecian down the Indus was marked by excesses not inferior to
those of the Ghaznavede king in later times, and doubtless they fired
all they could not plunder to carry to the fleet. There is also a
Nanak-bara, or place of worship sacred to Nanak, the great apostle of
the Sikhs, placed between the fortress and the river. Sehwan is
inhabited by Hindus and Islamites in equal proportions: of the former,
the mercantile tribe of Mahesri from Jaisalmer, is the most numerous,
and have been fixed here for generations. There are also many Brahmans
of the Pokharna[8.2.71.C] caste, Sunars or goldsmiths, and other Hindu
artisans; of the Muslims the Sayyid is said to be the most numerous
class. The Hindus are the monied men. Cotton and indigo, and great
quantities of rice in the husk (paddy), grown in the vicinage of
Sehwan, are exported to the ports of Tatta and Karachi Bandar by boats
of considerable burthen, manned entirely by Muhammadans. The Hakim of
Sehwan is sent from Haidarabad. The range of mountains which stretch
from Tatta nearly parallel with the Indus, approaches within three
miles of Sehwan, and there turns off to the north-west. All these
hills are inhabited as far as the shrine of Hinglaj Mata[8.2.71.D] on
the coast of Mekran (placed in the same range) by the Lumri, or Numri
tribe, who though styling themselves Baloch, are Jats in
origin.[8.2.71.E]

Footnote 8.2.71.A:

[The reference is to Lāl Shāhbāz, Qalandar, head of the Jalāli order,
who died at Sehwān, A.D. 1274. For a full account see R. F. Burton,
_Sindh_, 211 f.]

Footnote 8.2.71.B:

[Mousikanos was the stiff-necked king of Alor or Aror who opposed
Alexander, was captured and executed (Smith, _EHI_, 100 f.; McCrindle,
_Alexander_, 395).]

Footnote 8.2.71.C:

See Annals of Jaisalmer, Vol. II. p. 1256.

Footnote 8.2.71.D:

This famous shrine of the Hindu Cybele, yet frequented by numerous
votaries, is nine days’ journey from Tatta by Karachi Bandar, and
about nine miles from the seashore.

Footnote 8.2.71.E:

These are the Nomurdies of Rennel. [See p. 1299 above.]

Footnote 8.2.72:

These springs are frequented, despite the difficulties and dangers of
the route from the savage Numri, by numerous Hindu pilgrims. Two of
them are hot, and named Suryakund and Chandrakund, or fountains of the
sun and moon, and imbued with especial virtues; but before the pilgrim
can reap any advantage by purification in their waters, he must
undergo the rite of confession to the attendant priests, who, through
intercession with Mahadeo, have the power of granting absolution.
Should a sinner be so hardened as to plunge in without undergoing this
preparatory ordeal, he comes out covered with boils!!! This is a
curious confirmation that the confessional rite is one of very ancient
usage amongst the Hindus, even in the days of Rama of Kosala.—See Vol.
I. p. 94.

Footnote 8.2.73:

This is the Sankra of Nadir Shah’s treaty with Muhammad Shah of India,
which the conqueror made the boundary between India and Persia, by
which he obtained the whole of that fertile portion of the valley of
Sind, east of that stream. Others say it issues from Dara, above Rohri
Bakhar.

Footnote 8.2.74:

See Annals of Jaisalmer for an account of the murder of this
chieftain, Vol. II. p. 1233.

Footnote 8.2.75:

Shaikh Abu-l-barakat makes the distance only nine coss from Shahgarh
to Kuriala, and states the important fact of crossing the dry bed of
the Ghaggar, five coss west of Kuriala; water found plentifully by
digging in the bed. Numerous _thal_, to which the shepherds drive
their flocks.

Footnote 8.2.76:

[_IGI_, xv. 215 f.]

Footnote 8.2.77:

Considerable town on the high road from Upper to Lower Sind. See
subsequent route.

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