Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c9.25

c9.25

In the neighbourhood of Karāchi more than one observer a century or so ago recorded the existence of large stone cists similar to those of south India save for the absence of the port-hole.²³ In particular, they were noted on the hills near Waghodur, twenty miles east of Karāchi, and on the road to Shāh Billāwal in Baluchistan. Following these hints, I have indeed found the remains of a rough sandstone cist 5½ feet long, with the major axes east-south-east, in the sand 3½ miles north-east of the village of Murad Memon, about twenty miles east-north-east of Karāchi; it is said to have been demolished since 1950. The name 'Kaffir's grave' applied to it by the villagers safely indicates a pre-medieval antiquity. Other 'Kaffir's graves' of smaller size, 3-3½ feet in length, can also be seen in the sand about half a mile north-west of the nineteenth milestone on the Karāchi-Kotri highroad. One of them appears to be surrounded by a stone circle twenty-seven feet in diameter.²⁴ By virtue of their position on the map, these cists would repay investigation.