Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.33
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c19.33
- Language
- English
c19.33.1
miles) These he states are on the shore of the sea to the east of Tána (the modern Thána).¹ After describing the coast of Makrán till its reaches Debal² (Karáchi or Thátta) Abu Rihán comes to the coast of Kachh³ and Somnáth, the population of which he calls the Bawárij because, he says, they commit their piratical depredations in boats called Baira.⁴ He gives the distance⁵ between Debal (Karáchi or Thátta) and Kachh the country that yields mukl (gum or myrrh)⁶ and bádrud (balm) as six farsakhs (24 miles); to Somnáth (from Debal) fourteen (56 miles); to Kambáya thirty (120 miles); to Asáwal the site of Ahmedábád (from Cambay) two days' journey; to Bahrúj (Broach) (from Debal)⁷ thirty, to Sindán or St. John (from Debal) fifty; to Subára (Sopára) from Sindán six⁸; to Tána (from Sopára) five. Rashid-ud-dín in his translation (A.D. 1310) of Al Bírúni (A.D. 970-1031) states⁹ that beyond Gujarát are Konkan and Tána. He calls Tánah the chief town of the Konkans and mentions the forest of the Dángs as the habitat of the sharwa an animal resembling the buffalo, but larger than a rhinoceros, with a small trunk and two big horns with which it attacks and destroys the elephant. Al Idrisi,¹⁰ writing about the end of the eleventh century but with tenth century materials, places¹¹ in the seventh section of the second climate, the Gujarát towns of Mámhal (Anhilwára), Kambáya (Cambay), Subára (apparently Surára or Surat), Sindán¹² (Sanján in Thána), and Saimúr (Chewal or Chaul).
c19.33.2
He adds, probably quoting from Al Jauhari (A.D. 950), that Nahrwára is governed by a great prince who bears the title of Balhára who owns the whole country from Nahrwára to Saimúr. He ranks the king of Juzr fourth among Indian potentates. The country from Debal to Kambáya (Karáchi to Cambay) he describes¹³ as "nothing but a marine strand without habitations and almost without water, and impassable for travellers."¹⁴ The situation of Mámhal (Anhilwára) he gives as between Sindh and Hind. He notices the Meds as Mánds¹⁵ grazing their flocks to within a short distance of Mámhal (Anhilwára). He speaks of Mámhal, Kambáya, Subára (probably Surabára or Surat), Sindán, and Saimúr as countries of Hind (India) touching upon Sindh.¹ He describes Mámhal as a frontier town, numbered by some among the cities of Sindh, and he classifies Aubkin, Mánd, Kulámmali (Quilon),² and Sindán (Sandhánin Kachh) as maritime islands. Among the numerous towns of India are Mámhal (Anhilwára), Kambáya (Cambay), Subára, Asáwal (Ahmedábád), Janáwal (Chunvál), Sindán, Saimúr, Jandur⁴ (Rándir), Sandur (apparently a repetition of Rándir), and Rúmála (perhaps the south Panjáb).⁵ He speaks of Kalbata, Augasht, Nahrwára (Anhilwára), and Lahawar (Lahori Bandar) as in the desert⁶ of Kambáya. Of the three Subára (Surabára or Surat), Sindán (the Thána Sanján), and Saimúr (Cheul), he says Saimúr alone belongs to the Balhára, whose kingdom, he adds, is large, well-peopled, commercial, and fertile.
c19.33.3
Near Subára (apparently Surabára) he locates small islands which he styles Bára where, he adds, cocoanuts and the costus grow.⁷ East of Sindán, due to a confusion between Sandhán in Kachh and Sanján in Thána, he places another island bearing the same name as the port and under the same government as the mainland, highly cultivated and producing the coco palm the bamboo and the cane. Five miles by sea from Kulámmali lies another island called Máli, an elevated plateau, but not hilly, and covered with vegetation. The mention of the pepper vine suggests that Al Idrisi has wandered to the Malabar Coast. In the eighth section of the second clime Al Idrisi places Bárúh (Broach), Sandápúr (apparently Goa), Tána (Thána), Kandárina (Gandhár, north of Broach), Jirbátan a town mentioned by Al Idrisi as the nearest in a voyage from Ceylon to the continent of India on that continent. It is described as a populous town on a river supplying rice and grain to Ceylon,⁸ Kalkáyan, Luluwa, Kanja, and Samandirún, and in the interior Dalaka (Dholka), Janwál (Chunvál or Viramgám), and Nahrwár (Anhilwára).⁹ Opposite the sea-port of Bárúh (Broach), Al Idrisi places an island called Mullán, producing large quantities of pepper. Al Idrisi describes the port of Bárúh (Broach) as accessible to ships from China and Sindh.
c19.33.4
The distance from Bárúh to Saimúr he puts at two days journey, and that between Bárúh and Nahrwara (Anhilwára) at eight days through a flat country travelled over in wheeled carriages drawn by oxen, which he adds furnished the only mode for the conveyance also of merchandise. He locates the towns of Dalaka and Hanawal