Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.t1.27

v3.c40.t1.27

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.¹ 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,² 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 Samaicha-ki-basti (2½ coss).—Small village. Lakhi (2½ do.).—Sixty houses; one mile and a half from the river : canal on the north side of the village; banks well cultivated. In the hills, two miles west, is a spot sacred to Parbati and Mahadeo, where are several springs, three of which are hot.¹ Umri (2 do.).—Twenty-five houses, half a mile from River; the hills not lofty, a coss west. Sumri (3 do.).—Fifty houses, on the River hills; one and a half coss west. Sindu or San (4 do.).—Two hundred houses and a bazar, two hundred yards from the River; hills one and a half coss west. Manjhand (4½ do.).—On the River two hundred and fifty houses, considerable trade; hills two coss west. Umar-ki-basti (3 do.).—A few huts, near the river. Sayyid-ki-basti (3 do.). Shikarpur (4 do.).—On the river; crossed to the east side.