Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.t1.6

v3.c40.t1.6

It is asserted, that before the Muhammadans conquered Sind and these regions, the valley and desert belonged to Rajput princes of the Pramar and Solanki tribes; that the whole thal (desert) was more or less inhabited, and the remains of old tanks and temples, notwithstanding the drifting of the sands, attest the fact. Tradition records a famine of twelve years' duration during the time of Lakha Phulani, in the twelfth century, which depopulated the country, when the survivors of the thal fled to the kachhi, or flats of the Sind. There are throughout still many oases or cultivated patches, designated by the local terms from the [332] indispensable element, water, which whether springs or rivulets, are called wah, bah, beria, rar, tar, prefixed by the tribe of those pasturing, whether Sodhas, Rajars, or Samaichas. The inhabitants of one hamlet will go as far as ten miles to cultivate a patch.