The Geography of the Puranas c8.217

c8.217

The Oxus (Vakshsh-ab, Amū Darya or Chakṣu of the Purāṇas) rises from the Victoria Lake in the southern Pāmirs on the Russian-Afghanistan border. It is known there as the Pāmir River which meets, further west near Qala Panja, the Wakhan Darya which rises in the Muzkol range. After its junction with the Wakhan it is known as Pyandzh. It skirts the Wakhan range and near Ishkamish, takes a sharp turn towards the north, guided by the longitudinal Badakhshan ranges which run parallel to it. In its northerly course, it receives important tributaries—the Shakh Darya, Gunt, Bartang, Yazgulam and Vanch on its right bank and a minor stream Shiwa on its left bank. At Kalai Khumb it turns again, first south and then west, this time guided by the Darwaz range which limits its progress towards the north. Further down it meets the Yaksu before its junction with its most important right-bank tributary, the Vakhsh. The combined waters of the Vakhsh and the Panj are called the Āmū Darya or the Oxus. Thereafter four major tributaries from the northern mountains Hissar and Zarafshan ranges, i.e. the Kafirnigan, Surkhan and Shirabad meet it on its right bank while only two, the Kokcha and the Kunduz, which rise from the spurs of the northern range of the Hindūkush, each it from the south. Other streams from the south, i.e. the Khulm, the Balkh-ab, the Abi-i-Safed, the Ab-i-Kausar, the Murghab and the Tedhen which appear to have been much more active in the past, now die out before they reach the Oxus. In ancient times, when the Oxus followed a more southerly course (its old bed is marked on the maps) and emptied itself into the Caspian, it is almost certain that the Oxus received the waters of these streams as well. The questions which arise here are, 'What do the Purāṇas mean by the River Chakṣu? 'Which of its headstreams did they take for its source?' The river Oxus has three main affluents, the Vakhsh, the Bartang and the Pamir-Vakhan fork, each of which was taken as the mainstream at different times while the others were considered as its tributaries. The very fact that the Greek name of river Oxus is derived from Vakhsh-ab suggests that the Vakhsh was considered the mainstream in ancient times. It is true that the Vakhsh even today contributes the largest volume of water to the Oxus as compared with that brought by the Pyandzh (or Panj), although the latter is the longer of the two. In medieval times the Bartang which also used to bring a large volume of water comparable to the Vakhsh-ab was considered the source river. In the 19th century a landslide which dammed its waters and formed Lake Sarez, reduced the Bartang to a small stream which thus lost its claim as the headstream of the Oxus. The river Pāmir was finally accepted as the sources of the Oxus when the Oxus was explored right upto the Wakhan Finger.