The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.7

c5.s4.7

I will now turn to the early Muhammadan writers who have noticed Kashmir and Sindh, and who, therefore can scarcely have omitted all mention of so important a country as the Panjâb, which lies immediately between them. In A.D. 915, Masudi thus describes the Indus, according to Sir Henry Elliot’s translation:* “The *Mihrán* of es-Sind comes from the “well-known sources of the high land of es-Sind, “from the country belonging to Kinnauj in the kingdom of Budah, and of Kashmir, el Kandahâr, and *et-Tákin*. The tributaries which rise in these countries run to el Multân, and from thence the united “river receives the name of *Mihrán*.” In this passage *Tákin* must certainly be intended for the hills of the Panjâb. The Kabul river and the Indus both flow through *Gándhára*, or el Kandahâr; the Jhelam comes from Kashmir; and the Biâs and Satlej flow through Jâlandhar and Kahlur, which in the time of Hwen Thsang were subject to Kanoj. The only other tributaries of the Indus are the Chenâb and the Râvi, which must therefore have flowed through the kingdom of *Tákin*. The mention of Gândhâra and Kanoj shows that Masudi does not refer to the actual sources of the rivers, but to the points in the lower ranges of hills, where they enter the plains. *Tákin*, therefore, in the time of Masudi, represented the lower hills and plains of the Panjâb to the north of Multân, which was then in the possession of the Brahman kings of Kabul.