The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t18.10

c5.s4.t18.10

For many centuries Ajudhan was the principal ferry on the Satlej. Here met the two great western roads from Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismaïl Khan; the first viâ Mânkera, Shorkot, and Harapa; the second viâ Multân. At this point the great conquerors Mahmud and Timur, and the great traveller Ibn Batuta, crossed the Satlej. The fort is said to have been captured by Sabuktugin in A.H. 367, or A.D. 977-78, during his plundering expedition in the Panjâb; and again by Ibrâhim Ghaznavi, in A.H. 472, or A.D. 1079-80. On the invasion of Timur, the mass of the population fled to Bhatner, and the few people that remained were spared by that ruthless barbarian out of respect for the famous saint Farid-ud-din Shakar-ganj, whose shrine is in Ajudhan. From this saint the place derives its modern name of Pák-pattan, or the "Ferry of the Pure One," that is, of Farid, whose latter days were spent at Ajudhan. By continued fasting his body is said to have become so pure that whatever he put into his mouth to allay the cravings of hunger, even earth and stones, was immediately turned into sugar, whence his name of *Shakar-ganj*, or “Sugar-store.” This miraculous power is recorded in a well-known Persian couplet:—