The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t21.5

c5.s4.t21.5

Curtius adds some particulars about this city, which are not even alluded to by either Arrian or Diodorus; but they are still deserving of consideration, as they may perhaps be founded on the statements of one of the companions. He states that Alexander "went completely round the citadel in a boat," which is probable enough, as its ditch was no doubt capable of being filled at pleasure with water from the Râvi, as was actually the case with the ditch of Multân. Now the old citadel of Atâri is still surrounded by a ditch which could easily have been filled from some one of the old canals that pass close by the place. The number of these canal beds is most remarkable; I counted no less than twelve of them in close parallel lines immediately to the west of Atâri, all of them drawn from the old bed of the Râvi to the south of Sarai Siddhu. I am therefore quite prepared to admit the probability that the city of the Brahmans was surrounded by a wet ditch on which Alexander embarked to inspect the fortifications. But when Curtius adds that the three greatest rivers in India, except the Ganges, namely the Indus, the Hydaspes, and the Akesines, joined their waters to form a ditch round the castle,* I can only suppose either that the passage has been accidentally transferred from the account of some later siege of a city situated below the confluence of the Five Rivers, or that the author has mixed up into one account two and perfectly distinct statements concerning the ditches of the fort and the confluence of the rivers. Diodorus also describes the junction of the rivers, but as he makes no allusion to their waters forming a ditch about the fort, it is quite possible that this account of three rivers may be due to the inflated imagination of Curtius.