The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t24.1

c5.s4.t24.1

The old town of *Uchh* is situated on the eastern bank of the *Panjnad*, 70 miles to the south-south-west of Multân, and 45 miles to the north-east of the present confluence with the Indus at Mithunkot. The change in the course of the Indus has taken place since the time of Wilford's surveyor, Mirza Mogal Beg, who surveyed the Panjâb and Kabul between the years 1786 and 1796, and this part in 1787-88. The former channel still exists under the name of *Nala Purán*, or the "Old Stream." *Uchcha* means "high, lofty," both in Sanskrit and in Hindi; and *Uchchanagar* is therefore a common name for any place situated on a height. Thus we have *Uchchagaon* or *Bulandshahr*, as the Muhammadans call it, on the high bank of the Kâli Nadi, 40 miles to the south-east of Delhi. We have another *Uchh* on a mound to the west of the confluence of the Chenâb and Jhelam; and a third *Uchh*, which is also situated on a mound, is the subject of the present description. According to Burnes,* Uchh is formed of three distinct towns, a few hundred yards apart from each other, and each encompassed by a brick wall, now in ruins. Masson† mentions only two separate towns; but the people themselves say that there were once seven different towns named *Uchchanagar*. In Mogal Beg's map Uchh is entered with the remark, "consisting of seven distinct villages." According to Masson, Uchh is chiefly "distinguished by the ruins of the former towns, which are very extensive, and attest the pristine prosperity of the locality." According to Burnes, the town of Uchh stands on a mound, which he judged, from a section exposed by an inundation of the Chenâb, to be formed of the ruins of houses. This opinion is doubtless correct, as the place has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. After the last great siege, in A.H. 931, or A.D. 1524-25, by Husen Shah Arghun, the walls of Uchh were levelled to the ground, and the gates and other materials were carried off to Bakar in boats.* Its favourable position at the old confluence of the Panjâb rivers must have made it a place of importance from the earliest times. Accordingly, we learn from Arrian that Alexander “ordered a city to be built at the confluence of the two rivers, imagining that by the advantage of such a situation it would become rich and populous.”† It is probably this city which is mentioned by Rashid ud din‡ as the capital of one of the four principalities of Sindh under Ayand, the son of Kafand, who reigned after Alexander. He calls the place Askaland-usah, which would be an easy corruption of Alexandria Uchcha, or Ussa, as the Greeks must have written it. I think, also, that Uchh must be the Iskandar, or Alexandria, of the Chach-nâmah, which was captured by Chach on his expedition against Multân.‡ After the Muhammadan conquest the place is mentioned only by its native name of Uchh. It was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, and Muhammad Ghori, and it was the chief city of Upper Sindh under Nâser ud din Kubâchah. At a later period it formed part of the independent kingdom of Multân, which was established shortly after the troubles that followed the invasion of Timur.[*] In A.D. 1524 it was taken by storm by Shah Husen or Hasan Arghun of Sindh, when its walls were dismantled, as I have already noticed. But after the capture of Multân, Husen ordered the fort of Uchh to be rebuilt, in which he left a large garrison to secure the possession of his recent conquests. In the reign of Akbar, Uchh was permanently annexed to the Mogal empire, and is included by Abul Fazl amongst the separate districts of the Subah of Multân.