The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t1.5

c6.s1.t1.5

The old bed of the Indus still exists under the name of Nâra, and its course has been surveyed from the ruins of Alor to the Ran of Kachh. From Alor to Jakrao, a distance of 100 miles, its direction is nearly due south. It there divides into several channels, each bearing a separate name. The most easterly channel, which retains the name of Nâra, runs to the south-east by Kipra and Umrkot, near which it turns to the south-west by Wanga Bazar and Romaka Bazar, and is there lost in the great Ran of Kachh. The most westerly channel, which is named Purâna, or the “Old River,” flows to the south-south-west, past the ruins of Brahmanabad and Nasirpur to Haidarabad, below which it divides into two branches. Of these, one turns to the south-west and falls into the present river 15 miles below Haidarabad and 12 miles above Jarak. The other, called the Guni, turns to the south-east and joins the Nâra above Romaka Bazar. There are at least two other channels between the Purâna and the Nâra, which branch off just below Jakrao, but their courses are only partially known. The upper half of the old Nâra, from Alor to Jakrao, is a dry sandy bed, which is occasionally filled by the flood waters of the Indus. From its head down to Jâmiji it is bounded on the west by a continuation of the Alor hills, and is generally from 200 feet to 300 feet wide and 20 feet deep. From Jâmiji to Jakrao, where the channel widens to 600 feet with the depth of 12 feet, the Nâra is bounded on both sides by broad ranges of low sand-hills. Below Jakrao the sand-hills on the western bank suddenly terminate, and the Nâra, spreading over the alluvial plains, is divided into two main branches, which grow wider and shallower as they advance, until the western channels are lost in the hard plain, and the eastern channels in a succession of marshes. But they reappear once more below the parallel of Hala and Kipra, and continue their courses as already described above.[*]