The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t11.10

c6.s1.t11.10

The position of Debal may also be fixed on the Baghâr river, or main channel of the Indus, by its name of Dibal Sindhi, or Dibal on the Indus. That it was near Lâri-bandar we learn incidentally from Captain Hamilton,† who says that the river of Sindhi “is only a small branch of the Indus, which appellation is now lost in this country which it so plentifully waters, and is called Divellee, or Seven mouths.” This statement shows that the branch of the Indus leading up to Lâri-bandar was called Dibali, or the river of Dibal, so late as A.D. 1699, when visited by Hamilton. That this was the *Piti* branch of the Indus I infer from its other name of *Sindhi*, which I take to be the same as the *Sinthon Ostium* of Ptolemy, or the second mouth of the river, reckoning from the west. As the Piti is one of the mouths of the Baghâr river, this position agrees with that which I have already assigned to Dibal, on the concurring testimony of all the previous authorities.