The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t4: 2. Middle Sindh.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t4
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2. Middle Sindh.
c6.s1.t4.1
The principality of Middle Sindh, which is generally known as *Vichalo*, or the "Midland," is described by Hwen Thsang as only 2500 *li*, or 417 miles, in circuit. With these small dimensions the province must have been limited to the modern district of Sehwân, with the northern parts of Haidarâbâd and Umarkot. Within these limits the north and south frontiers are each about 160 miles in length, and the east and west frontiers about 45 miles each, or altogether not more than 410 miles in circuit. The chief city, named *Ofan-cha*, was situated at 700 *li*, or 117 miles, from the capital of Upper Sindh, and 50 miles from Pitasila, the capital of Lower Sindh. As the former was Alor, and the latter was almost certainly the *Pattala* of the Greeks, or Haidarâbâd, the recorded distances fix the position of *Ofan-cha* in the immediate vicinity of the ruins of an ancient city called *Bambhra-ka-Tul*, or the "Ruined Tower," or simply *Banbhar*, which, according to tradition, was the site of the once famous city of Brahmanwâs, or Brahmanâbâd. Hwen Thsang's kingdom of *Ofancha*, or *Avanda*, therefore, corresponds as nearly as possible with the province of middle Sindh, which is now called *Vichalo*.
c6.s1.t4.2
At the present day the principal places in this division of Sindh are Sehwân, Hâla, Haidarâbâd, and Umarkot. In the middle ages, under Hindu rule, the great cities were *Sadusán*, *Bráhmana*, or *Bálmanwá*, and *Nirunkot*. But as I shall presently attempt to show that Nirunkot was most probably the modern Haidarâbâd and the ancient *Pattala*, it will more properly be included in the province of Lower Sindh, or *Lár*. Close to *Bálmanwá* the early Muhammadans founded *Mansura*, which, as the residence of their governors, was the actual capital of the province, and soon became the largest city in all Sindh. In the time of Alexander, the only places mentioned are *Sindomána*, and a city of Brahmans, named *Harmatelia* by Diodorus. I will now describe these places in detail, beginning with the most northerly.