The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t5: Sindomána, or Sehwán.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t5
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Sindomána, or Sehwán.
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From the city of Oxykanus, Alexander “led his forces against *Sambus*, whom he had before declared governor of the Indian mountaineers.” The Raja abandoned his capital, named Sindomana, which, according to Arrian,* was delivered up to Alexander by the friends and domestics of Sambus, who came forth to meet him with presents of money and elephants. Curtius† calls the raja *Sabus*, but does not name his capital. He simply states that Alexander, having received the “submission of several towns, captured the strongest by mining.” The narrative of Diodorus‡ also omits the name of the capital, but states that Sambus retired to a great distance with thirty elephants. Strabo* merely mentions Raja Sabus, and Sindomana his capital, without adding any particulars. Curtius† alone notes that Alexander returned to his fleet after the capture of the raja’s strongest city, which must therefore have been at some distance from the Indus.
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∗ ‘Anabasis,’ vi. 16.
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† Vita Alex., ix. 8.
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‡ Hist. Univers., xvii. 56.
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I agree with all previous writers on the ancient geography of this part of India in identifying Sindomana with Sehwán; partly from its similarity of name, and partly from its vicinity to the Lakki mountains. Of its antiquity there can be no doubt, as the great mound, which was once the citadel, is formed chiefly of ruined buildings, the accumulation of ages, on a scarped rock, at the end of the Lakki range of hills. De La Hoste‡ describes it as an oval, 1200 feet long, 750 feet broad, and 80 feet high; but when I saw it in 1855, it appeared to me to be almost square in shape, and I judged it to be somewhat larger and and rather more lofty above the river bed than Burnes’s estimate.§ It was then on the main stream of the Indus; but the river is constantly changing its channel, and in all the old maps it is placed on a western branch of the Indus. In ancient times, however, when the river flowed down the eastern channel of the Nára, Sehwân was not less than 65 miles distant from its nearest
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[^ *]: Geogr., xv. 1, 32. [^ †]: Vita Alex., ix. 8: “Rursus amnem, in quo classem expectare se jusserat, repetit.” [^ ‡]: Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1840, p. 913. [^ §]: Westmacott, in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal for 1840, p. 1209, says about 100 feet above the Arrul river, or Aral, which in his time was a branch of the Indus.
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point at Jakrao, where it leaves the sand-hills. At present its water supply is entirely derived from the Indus, which not only flows under the eastern front of the town, but also along its northern front, by a channel called the Aral river, from the great Manchur lake, which is supplied by the other Nâra, or great western branch of the Indus. But as the site could not have been occupied unless well supplied with water, it is certain that the Manchur lake must have existed long previous to the change in the course of the Indus. Judging by its great depth in the middle,* it must be a natural depression; and as it is still fed by two small streams, which take their rise in the Hâla Lakki mountains, to the south, it seems probable that the lake may have extended even up to the walls of Sehwân, before the floods of the western Nâra cut a channel into the Indus, and thus permanently lowered the level of its waters. The lake abounds in fish, from which it would appear to derive its name, as *Manchur* is but a slight alteration of the Sanskrit *Matsya*, and the Hindi *machh*, or *machhi*, "fish." I think, therefore, that *Manchar* may be only a familiar contraction of *machhi-wála Tál*, or Fish Lake.
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The favourable position of Sehwân, on a lofty isolated rock, near a large lake, with food and water in abundance, would certainly have attracted the notice of the first inhabitants of Sindh. We find, accordingly, that its early occupation is admitted by all inquirers. Thus, M‘Murdo† says, "Sehwân is undoubtedly a place of vast antiquity; perhaps more so than either Alor or Bâhmana." The present name is said to be a contraction of *Sewistán*, which was so called after its inhabitants, the *Sewis*, or Sabis. But in all the early Arab geographers the name is somewhat differently written, as *Sadustán*, or *Sadusán*, or *Shárusan*, of which the first two syllables agree with the Greek *Sindomana*. I therefore reject the reading of *Sewistán* as a modern innovation of the Hindus, to connect the place with the name of their god *Siva*. The *Sindo* of the Greek, and the *Sadu* of the early Muhammadans, point to the Sanskrit name of the country, *Sindhu*, or to that of its inhabitants, *Saindhava*, or *Saindhu*, as it is usually pronounced. Their stronghold, or capital, would therefore have been called *Saindhava-sthána*, or *Saindhu-sthán*, which, by the elision of the nasal, becomes the *Sadustán* of the Arab geographers. In a similar manner Wilson derives the Greek *Sindomana* from "a very allowable Sanskrit compound, *Sindu-mân*," the "possessor of Sindh." I am inclined, however to refer the Greek name to *Saindhava-vanam*, or *Saindhuván*, as the "abode of the Saindhavas."
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∗ Westmacott, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1840, p. 1207.
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† Journ. Royal Asiat. Soc., i. 30.
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It seems strange that a notable place like Sehwân should not be mentioned by Ptolemy under any recognizable name. If we take Haidarâbâd as the most probable head of the Delta in ancient times, then Ptolemy's *Sydros*, which is on the eastern bank of the Indus, may perhaps be identified with the old site of Mattali, 12 miles above Haidarâbâd, and his *Pasipeda* with Sehwân. The identification of Ptolemy's *Oskana* with the *Oxykanus*, or *Portikanus*, of Alexander, and with the great mound of Mahorta of the present day, is, I think, almost certain. If so, either Piska or Pasipeda must be Sehwân.
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Hwen Thsang takes no notice of Sehwân, but it is mentioned in the native histories of Sindh as one of the towns captured by Muhammad bin Kasim in A.D. 711. It was again captured by Mahmud of Ghazni in the beginning of the eleventh century; and under the Muhammadan rule it would appear to have become one of the most flourishing places in Sindh. It is now very much decayed, but its position is so favourable that it is not likely ever to be deserted.