The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t5.7

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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.