The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t7: 3. Lower Sindh, or Lar.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t7
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3. Lower Sindh, or Lar.
c6.s1.t7.1
The district of Pitasila, or Lower Sindh, is described by Hwen Thsang as being 3000 *li*, or 500 miles, in circuit, which agrees almost exactly with the dimensions of the Delta of the Indus from Haidarâbâd to the sea, including a small tract of country on both sides, extending towards the desert of Umarkot on the east, and to the mountains of Cape Monz on the west. Within these limits the dimensions of Lower Sindh are as follows. From the western mountains to the neighbourhood of Umarkot, 160 miles; from the same point to Cape Monz, 85 miles; from Cape Monz to the Kori mouth of the Indus, 135 miles; and from the Kori mouth to Umarkot, 140 miles; or altogether 520 miles. The soil, which is described as sandy and salt, produced plenty of corn and vegetables, but very few fruits and flowers, which is true of the Delta to the present day.
c6.s1.t7.2
In the time of Alexander, the only place of note in the Delta was Patala; but he is said to have founded several towns himself* during his long stay in Lower Sindh, waiting for the Etesian winds to start his fleet. Unfortunately the historians have omitted to give the names of these places. Justin alone notes that on his return up the Indus he built the city of Barce,† to which I shall hereafter refer. Ptolemy has preserved the names of several places, as *Barbara*, *Sousikana*, *Bonis*, and *Kolaka*, of which the first is most probably the same as the *Barbariké* emporium of the ‘Periplus,’ and perhaps also the same as the *Barce* of Justin. In the time of the author of the ‘Periplus,’ the capital of Lower Sindh was *Minnagara*, which the foreign merchants reached by ascending the river from Barbarike. In the middle of the seventh century, Hwen Thsang mentions only *Pitasila*, or *Patala*. But in the beginning of the eighth century, the historians of Muhammad bin Kâsim’s expedition add the names of *Debal* and *Nirankot* to our scanty list, which is still further increased by the Arab geographers of the tenth century, who place *Manhâtara*, or *Manhâbari*, or *Manjâbari*,‡ to the west of the Indus, and two days’ journey from Debal, at the point where the road from Debal crosses the river. The position of these places I will now investigate in their order from north to south, beginning with Patala, at the head of the Delta.
c6.s1.t7.3
∗ Curtius, Vita Alex., ix. 10: “Interim et urbes plerasque condidit.” † Hist., xii. 10. ‡ Sir Henry Elliot, ‘Muhammadan Historians of India,’ Dowson’s edition, i. 35, quoting Ibn Haukal.