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Art. XVIII.—On the Present State of the River Indus, and the Route of Alexander the Great, by Lieutenant William Pottinger, of H.M. 6th Regiment of Infantry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

W. Pottinger  and
Alexander Burnes
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Extract

Much discussion having arisen as to whether the Eastern or Western branch of the Indus was formerly the grand stream of the river, and likewise as to the route pursued by Alexander the Great through Sindh, a few remarks from me may perhaps be excused, although the subject is one from which little profit can be derived, and on which it behoves every one to speak with caution and diffidence. Having, however, travelled over a considerable portion of the country, and by personal observation and inquiry made myself acquainted with many circumstances bearing on this topic, I am induced to offer the following facts and surmises for the consideration of those who are in any way interested in the question affecting the route of the Macedonian conqueror; but before entering on this discussion, it will be as well to describe the general features of the Indus as they now exist, in its course through Sindh.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 1834 , pp. 199 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* These names are applied to the same stream in the map to Lieut. Burnes, 's Travels in Bokhára, &c. Lond. 1834—ED.Google Scholar

† One branch of the Góní loses itself in pools and marshes near Badína, and the other joins the Nárrá at the village of Chattítar. This last is said (by the natives of Sindh) to be a canal, made by a prince of that country to facilitate navigation, and to prevent inundations when the natural channel became decayed.

‡ Embankments.

§ Lieut. De l'Hoste obtained some particulars of the bed of a river which the natives called the Púrán (from Púrána, “old”), which lies a long way east of the Nárrá, and I presume has given rise to the idea of the Phanán river, as called and placed in our maps.

∥ Vide Memoir on the Indus, &c., by Lieut. Burnes, , Trans. Roy. As. Soc., vol. iii. p. 551. — Ed.Google Scholar

Floods.

* This band is stated to have served merely to keep the water of the main trunk of the Indus in its course to the sea. Vide Lieut. Burnes, 's Memoir, Trans. Roy. As. Soc., vol. iii. p. 557—Ed.Google Scholar

† Narra is given by Lieut. Burnes as the name of a town on the S.W. horder of the Rann, from which the high road from Cutch to Sindh proceeds, and where the water which came down in 1826 overflowed.—Ed.

‡ Literally, “the band of God,” so called from being caused by the earthquake of 1819.

§ Vide Capt.M'Murdo's Account of the Indus, in the present volume, pp. 40 and 42.—Ed.Google Scholar

* Also called Cape Monze.

† See Pottinger's Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde.

‡ Several persons described this coast to me as such, that even where the road does approach the shore, from the nature of the ground, the sea may be heard, but only seen by glimpses, and without any opening to reach the beach.

§ The Korí, or P'harrán, of Lieut. Burnes. Vide Memoir in Trans. R.A.S. vol. iii. p. 556Google Scholar; and Púrán of Capt. M'Murdo, vide his paper, No. III. of this volume.—ED.

* Vide Lieutenant Burnes's Remarks appended to this paper, and also his “Memoir of the Eastern branch of the river Indus and the Runn,” in the Trans. R.A.S., vol. iii. p. 583.Google Scholar

In the eighth Anniversary Discourse of Sir William Jones before the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, this point is thus alluded to:—

“We come now to the river Sindhu and the country named from it: near its mouths we find a district, called hy Nearchus, in his Journal, Sangada; which M. D'Anville justly supposes to be the seat of the Sanganians, a barbarous and piratical nation mentioned by modern travellers, and well known at present by our countrymen in the west of India. Mr. Malet, now resident at Púna on the part of the British government, procured at my request the Sanganian letters, which are a sort of Nágari, and a specimen of their language, which is apparently derived, like other Indian dialects, from the Sanscrit; nor can I doubt, from the descriptions which I have received of their persons and manners, that they are Pámeras, as the Bráhmans call them, or outcast Hindús, immemorially separated from the rest of the nation.”—Vide As. Res. vol. iii. p. 6.Google Scholar

See also Captain M'Murdo's Memoir of the river Indus, in the present volume, page 40, note §.—Ed.

† From Makrán.

* Vide Note (A) to Lieut. Burnes, 's Memoir, in Trans. R.A.S. vol. iii. p. 582.—Ed.Google Scholar

* Vide the Map to Lieut. Burnes' Travels, published by Mr. J. Arrow-smith.—Ed.

† By Lieut. Burnes, in his Dissertation.

* Vide Captain M'Murdo, 's remarks, as to the site of Páttála, p. 37Google Scholar of the present volume.—Ed.

† Vide Capt. M'Murdo, 's paper, pp. 30 and 34 of the present volume.Google Scholar

* Vide Note (A) to Lieut. Burnes, 's Memoir, in Trans. R.A.S. vol. iii. p. 583.—Ed.Google Scholar

† Lieutenant De L'Hoste, on his route from Haiderábád to Khairpur, and about midway between those places, passed through part of a country much deserted and covered with jungle, amongst which were the ruins of many towns and villages. It is quite possible that the same river might have deserted these places as it did Mihrábpur.

* Since writing the above it has been suggested to me by a friend, that one of the branches of the Indus may formerly have taken an easterly and then southerly course, and flowed to the eastward of Cutch; and really considering the lame attempts which have been made to account for the formation of the Runn of Cutch, I think the supposition a very plausible one. A vast quantity of water is known to force its way into the Runn every year during the freshes in the Indus, to the eastward of the village of Ballyári, in the T'harr; and, from inquiry, I have reason to believe it comes from a deserted branch of the Nárrá, near Amerkót; and the flood was so great one year (1828) that it actually threw down one tower and part of the wall of that fortress.

* They are now before the public. See Trans. R. A. S. vol. iii. p. 550Google Scholar, and Lieut. Burnes' Travels, &c.

† Lib. vi. c. 18.