1886,] of the Punjab and its Rivers. 331 



not tlie case, for it was several marclies east of the Indus, three halting 

 places being mentioned in the Chachnama, and the context clearly shew- 

 ing that these were separated bj more than a single stage ; besides which 

 the text says that, when it was known that Dahir had been killed 

 " between the Miliran and the Wadhawah," the chiefs and officers of the 

 Rani " took ref nge in the fort," thus clearly shewing that, in the opi- 

 nion of the writer of the chronicle, the Mihran and the Wadhawah were 

 not one and the same river. This would perhaps be of little value if 

 unsupported, but, on examining the latest maps of Sind, I find that the 

 Narra can be traced northwards to Sahara in Lat. 27° 15, where it ends 

 abruptly, that thence for twenty-three miles its course is obscured and 

 obliterated by the deposit from the flood waters of the Indus : but, in 

 Lat. 27° 25', Long. 69^ 18', I find a deserted river channel, called on the 

 map the " dry bed of the river Wundun," which is continuous with the 

 dry bed of the Hakra, traceable through Bhawalpur and Bikanir. This 

 similarity of name certainly lends great support to the theory, originally 

 started by the anonymous writer in the ' Calcutta Revieio,^ * that the 

 Narra is the old bed of the Hakra which till the thirteenth centiiry 

 pursued an independent course to the sea. 



Further evidence of the existence of another river besides the 

 Indus in this region may be found in the Chachnama, where it is 

 related that, on the way from Rawar to Brahmanabad, Muhammad 

 Kasim laid siege to the fort of Dhalila, and " when the besieged were 

 much distressed * * * they sent out their families into the fort which 

 faces the bridge, and they crossed the stream of the Naljak without the 

 Musalmans becoming aware of it." At daybreak they were pursued 

 and overtaken as they were crossing over " the river " and " those who 

 had crossed previously fled to Hindustan through the country of 

 Ramal and the sandy desert to the country of Sir, the chief of which 

 country was named Deoraj." But far more important and convincing 

 evidence is to be found in the Beglarnama. It is there related that, 

 after an embassy to Jessalmer, Khan-i-Zaman (the hero of the chroni- 

 cle) went towards Nasrpur, and, in the course of his journey, it is inci- 

 dentally mentioned that he crossed ' the tank Sankra.'f At Nasrpur, 

 being pressed for money, he determined on a marauding expedition 

 against the " Sodhas at the village of Tarangchi." He set out and 

 " crossed the waters of the Sankra," and " when Diida and Ghazi learnt 

 that he had gone in that direction they rode after him ; " but these 

 youths had forgotten to ask the permission of their parents, who rode 

 after them hot haste and reached the Sankra just as their sons were 



* Notes on tlie Lost River of the Indian Desert, Calcutta Review, LIX, 1—27. 

 t Elliot, oi>. cit., I, 284. 

 43 



