1886.] of the Pimjah and its Rivers. 



above wliere fhey enter the Sirsa district, but they can all be traced inte 

 communication witli each other or with the So tar. The most easterly of 

 these is known as the Wah, and joins the Sotar fifteen miles from Bhatner ; 

 the other three are all known as Naiwal ; the easternmost of these enters 

 the Sotar near the ancient fortress of Bhatner, while the two westerly 

 Naiwals, after uniting in Lat. 29° 53', Long. 73° 53', appear to join the 

 Sotar at "Wullur. As I have said, these channels are not marked on any 

 map to the north of the limits of the Sirsa district, but, according to the 

 writer in the Calcutta Review, the easternmost Naiwal was traced 

 northwards, during the preliminary survey for the Sirhind canal, to 

 Ohumkour, ten miles from Rupar, the point where the Sutlej leaves the 

 hills. The next of the Naiwals enters the Sotar at Wullur near the 

 boundary of Bikanir and Bhawalpur, and has been traced upwards as far 

 as the ancient fortress of Bhattinda, and, in the settlement report of the 

 Ludianah district, there is a reference to an old river bed which may be 

 traced from Muchewara to near Talwandi (fifty miles north-east of 

 Bhattinda) and thence onward to the south-west ; in all probability 

 these are continuous. The most western of these JSTaiwals may be 

 traced upwards past Abohar and Marot, and is said to be clearly defined 

 at the village of Urkara, twenty miles south-west of Ludianah and half 

 that distance from the present course of the Sutlej.* 



None of the maps mark more than a single dry river channel as 

 entering the Sotar from the east, and, on the most recent large-scale 

 maps of the Sirsa district, this is not marked as recognizable in the 

 same manner as the Sotar and the Naiwals ; from this we may conclude 

 that it has probably been deserted for a longer period than the latter. 

 This channel is known as the Chitang or Chitrang, and, on the engraved 

 thirty-two miles to an inch map of India, is conjecturally continued, till it 

 joins the lower end of the drainage channel which derives its name from 

 Feroz Shah, who converted it into a canal by introducing the waters 

 of the Jumna. 



It will be seen from this that the old channels connecting the Sotar 

 with the Sutlej are both more numerous and more recent than the 

 solitary one, of any importance, which leads towards the Jumna, and we 

 may conclude that, at any rate in the latest stage of its history, this lost 

 river of the Indian Desert was the Sutlej. 



I may add, though it cannot be regarded as evidence of much 

 value, that the traditions of the district declare that these channels were 

 in turn the bed of the Sutlej river. f 



* Calcutta Review, LIX, 6. 



t Calcutta Review, LIX, 6. On the reyeime survey maps of Bhawalpur the 

 words " old bed of the Sutlej " are printed from south to north along the boundary 

 of Bhawalpur, in the neighbourhood of Wullur. 



