151 DR. E. H. PASCOE ON THE EARLY HISTORY [vol. IXXV,. 



Mr. Sethu Rama Rau informs me that Jamna or Jamuna in 

 Sanskrit means ' one of twins ' (the feminine form since applied to 

 a river), a not inapt name for the alternative course of a stream : 

 in fact, for a short time, while the capture was being effected, the 

 part captured would split into two, one part of its waters pro- 

 ceeding down one channel, and the other part down the other — - 

 twin rivers with a common origin. On the other hand, it may 

 simply be that the rivers have been named after the sister to the 

 God of Death. 



There is historical evidence which makes it probable that the 

 Sutlej and the Beas followed separate courses to the Indus not 

 very long ago. The Mohammedan histories of the 11th and 12th 

 centuries and the Hindu writers of Jaisalmer employ the term 

 ' Biyah ' for the combined Sutlej and Beas, now known as the 

 Sutlej. From this Mr. Oldham surmises that the rivers must 

 have received their actual names at a period when the Sutlej did 

 not join the Beas, but pursued an independent course, and that it 

 entered the Beas probably not much before the 11th century. 1 It 

 very probably joined the Ghaggar before it was captured by a 

 tributary of the Beas. 



It is difficult to assign even approximate dates to many of the 

 changes that have taken place. It was probably before the end of 

 the Siwalik epoch when the Attock tributary joining the Indo- 

 brahin River near Makhad cut back into the La dak valley. That 

 portion of the modern Indus which runs just below Bunji. at any 

 rate, is of no very recent construction, as shown by the colossal 

 depth of its gorge, which is nearly 17,000 feet. The steepness 

 and narrowness of this gorge are witnesses to its immaturity, but 

 its immense depth and the hardness of its rocks place a limit to 

 our conception of its youth. The Attock tributary subsequently 

 formed part of the longest line of waterway, and, according to 

 modern convention, now bears the name of the main river, the 

 Indus. The desertion by the Indobrahm of its old course across 

 the Bannu plain and the Bhattani Hills for the gap through the 

 western end of the Salt Range at Kalabagh. may have taken place 

 about the end of the Siwalik epoch. 



Reference was made by H. B. Medlicott & W. T. Blanford, and 

 again by Mr. R. D. Oldham, to the presence in the Ganges and 

 Indus rivers of two closely-allied species of Platanisfa, of a very 

 different generic type from the cetacean inhabiting the Irrawadi. 2 

 It was presumed that these two species were descended from a 

 common dolphin ancestor which acquired a freshwater habitat, and 

 indicate an organic connexion at some time between the Indus and 

 the Ganges basins. From a note kindly supplied to me by Dr. N. 

 Annandale, further comparison has shown that the freshwater 

 cetacean of the Indus is absolutely identical with that of the 

 Ganges, Plata nista gangetica Lebeck. It is found only in the 



1 ' Manual of the Geology of India ' 2nd ed. (1893) p. 450. 



2 Op. cif. 1st ed. (1879) p. 392 ; 2nd ed. (1893) p. 443. 



