1839.] Lieut Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 763 



beginning as before mentioned at Sunghur, a place lying in north lati- 

 tude 30 c 40', and east longitude 70° 45'. The term Sindh seems to 

 have been originally descriptive ; Sindh in the ancient Hinduwee sig- 

 nified ocean, or great river. The people inhabiting the borders of the 

 Indus in process of time applied it to that river as being the greatest 

 and most important ; they knew rivers are in all countries great fea- 

 tures of a country, but chiefly where it is low and champaign ; we need 

 not therefore be surprized if in such cases the tracts lying along the 

 various rivers be named after them. This practice has probably been 

 more general in former times, before foreign conquest introduced new 

 and arbitrary terms, and fiscal or political divisions were adopted, 

 little coincident with natural ones; the last, however, are those chiefly 

 recognized by the cultivators, and various instances still remain to ex- 

 emplify the principle just mentioned. Were it applied in strictness, 

 Sindh would include all the country at a moderate distance from the 

 river Indus, from its exit from the great northern mountains to the 

 sea. In modern times at least other distinctions have quite superseded 

 the term, if ever applied to the upper course of the Indus. It still 

 remains applicable to the lower, during which it is that this great 

 river is of most importance to the subsistence and comforts of the in- 

 habitants. From Sunghur to the sea, the low fertile country to the 

 right of the Indus is named Sindh ; whether on the left bank of the 

 river it ascends to the same latitude seems doubtful. On the one hand 

 Buhawulpoor on the Ghara, at a considerable distance from the Indus, 

 is considered as comprised in Sindh ; on the other, Mooltan cannot be 

 denied to lie in the Punjab. Leaving this in uncertainty, we may 

 remark, that from Sunghur to the sea are three natural divisions. 1st. 

 The most northerly in which lies Dera Ghazee Khan, and which may 

 be called Upper Sindh, it may be said to end with the Sooleema- 

 nee hills. 2nd. The middle division, comprizing the country of the 

 Muzarees, who are independent Beeloches, and south of them the 

 district of Shickarpoor. 3rd. The most southerly, now under the 

 government of chiefs of the Talpoora tribe — this may be called Nether 

 Sindh. To this alone it is that in our maps is given the name of 

 Sindh or Sindhee, but all authority of native writers or native use is 

 against this restriction, which if persevered in, must give rise in our 

 dealings with the people of the country to frequent mistake. Sindh is 

 a narrow champaign country. Its greatest width is in the middle 

 division, and near the sea where the Indus forms a delta. The length 

 may be 400 English miles and the average breadth 50. To the 

 south is the Indian ocean, to the east is the great Indian desert, and 



