1851.] Essay on the Ancient Geography of India, 237 



doubt, but it was intended to be a Pdtfani town to certain islands, 

 and harbours in these seas. 



From Ldc* hpat-Bandar to Bastdh-Bandar, on the sea shore, seven 

 cos : close to Bastdh, and to the east of it, is a large arm of the Indus, 

 above one mile broad, which leads to a spacious lake of a very irregular 

 shape. Its length N. W., and S. E. is said to be about 12 cos, and its 

 breadth in a S. W., and N. E. direction, about 7 cos. During seven 

 months in the year, there is little water in it ; and its limits are then 

 much reduced ; but during five months, including the time of the inun- 

 dation in April, May, and June, and also during part of the rains, it is 

 full, being fed by numerous branches of the Indus, chiefly from the N. E. 

 In the accounts by natives, it is stated, that it is full, or nearly so, dur- 

 ing the months of VaisdJcha, Jaish'fha, i 'Ashdrha, 'Srdvana, and 

 Bhddra ; and that there is little water in it during the months of A's'- 

 wina, Kdrtika, Agrahdyana, Paus'a, Mdgha, Phdlguna, and Chaitra. 

 In the year 1 809, the first of Vais'akha answered to the 23rd of April ; 

 and the last of Bhadra to the 26th of September, at least at Benares : 

 at other places it is earlier. From that circumstance it is called Ran, 

 and Rain ; which in the language of that country implies a tract of 

 ground, which is under water during part of the year, and remains dry 

 all the rest. Abul Fazil, in his account of Gurjarat, mentions a vast 

 extent of ground towards the Puddar, which is yearly inundated, and 

 is also called Ran, probably from the Sanskrit Ar'na, water. During 

 the dry season, it is even in the narrowest part nearly three cos broad. 

 There are boats ready at Bastdh, with ferry passengers. They go in 

 a N. E. direction, following the bending of the shore to the right : 

 the passengers are landed near a Fakir's hermitage, with a few huts, 

 and then they proceed by land, in a S. E. direction, to a place opposite 

 Ldc' hpat-Bandar, and in some measure a suburb to it, where the usual 

 provisions and refreshments, which the country affords, are to be met 

 with. This is obviously the lake Eirinos of Arrian, called Saronitis, 

 or rather Saronis, by the younger Plutarch ; and Bastdh is the Seuhe- 

 ri-bandar of Otter, which should be written Sehrdhi-bandar, being in 

 the country of the Sehrdhis. In the same manner Laheri-bandar is 

 Lehrdhi-bandar, being in the country of the Lehrdhis. Bastdh is a 

 considerable place for the country : it has a fort, with a few bad guns 

 without carriages. It belongs to the Vali of Sind, whose country ends 



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