136 



SPECIMENS OF THE 



[Extra No. 



II- 



Poems relating to Mir ClidJcar. 



Mir Cliakar is the great legendary hero of the Eind Baloehes. He is 

 represented as having led them into "the countries they now occupy from 

 Makran, and as having founded a kingdom with its capital Sevi (Sibi). 

 He waged war with the Turks under Humau Chu^^'Aatta. On the civil war 

 between the Rinds and Lasharis breaking out, the Turks under their leader 

 Zunu joined the liinds, and the Lasliaris were defeated. The Turks seized 

 the Lashari women, but released them on the expostulation of Chakar, 

 wlio said that Baloehes would be disgraced by being accomplices in such a 

 deed. At one time Chakar was a prisoner to Humau, who called him up 

 and asked him " What is the best of all weapons?" Chakar replied, " Any- 

 thing that a man can lay hold of in a fight." The king then had Chakar 

 brought unarmed into a narrow street, and a savage elephant turned loose 

 at the other end. As it rushed upon Chakar, he caught up a dog that was 

 lying in the road, and threw it in the elephant's face with such violence 

 that it turned and fled. Chakar is said to have founded the old fort at 

 Sibi, which he ultimately abandoned at the end of the civil war on his way 

 to the Panjab. His name has been given to several places in Balochistan, 

 among them Chakar-mari ' Chakar's upper storey,' a hill near Sangsila in 

 the Bugti country, from which he is said to have taken his last look back at 

 Sibi. This is a physical impossibility, but Chakar was a ' godlike man' 

 (Huf'//ai mard), and could do tilings which the present generation is not 

 capable of. Another place, named after him, is Chakar Tankh ' Chakar's 

 defile' in the Marri country. 



It is difficult to say how far any part of Chakar's adventures are 

 historicnl. Baloehes began to arrive at Multan and the neiglibourhood 

 from Makran in the time of Hussain Langa, towards the end of the 15th 

 century. (Briggs' Ferislita, Vol. IV, p. 388.) Soon afterwards came one 

 whose name is transliterated by Briggs Meer Jakur Zund, which should 

 probably be Mir Chakar Rind. He obtained a jagir in Uchh from Jam 

 Bayaziu (lb. p. 396). 



T'liis Mir Chakar is said to have come from Solypur, but I have not 

 been able to discover this place. This was about 1520 A. D. About the 

 same time we find Baloehes in the Panjab as far north as Bahrah and 

 Khushab on tlie Jehlam. (Erskine's Baber, p. 256.) 



This irruption of Baloehes into the Panjab was probably caused by 

 the pressure on them of the Turks or Mu^^Z^als wlio were then under the 

 KYtjKms invading Kachhi and Sindh. Shah Beg, son of Zulmun Beg 

 Ar^Zmn, took Sibi first in A. D. 1479 and a second time about A. I). 1511. 

 This occupation may have been the cause of Chakar's emigration. Shiih 



