185 
1892.] H. G. Raverty —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. 
western branch of the Naewal was the last of the channels connected with 
the Hakra which , at this time (about 1220 A. D.) finally ceased to flow 
for tlie investment of U'chchh occurred twenty-five years after this last 
channel according to that statement, finally ceased to flow ! 75 
My geographical and historical information concerning the Biah, 
the Sutlaj, and the ancient Hakra or Wahindah, and its tributaries, and 
concerning the other rivers of the Panj-ab, differs considerably from that 
contained in the article in the “ Calcutta Review,” but it agrees gener¬ 
ally as to the “ Lost River ” itself ; and, in justice to the writer, it 
must be allowed that he was one of the first, 76 in the present day, to call 
prominent attention to the fact that the Hakra did once run through 
the so-called “ Indian desert,” which appeared almost to have been 
forgotten. 
A good deal of my information is taken from a geographical work, 
the result of a personal survey, by a well read and very intelligent native 
of India of foreign descent, made previous to 1790 A. D., which was the 
year in which his work was completed, or just six years before the time 
the writer in the Review above mentioned, in his last statement just 
quoted, says, that the Biah and Sutlaj “ first flowed in one bed.” 
Farther on I shall give some extracts from his admirable Survey record. 
Before attempting to describe the changes which have taken place 
in the courses of the rivers of the Panj-ab, and the Sindhu, A'b-i-Sind, 
or Indus, and the disappearance of the Hakra or Wahindah, it will bo 
well to give a few extracts from the old Musalman geographers and 
historians; and although some part of what they say, is, seemingly, 
mere nonsense, we must allow for the conjectural spelling of translators 
(in cases where we have not. the original works to refer to), who have 
attempted to render names, which, in the MSS. translated, have often 
no vowel points whatever. Indeed, for geographical purposes, and 
recording proper names in general, the ’Arabic character is, from the 
carelessness of copyists, and the nature of the characters themselves, an 
unfortunate one. 
75 Thus far I had written twelve years since, as a note to the investment of 
U'chchh at page 1155 of my “ Translation of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri.” I have allowed 
it to stand just as it was then written. 
76 The Report of Lient. J. G. Fife, of the Bombay Engineers, to the Government 
of that Presidency on the project of “restoring water to the ancient channel of the 
Indus called the Eastern Narra,” in which the Hakra is referred to, as having once 
flowed through these parts, is dated as far back as September 1852, and Burton 
also refers to it in his work on Sind, published in 1851. 
