1892.] H G. Raverty —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. 249 
bat, at this crisis, a man came to Muhammad and promised, if admitted 
between U'qhchh and Ghaus-pur, which I suppose to be the position of Basraid of the 
’Arab writers or very near it; and, possibly the action may have been fought a 
little lower down. 
The Gardaizi states, that, as the Sultan had sustained great annoyance and 
much insolence from the Jats of Multan and the Bhatiah, on the side of the Sihun 
[a name applied by the early writers to the Panch Nad as then existing] on his way 
back from Somnath, he now determined to chastize them thoroughly for it. When 
the year 418 H. came round he set out from Ghaznin, and on reaching Multan, gave 
orders for the construction of 1,400 boats, each of which was to be fitted with three 
strong [and sharp] iron rams, one in the bow, and one on each side, and strong- 
enough to cut and destroy whatever came in contact with them. In each boat 
twenty men were embarked, armed with bows and arrows and flasks of naphtha. 
The Jats hearing of these preparations sent away their effects to distant jazzrahs [or 
bets : tracts encircled by minor channels of the rivers], and prepared to encounter 
the Sultan’s vessels with 4,000 of their own, some say with 8,000, in each of which 
were a number of armed men They accordingly moved to attack the Sultan’s fleet; 
and in the action which ensued, they were nearly all sunk or destroyed by the rams, 
or the naphtha. As the banks of the Sihun were occupied by troops, horse and foot, 
and elephants, those who escaped to land were captured or slain. Continuing to 
follow the remainder of their vessels along the banks [down stream ; for they could 
not go up under such circumstances], the troops reached the place where the Jats 
had deposited their property and effects, which were seized by the victors, and great 
numbers of other captives were likewise made. After this affair the Sultan returned 
to Ghaznin. 
In the following reign, when Ahmad-i-Nial-Tigin, feudatoiy of Labor, rebelled 
against Sultan Mas’ud, being defeated by the troops sent against him under Tilak, 
the leader of the Hindu troops of the Sultan, Alimad had to evacuate Lalior, and 
retired towards Multan with the object of reaching Mansuriyah of Sind. He was 
harassed the whole way by the Hindu tribes, Tilak having raised the whole province 
against him. From Multan he moved towards the Bhatiah (stronghold) whither 
some of the Hindu (BhatiP) chiefs had retired. The chief of the Bhatiah, however, 
was unable to stop the progress of Ahmad-i-Nial-Tigin ; for the small force of Turks 
with him (two hundred men) was still unbroken ; and the chief had to furnish him 
with the boats he required to enable him to cross the Sind Rud [or Rud-i-Sind wo 
Hind, i. e., the Biah and its tributaries], between two branches of which Bhatiah was 
situated, on his way to Mansuriyah, near which latter place, in attempting to cross 
the Mihran, he was subsequently drowned. 
How is it possible that this Bhatiah can refer to “ Bhera on the Jailam ” ? 
Cunningham (“Ancient India,” p. 256) considers “Pabiya” to be “ Bhatiya,” 
of others, but as he also considers it “ probably the same place as Talhati where 
Jam Janar [Jam Junan, the Sammah] crossed the Indus, or perhaps also the same 
as Matila or Mathila,” we may easily dismiss that theory, because the Jam crossed 
the Mihran where the ’Arab leader is said to have crossed before him or nearly so 
at Talh-ti, more than one hundred miles below Aror on the south-west ; while Mathi- 
lali or Mathilo is thirty-seven miles above Aror to the north-eastwards. 
With respect to the seven contiguous villages surrounded by a wall which con¬ 
stituted U'chchh a little over a century since, here is a specimen how some writers 
