250 H. G. Raverly —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [No. 4, 
to quarter, to point out a nahr or river [also a canal] by means of which 
will jump at conclusions. Vincent, in his “ Navigation of the Ancients,” on the 
subject of the “ Oxydracoe Ontche,” says : “ It is somewhat singular that Arrian 
should mention these people as cantoned into departments, and their magistrates as 
presiding in each separate canton, while the moderns distingnish them to this day 
by the appellation of the “ Seven Towns of Ontche.” This, he says, is on the 
authority of Tieffenthaler, Vol. 1, p. 118, and de la llochette’s map. 
Cunningham, also, appears to agree in this. He says : “ It has been supposed, 
indeed, that the name of the Oxydracae is derived from the old town of U'chh, but 
their position according to Strabo and Arrian appears rather to have been on the 
western side of the Akesines,” See the first paragraph of this note. 
From the accounts of the campaign of Mirza Shah Husain, the Arghun Mughal 
ruler of Sind, against the Langah Jat ruler of Multan in 931 H. (152i—25 A. D.), 
l/ chch h was still considered to be a very strong place, and enclosed within lofty 
walls. He first reached Siw-ra’i, one of the six forts mentioned in the Tuhfat- 
ul-Kiram, the mounds of which were to be raised, and still one of the strongest in that 
part, which was taken and destroyed, after which the Baluchis, who held these parts 
under the Langahs, retired within the walls of l/ chch h. The Mirza subsequently 
reached Ma’u, also written Ma’uh, another of the six forts above referred to, and 
pitched his camp near a kol-i-a^ or lake at that place. From thence he reached the 
shrines of the Shaikhs, of which the Shaikh, Ruh-ullah, Knreshi, had charge; then 
to the boundary of the Badar ) people, and from thence to l/ chch h. It was 
captured and destroyed and all the wood put on boats and sent to Bakhar, according 
to the historian, Mir Ma’sum of Bakhar ; and he states, that what fortifications were 
standing when he wrote, were of Mirza Shah Husain’s erection. 
In after years, down to within the early part of the present century, the place 
suffered greatly in the constant hostilities between the Shaikhs of l/chchh and the 
Da’ud-pntrahs, hence the fortifications raised by the Mirza are in ruins. See my 
“ Notes on Afghanistan,” etc., page 665. 
To return, however, to the place of so many names supposed to be l/ chch h. I 
do not consider that either of the places called 1/ chch li are referred to, but a totally 
different place. All these three places certainly lay west of the Ch in-ab (but only 
as a tributary of the Biah), even after it changed its course from the east to the west 
side of Multan. One still lies near the tvest bank, and another west of the Ab-i-Sind 
or Indus; and l/ chch h-i-Sharif also continued west of the Ohin-ab down to com¬ 
paratively recent times, but, when the Ohin-ab (along with the other rivers forming 
the Punch Nad), changed its course, as mentioned above, 1/ chch h-i-Sharif was placed 
in the Bist-Jalhandar Do-abah, and continued there until the Sutlaj deserted the 
Halcra to unite with the others and formed a new Panch Nad, when it was shut out 
of that last-named Do-abah into the district or tract of country styled Berun-i-Panj- 
Nad, or Extra Panj-Ab, and was placed on the east side of the river. But, since 
the time of Arrian and Strabo, it is probable that this, as well as the other rivers 
of this part, have altered their courses hundreds of times ; and it is very certain, as 
will be shown farther on, that few parts of the territory now known as “ the Panj- 
ab,” have seen greater changes than the tract between Multan and Aror in one 
direction, and Bahawal-pur and Rujan in the other, the rivers having, at different 
periods, flowed over every part of it; and consequently, in no place, was any “city 
founded by Alexander,” less likely to have had any long existence. 
