264 H. G. Raverty— The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. [No. 4, 
the Muhammadans, and reside either in villages or cities : others, how¬ 
ever, infest the mountain tracts and rob on the highways. I happened 
to be one of a party of twenty-two persons, when a number of these 
Hindus [Bhatis probably], consisting of two horsemen and eighty foot, 
made an attack upon us. We, however, engaged them, and by God’s, 
help put them to flight, having killed one of the horsemen and twelve 
of the others. ^ * After four days’ journey, I arrived at the town of 
Sarasti [Sirsa], It is large, and abounds with rice, which they carry to 
Dihli. After this I reached Hansi, which is a very beautiful and closely 
built city, with extensive fortifications. I next came to Mas’ud-abad, 
after two days’ travelling, and remained there three days.” He adds, 
that, “ The whole way between Multan and Dihli, a distance of forty 
days’ journey, there are many contiguous inhabited places.” From these 
remarks, it will be noticed, that, with the exception of “ one day’s 
journey through a desert tract ” 817 after leaving Uboli-liar, there was no 
scarcity of water whatever. 
Some of the events which happened in Sind and the Panj-ab and 
adjacent parts, during the time of the Khalj Turk or Klialji dynasty, 
will tend to throw some light on the courses of the rivers of these parts, 
more particularly with respect to the Biah and Sutlaj. 
Shams-i-Saraj, 218 the ’Afif (abstainer from anything forbidden), 
217 This “desert tract” was that between the Uboh-har channel in which the 
Sntlaj then flowed, and the one farther east which it had last deserted. In all its 
changes it has invariably left the tract between its old and new channel covered 
with sand and silt. 
218 There is, of coarse, a “ Gazetteer of the Hisar District, 1883-84. Compiled 
and published under the authority of the Punjab Government;” and in that 
“ Gazetteer,” as in most others, are some choice specimens of history burlesqued. 
The above writer is quoted therein as “one of Sir H. Elliot’s Historians,” under the 
name of Shams-i-iS'/mAs, the compiler apparently, having taken him for a native of 
Shiraz in Persia. It is a pity the Panj-ab Government has not some one to correct 
the historical part of its “ Gazetteers.” 
For example : we are told time after time about “ the reign of the Emperor Ala¬ 
nd- din Ghori” I beg leave to observe that no “Emperor Ala-ud-din Ghori” ever 
yet reigued in the Panj ab or Hind. The Sultan, Mu’izz-ud-Din, Muhammad, son of 
Sam, the Shansabani Tajzik Ghuri (who, in his youthful days, and before he became 
Sultan of Ghaznin and assumed that title, bore that of Shihab-ud-Din), who con¬ 
quered Hindustan, and established the Muhammadan faith at Dihli, is not once 
referred to in the Gazetteer in question ! 
Here is one more specimen. Referring to the claim of a Jat tribe to Rajput 
descent from “ Mans, the grandson of Salvahan, Raja of Sialkot,” the compiler 
says: “As their story involves a ivar bettveen Salvahan (A. B. 90) and the Muham¬ 
madans of Mecca , it cannot be accepted with confidence.” 
I trow not, considering that the year 90 A. D ., happens to be only ./we hundred 
and thirty-two years before the Muhammudan era, and actually four hundred and 
seventy-three years before Muhammad ivas born ! 
