282 H. G. Raverty— The Mihrdn oj Sind and its Tributaries. [No. 4, 
near tlie point of junction in September even now, or attempt to cross 
tlie Rawi with a large army at such a season by fording in that month. 
The rainy season, too (and now there is no rainy season hereabouts : 
the monsoon does not extend its influence so far west; and what may 
have been the climatic changes since Alexander’s time P), just preceding 
Timur’s arrival, had been very severe; and it was through its severity 
that the forces of his grandson, Pir Muhammad, then in possession of 
Multan, had lost so many horses, that, when he presented himself in his 
grandfather’s camp at Jinjan on the banks of the Biah, his men were 
mostly mounted on bullocks, and the rest on foot. 
Round about this chal, dhand, or lake were bogs and swamps; and 
these rendered the stronghold of the Khokhar chief very difficult to 
approach. The mauza ’ of Shah Nawaz is described, at that period, as a 
very large village, but I fail to find any traces of it now, 249 but the chat , 
dhand , or lake, as previously observed, still exists or what remains of it, 
in the old bed of tlie Biah, six miles and a half north-north-east of 
Tibbah, in Lat. 30° 3' N. and Long. 71° 45' E. Up to this point it will 
be observed, Amir Timur kept along or near the right or north bank of 
the Biah. 250 Some of liis nobles and their men had crossed the Biah in 
249 it was still known, apparently, in the last century, when the Sayyid, Ghulam 
Muhammad, who proceeded from Hindustan to Kabul on two or three occasions, 
with despatches from Governor Hastings, to Timur Shah. Badshah of Kabul, reached 
that part. The Sayyid crossed over on one occasion from Uboh-har to Baliawal-pur, 
and thence to Multan. Setting out from that city to proceed to the Derail of ’Isma’il 
Khan, he says : “ My first stage from Multan was five kuroh in the direction of N. W. 
to Khan Chat ; the second stage was ten kuroh in the same direction to the Dih-i-Shah 
Naivaz , on the banks of the Biah ; the third stage was ten kuroh N. to Shah-pur ; and 
the fourth another ten kuroh N. W. to Tulanbali.” This journey was undertaken in 
H. 1201, which commenced on the 13th of November, 1796, only a few months pre¬ 
vious to the time the Sutlaj is said to have suddenly changed its course.” Neither 
Khan Chal, the Dili of Shah Nawaz, nor Shah-pur are now to be found. When the 
Sutlaj changed its course, the Biah also deserted its old bed, and both rivers uniting, 
lost their respective names, and became the Harfari and Nili, upwards, and Gharah 
lower down, as previously mentioned. 
£50 During the revolt of the Mirza’s in Akbar Badshah’s reign, in the year 980 
H. (1572-73 A. D.), news was received at Labor,'that Ibrahim Husain Mirza, accom¬ 
panied by his youngest brother, Mas’udMfrza, having been defeated at Nag-awr (vul. 
Nagore) by the Badshah, was making his way across to the Panj-ab territory; that 
he had crossed the Sutlaj, and was advancing towards Debal-pur, and plundering 
the country. The Khan-i-Jahan, Husain Kuli Beg, the Turk-man, the feudatory of 
the Sub ah of Labor, with the forces of his province, at once moved against him, and 
came suddenly upon his camp—he had only about 400 followers along with him_in 
sight of Tulanbali, just as Ibrahim Husain Mfrza was returning from hunting (Blocli- 
mann, in his printed text of the Akbar Namah, in which names, of places are often 
incorrect, has “ Paltah ” ( ) instead of Tulanbah ( y A fight ensued, in 
