^86 H. G. Raverty— The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No, 
The “ Barani Ruds,” now so called, that is, dependent on rain 
for water, namely the Parhah and its branch, called the Dahara, and 
the Sohag—the still minor ones are not of much importance to the 
present subject—are merely offshoots from the Biah, which separated 
from its left bank and flowed south and south-westwards. As long as 
the Biah continued to flow in the channel which passed close by Debal- 
pur, these barani ruds continued to flow also, and their waters were 
the source of prosperity to the country through which they passed. 
Now, except after rainy seasons, they contain no water until the period 
of the inundations, when the overflow from the Hariari or 1ST ill reaches 
them, and they become filled. At the period of the Survey quoted here, 
the channel of the Sohag passed within three miles and a half of 
Ajuddhan, but now it is over five miles north of it. 
What is known as the Sukh Na’e (the “ Sookhnye N.” of the 
maps) is, to all appearances, the old channel of the intermediate 
branch of the three, into which, after uniting and forming the Hariari 
or Nili, the Biah and Sutlaj again separated “to unite one hundred 
kuroh further down and form the Gharah,” as already noticed. It is 
called by Abii-l-Fazl, and the author of the Khulasatu-t-Tawarikh, as 
well as in the Survey record, the Randall, and which, lower down, in 
the Multan district, is represented by the “ N. Bhuttyaree Nullah” 
of the maps, and is there separated from the old bed of the Biah by 
the plateau of waste known as Ohit Dhii’an —the “ Flat 
or Supine Bank ” or “ Rising Ground.” It will be noticed that these 
“ ruds ” are now more numerous on the south or left side of the old 
bed of the Biah, and between its extreme high bank on the right or 
north, and the present channel of the Hariari, Nili, or Gharah, as the 
country, which gives evidence of its comparatively recent formation, 
slopes down towards the last named river, which has no high bank what¬ 
ever like the others to the westwards.Indeed, the whole extent of 
country between the high banks of the Rawi as well as the Biah, lying 
on either side of the central ridge or plateau of the Ganji Bar of the 
Bari Do-abah and the present channel of the Rawf, and the dry channel 
of the Biah, is cut up for miles by old channels more or less defined 
or much obliterated ; and the ruins of brick-built buildings, and sites 
of ruined and abandoned villages, scattered over the whole of the 
present desolate tracts, show that they must have been once in a 
flourishing condition, and supported a considerable number of people. 
894 From Hindi chit ‘ flat,’ c supine,’ ‘ prostrate,’ and dhu’an or dhu '& 1 a bank/ 
‘ mound,’ ‘ rising ground,’ ‘ declivity,’ and the like. This plateau or bank appear 
in one of the best survey maps as “the wilderness of ‘ Ch it Duen.’ ” 
39b &ee preceding page, note 392. 
