399 
1892.] H. G. Raverty— The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. 
Pattan. 421 From thence to within four miles south-south-east of 
Mubarak-pur, about two miles and a half south of the Got of 
r 't. 
writers agree, I believe, that the Hyphasis represents the Biah, and the Suthyj the 
Zaradrus, Hesudrus, or Satadru, even by Cunningham’s own statements. As 
Alexander’s troops mutinied on the banks of the Hyphasis, and refused to cross, 
and he had to turn back without crossing it, how could the “ Greek arms” have 
been “carried to Ajudhan,” which was a considerable distance east and beyond 
that river ? I suppose it is not intended to assert that the Biah and Sutlaj then 
united at “ Bhao ki patan ? ” See also note 345, page 343, and preceding note 41S, 
page 397. 
421 In the Hindi dialect there are two words, which in the Arabic character 
in which Urdu is written, are something alike, but, in pronunciation and in sig¬ 
nification they are very different, namely, patan and pattan. The former means 
a ferry and the latter a town. Oat of these words a sad mistake has been made 
in consequence of not knowing the difference, and jumping at conclusions. 
Cunningham in his “Ancient India,” page 219, states, that “Ajudhan, or 
Pak Fattan ” was for centuries the principal ferry of the Sutlaj ; ” and is “recog¬ 
nized as one of the towns of the people—” says one of the Punjab Gazetteers—“ vari- 
ouslv mentioned by Alexander’s historians as Ohydrakse [sic], Sydrakse, Sudrakse, 
Surakousse and Hydarkse,” and then it adds: “It is from this Farid-ud-din, 
familiarly and better known as Baba Farid, that the name Pak Pattan , or “ ferry 
of the pure one, is ascribed.” Then, in another place, after all this, it is stated, 
that, “ it is from a ferry over the Bisharat nalld that Pak Fattan derives its name,” 
and which nalld is said to pass “ close to Pak Pattan.” In another place in the 
same “ Gazetteer,” we find the following : “ The truth of the story is doubtful. 
The name may have been changed to Pak Pattan on account of a ferry over the 
Bishdrativah , but the town was known as Ajudhan in Tamerlane’s time. In the 
Aln-i-Akbari it is called simply pattan or “ the ferry.” * * # In fact Pak 
Pattan means simply the “ holy pattan.” Such is a specimen of “ Gazetteer” history. 
It so happens that the place is called the Pattan-i-Panj-ab, as well as the Pak 
Pattan, its old name, that is to say its original name, being Ajucldhan. It is men¬ 
tioned in the A’in-i-Akbari as the chief town of one of the mahalls of the Debal-pur 
sarhdr of the Multan subah, and one of ten then situated in the Bist Jalhandar 
Do-abah of that sarhdr, that is, between the Biah and the Sutlaj when they flowmd 
separately, but not when united into one. This is explained in the account of the 
rivers at page 372. 
It is not called the Pak Pattan or the Pattan-i-Panj-ab on account of any 
ferry whatever, much less a ferry over the Sutlaj, because the Sutlaj never yet 
flowed nearer to it than it does at present; while in the last century, it was twenty- 
four miles east of it, and before that again, it was upwards of forty miles, and in the 
time of the Shaikh still farther off. Pattan as I have said before means ‘ a town,’ and 
patan '■ a ferry,’ and in the A’m-i-Akbari it is the former word, and not explained 
as “the ferry;” and, in the Akbar Namah, it is called the Pattan-i-Panj-ab, but 
- 
it I) 
Blochmann, who had no local knowledge, also mistook for The place is 
mentioned by several historians as “ the Pak Pattan ” or “ Holy Town,” on account 
of its having been the residence and burial place of the Sultan-uz-Zahidan, Farid- 
ul-Millat wa ud-Din, Ganj-i-Shakar, these being his Musalman designations, not 
