424 H. G. Raverfcy —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
to Bhatnir by Mohan Garh, this Chitr-ang commences about eleven 
miles 454 * south of Sudar-har, also styled Surat Garh in the present day, 
and terminates some miles to the north-wards of that mud-built fort. 
The channel of the Hakra intervenes in this space. In proceeding from 
the Got 455 * of Ka’im Khan, Ra’is between Khair-pur and Mubarak-pur, 
in the direction of Bikanir, you first go to Marut. For the first ten 
Jcuroh on this route you proceed through sandy desert, but after that the 
Chitr-ang commences, and extends all the way to Marut, crossing by 
the way the old channels of the Sutlaj and Hakra, a short distance 
from the south or left bank of which last named river bed Marut stands, 
and beyond which for some distance farther the Chitr-ang extends. 
“ In going from Bikanir to Ajuddhan, fifty kuroh north is Chiihar- 
har, and from thence thirty-five kuroh farther is Admiri, also called 
Ajmiri, after a Musalman .Jat tribe; and for forty kuroh the route lies 
“ Chittram — considerable tracts of low, bard, flat, formed by the lodgment of 
water after rains.” In a foot-note he says : “ the name is literally ‘ The picture’ 
from the circumstance of such spots almost constantly presenting the mirage, here 
termed chitrdm ,” Yol. II, 329. 
In Hindi, chitd is a picture or painting, from Sanskrit f^T ‘ to paint,’ ‘ draw,’ 
but the derivation of Chitr-ang might more probably be from the Hindi ghetak _ 
‘ deception,’ ‘ miracle,’ etc. See also page 361, where it also crops up. 
454 # About six and a half kuroh. 
455# Got, in the language of Sind, Multan, and Jasal-mir, signifies literally, a 
station or halting place, but is now applied to a village ; and in our maps, such is 
the confusion of tongues because a uniform, and correct system is not adopted, and 
an “official” system devised instead by some one who knew nothing of the matter, 
and was probably ignorant of the vernacular, that this word appears as “ Goat 
Kaimrais ”— “Goth Kaim Raees and “ Gote Kaim-rais ,” in as many different 
maps. 
In the same manner respecting the rather common name of Ghaus-pur (from 
the ’Arabic word ghaus applied to a class of Muhammadan saints), two places of 
which name lie only a few miles from each other south-west of Bahawal-pur. 
Actually, the names are written “ Ghospoor,” “Khospur,” “ Gaospoor ,” “ Ghouspoor ” 
and “ Ghuspoor ” in as many different maps ; and yet it is treason almost to venture 
to point such absurd blunders out lest the “ susceptibilities” of those who make them 
“ should be hurted.” It is just the same with other names ; for example, the new 
station in Southern Afghanistan called by the Pus’hto name of Tal, which is a ver¬ 
dant tract and well cultivated, and another west of Kohat of the same name, 
where water never fails and cultivation is abundant, but the map makers and 
Gazetteer compilers will make it “ Thai,” the Hindi name for a sandy, water-less 
desert, used in the Panj-ab and Sind, and by the Baluchis dwelling on their borders, 
because the compilers in question thought the words were all one ; and so Thai_ 
a sandy, waterless desert —has become the “official” names of these two green 
and verdant Afghan towns, while the Government is studiously kept in ignorance 
of such blunders. 
