440 H. G. Raverty— The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
channels passing between Mung Ala and Till wan ah, 489 was lost (or, 
at least, is not marked in his map), a mile and a half south-west 
of Handhah. Lower down again, in going from Miing Ala by Tihwanali 
to Bar-Walab nearly due south, it was necessary to go tw r o Tcuroh and 
a half in that direction to Ram-pur, and to pass the Ghag-gliar, which 
flowed under its walls. Now, you have to cross two channels, and the 
second one nearly a mile before reaching Ram-pur. Jamal-pur, an 
ancient place, likewise, was then one Tcuroh east of the Ghag-ghar, but 
now it is two miles and a half distant from its southern-most channel. 
4>S9 For some miles north of Tihwanah in Ilarianah, where the Ghag-ghar 
separates into two branches, and from thence westwards towards Sirsa, the villages 
and lands lying along the banks of the northern channel are known by the general 
name of Sot-bar or Sota-har, so called from the Sanskrit sot or sota signify¬ 
ing, ‘ a spring,’ ‘ a stream ’ ‘ a river,’ bnt the river Ghag-ghar is not called by that 
name save in the sense of ‘ the river.’ These sot-har lands are very productive and. 
yield two harvests yearly, the autumnal one being rice. Sarsuti or Sirsa produced 
much rice in Ibn Bat Utah’s time (see page 264). On the other hand, the villages 
lying along the banks of the southern channel are known as the Daban villages, 
on account of the abundance of a species of grass known in Hindi as dab (a sacri¬ 
ficial grass — poa cynosuroides ) growing along its banks. 
In the Flruz-pur district the broad belt of sandy soil covered with hillocks, of 
from two to three miles in breadth, lying along one of the old channels of the Sutlaj, 
is called “ sot-har ” or “ sot-hara .” See note 477, page 432, and note 423, 
page 403. 
Harianah, especially its western and southern parts about Fath-abad, the 
Firuzah Hisar, Tohsham, and Bhawani, the parts nearest to Bikanir and Jasal-mir, 
is called Bdnjar " or Banjar - from Sanskrit in which there is go 
‘ g,’ but the word has become vitiated, and this part is called Bdngar by those who 
do not know the derivation of the word. The term means ‘ lying waste,’ ‘ dry,’ 
‘ arid,’ ‘ thirsty,’ etc. These parts contain sand hills, and are subject to violent 
dust storms, so violent, indeed, that very often after one of these storms, the seed 
sown by the cultivator is covered and spoiled. In some places villages have been 
abandoned on account of the wells becoming filled up from the same cause. 
From fifteen to twenty-five miles towards the south from Suhani (the 
“ Sewanee” of the maps) and the Bikanir border, in place of sand hills there are 
some bare rocky hills, which rise like islands from the sandy tract, but they do not 
rise to any great height, the highest not exceeding eight hundred feet or there¬ 
abouts. The town of Tohsham stands on the northern skirt of the highest of 
them. These appear to be the hills referred to by Ibn Batutah on his way from 
Uboh-har to Dihli. See page 261. 
Cunningham, in his “Ancient India,” (page 247), says : “ the country of which 
Bikaner is now [!] the capital was originally called B&gar des — the land of the 
Bagri or Warriors, whose leader was Bagri Rao. If so, it would be “ Bdgri des, 
not “ Bdgar des ; ” but it will be seen that he has merely “identified” the word 
bdnjar, or rather the vulgar form bdngar, above referred to, for “ a warrior ” (we 
are not told when the “ leader, Bagri Rao,” flourished), and that the “ Bagri 
warriors” are sand hills. “ Harianah,” herein referred to, the Survey record states, 
