468 H. G. Raverty— The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
To the recent formation of the lower part of the delta of the Indus 
I have already alluded ; and if we draw a line from near Karachi to 
about twenty miles above Lakhh Pat, we shall be able to judge how far it 
extended in the time of Akbar Badshah, when Badin and its dependent 
lands constituted the extremity of Sind in that direction, all to the 
south of such line having been formed since. 538 To have a correct con¬ 
ception of how far it extended when the ’Arabs landed in Sind, we 
should draw the line from a few miles south of Pir Patho and Badin 
towards Wangali, or even much farther north-east towards Nowa Kot. 
* * * The Baghar or Bhaghiar (meaning the destroyer) is the western branch 
of the Indus, diverging a little south of the town of Tliatta. # # # It is said 
to have been in A.D. 1699 a very great stream, navigable as far as Lahori Bunder 
(then the principal port of Sind, and at the close of the last century, the seat of 
the English factory) 20 miles from the mouth, for vessels of 200 tons ; afterwards 
it resolved itself into four branches.” See the account of Debal or Dewal, note 315, 
page 317. 
Del Hoste, writing in 1839, says “ the Ilajamree month had only then been in 
existence two years, and is now the main branch of the Indus.” 
Burton (Scinde : p. 168) says : “ now the Ar or Bhagar is the western outlet 
of the Indus.” 
Ar, in Hindi, means ‘prevention,’ ‘ hinderance,’ ‘stoppage,’ ‘stop,’ etc., and 
such a word as “ Baghar ” or “ Bhaghar ” as Hughes writes it, and “Bagar” as 
Postans renders it, I have not found ; but Bigar is intelligible, from Hindi ligdrnd , 
‘ to spoil,’ ‘ damage,’ etc. 
Hughes in his Gazetteer says (page 768) in confirmation of this, that there 
are “ Traditions of a town of great size called Samma Sumro having once existed 
a little south of the present village of Shah-Kapur [the “ Shahkupoor ” of the 
Indian Atlas map], in Mirpnr Batoro taluka. Also a town called Roliri in Jali 
taluka, and supposed to have flourished about two centuries ago. Remains of forts 
are also in some places to be seen, but, owing to the peculiar and erratic course of the 
Indus towards the sea, and the consequent changeable nature of its various branches, 
there is no district which is likely to show less remains of antiquity than that of 
Shahbandar.” 
These two places in Shah Bandar district must have gone to ruin long before 
“about two centuries ago,” otherwise they would have been mentioned in the 
accounts of Lar, Thathah, or Lower Sind. Batora, the Batoro of the Sindis, was the 
chief town of one of the eleven mahdlls or sub-districts of the sarJcar or district of 
Thathah, in Akbar Badshah’s reign. 
Hughes also says (p. 767), that “ the extensive flood, which occurred in Sind 
about 1819, the year of the earthquake in Kachchh, caused great changes in 
the lower part of the Indus, and tended to hasten the fall of Shah Bandar, by 
withdrawing the water from the branch on which it stood. Before this Shah 
Bandar was the naval station of the rulers of Sind ; and since that time, still 
greater changes have taken place, and they are still going on.” 
&33 It is supposed, and with very good reason, that great part of the delta 
between Thathah and Karachi south, has been formed since the Ab-i-Sind or Indus 
