1892.] H. G. Raverty— The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. 469 
The identification hereabouts of places mentioned in Alexander’s 
expedition, is even more illusive than farther upwards, according to the 
present courses of the rivers. 639 
Thus, from all that I have here adduced, the following are the 
results of my investigations ; and from them, as far as tradition affirms, 
deserted the channel which passed by Nasr-pur, and took a more westerly course. 
There is little doubt, indeed, but that great part of the Shah Bandar district of 
Sind, as at present constituted, and the southern part of the Jarak district like¬ 
wise, are of comparatively recent formation. See note 187, page 234 from the Ohach 
Namah on the Bet. 
Sultan Firiiz Shah, the Khalj Turk Sultan of Dihli, is said to have founded 
Nasr-pur on the then bank of the Ab-i-Sind, a different place from the fort near 
Nasir-pur, on the Sankrah or Hakra. See note 173, page 224, note 555, page 479, 
and note 576, page 500. 
It is stated, likewise, that after the annexation of the Thathah territory above 
referred to, the IOian-i-Khanan, Mirza ’Abd-ur-Kahim, desired to have a look at the 
great ocean before he returned to the Court at Agrah, and that he set out from his 
camp at Thathah for that purpose, and proceeding southwards two easy stages of 
about fifteen miles each, he obtained the sight he desired. The place from which 
he obtained a view of the ocean is called “ Mughal-Bin,”—the Mughal’s view in—con¬ 
sequence, to this day, bin being the Persian for ‘ seeing,’ ‘ view,’ ‘ sight,’ ‘ glimpse,’ 
etc., from the verb didan - ‘ to see,’ ‘to view,’ etc. The place appears in the maps 
as “ Mughulbhin,” “ Mogulbeen,” etc. It is now nearly fifty miles from the sea. 
639 With regard to the “ identifications ” of places, in Sind in particular, Postans 
very pertinently remarks on the building of cities and docks, that “ though there may 
be every reason to imagine that he, whose whole life was a study how to acquire 
posthumous fame, was most anxious to leave some splendid monuments, which 
should attest to after ages the magnitude of his deeds on the immediate scenes 
of their enacting, he could not have found the two indispensables of a stable spot 
on which to erect them, or any sufficient lasting materials for his purpose : thus it 
is that throughout Sindh the most diligent and well directed antiquarian research 
has altogether failed to discover one single reminiscence of verified classical 
antiquity, or to incontestably fix one locality as that described by Alexander’s 
historians.” In another place he says, “ to have- trusted to such records in Sindh 
[and in great part of the Pauj Ab also] would have been to have written history in 
sand .” Indeed, all practical men who have dwelt in these parts, and surveyed 
these rivers, declare that identification is a farce. 
As regards the lower deltas, where people expect to find places in the same 
situation on the Indus and near its mouths as they were ages ago, the following 
extract from Dr. Lord’s “ Memoir on the Plain of the Indus,” may be useful. He 
says, “ The river discharges 300 cubic feet of mud in every second of time ; or a 
“ quantity which in seven months would suffice to form an island 42 miles long, 
“ 27 miles broad, and 40 feet deep; which [taking the depth of the sea along 
“ the coast at about five fathoms], would consequently be elevated 10 feet above 
“ the surface of the water. Any person who chooses to run out this calculation to 
“ hundreds and thousands of years will be able to satisfy himself that much may be 
“ done by causes at present in action towards manufacturing deltas,” 
