Part 2

Alexander left Nautaka early in spring, and his next great exploit was the capture of the famous Sogdian Rock, in the fortress of which Oxyartes had placed for safety the members of his family, including his daughter, the beautiful Roxana, whose charms so fascinated her captor, that he made her his queen, in spite of all the remonstrances of his friends. Curtius calls this stronghold the Rock of Arimazes. Some have identified it with the steep crags which line one side of the narrow gorge near Derbent, called the Iron Gate, which forms the only direct approach from West-Bokhara to Hissar. Schwarz, however, says that the Iron Gate, through which he has himself often passed, answers neither to the description of Arrian nor of Curtius, and his own identification of the Rock is with a mountain which ascends precipitously from a gorge similar to that of the Iron Gate, from which it is some five miles distant in a north-east direction. From the Rock the expedition marched eastward into the country of the Paraitakai, the mountainous district now known as Hissar. Here Alexander’s progress was arrested by another mountain fortress no less formidable than the Sogdian. It is called by Arrian the Rock of Chorienes, and by Curtius the Rock of Sysimithres. Its identification presents no difficulty, as in all Hissar there is but one place which answers the descriptions of it, namely, the narrow pass at the river Waksh, where the Suspension Bridge (Pul-i-Sangin) overspans it on the way from Hissar through Faizabad to Badshuan. This pass, Schwarz tells us, is the most remarkable place to which he came in the whole course of his travels. The fort having been surrendered through the persuasions of Oxyartes, the conqueror returned to Baktra, by way of Faizabad, Hissar, Karatag, and Yurchi, from which place he proceeded down the right bank of the Surkhan to Tormiz, and thence to the passage of the Oxus at Pata-gisar. On his return to Baktra, he there made his preparations for the invasion of India. We have here only further to notice that Alexander’s visit to Margiana, the city now so well known as Merv, could not have been made, as Curtius informs us, from Bokhara, which is 215 miles distant and separated from it by a terrible intervening desert, all but entirely destitute of wells, but was probably made from Sarakhs in the earlier part of the march from the Caspian Gates.

We turn now to Major-General Haig’s _Memoir_ on the Indus-Delta country—a work of which about a fourth part directly concerns our subject. The sections which are of this nature discuss the following points:—1. The Geography and Hydrography of the Delta Country (chap. i.); 2. The Delta at the time of Alexander’s Expedition (chap. ii.); 3. The Delta according to later Greek Accounts (chap. iii.); 4. The Lonibare Mouth of the Indus (Append. Note A); 5. The general course of the Indus in Sindh in ancient times (Append. Note C); 6. Itineraries in the Las Bêlâ Country (Append. Note D); 7. The March to the Arabios (Append. Note E); 8. The voyage of Nearchos from Alexander’s Haven to the Mouth of the Arabios (Append. Note F).

Our author could scarcely have chosen for his subject one that is more beset with problems of aggravating perplexity. The Indus is notable even among Indian rivers for the frequency, and sometimes also for the suddenness, with which it changes its courses. As Colonel Holdich well observes, “The difficulty of restoring to the map of India an outline of the ancient geography of Sindh and the Indus Delta is one which has baffled many generations of scholars. The vagaries of the Indus, even within the limits of historic record, ... render this river, even before the Delta is reached, a hopeless feature for reference with regard to the position of places said once to have been near its bank. Within the limits of the Delta the confusion of hydrography becomes even more confounded.” In my note on Alexander in Sindh, which will be found at page 352, I have noticed that the channel in which the Indus now flows lies much farther to the west than the channel in which the Macedonians found it flowing. This _westing_, as it is called, is due to the operation of the law, first discovered by K. E. von Baer, that the difference of the velocity of the earth’s rotation at the Equator and at the Poles causes eroding rivers in the Northern Hemisphere to attack their right bank more than the left, and to push their beds sideways—while in the Southern Hemisphere, this action is reversed. From the _Memoir_ we learn how this law, and the other natural laws by which its action is modified, have affected the Indus. The river, we learn, pursues from the confluence of the Panjnad a very uniform S.W. direction for nearly 300 miles, till it reaches lat. 26° 56´, long. 67° 53´. At this point the river changes its general direction to one due south, and maintains this for about 60 miles, till it strikes, in lat. 26° 20´, long. 67° 55´, the eastern base of the Lakî Hills, just under the peak called Bhago Toro. Below this point the westing movement of centuries has now brought the stream to the extreme edge of the alluvial land, and into contact with the gravel slopes bordering the hill-country. As the gravel tracts project in a bow into the alluvial land of Lower Sindh, the river, unable to erode them, is forced to conform to their contour, and to run in a great curve for nearly 180 miles to Thata. This curve continues through the Delta to the sea, so that from Bhago Toro to the river-mouth the course of the Indus forms an arc of some 260 miles, of which the chord is about 160 miles, and the maximum depth nearly 50 miles. The general result is to give the course of the river in Sindh the form of the letter S. And, as its abandoned channels attest, _such has been the form in which the river has run in past ages_ as it approached the sea. The lower curve of the S had a still bolder sweep _eastward_ when the river ran far east of its present course, unchecked by rock or gravel bed, than it has now, when this part of the course has been shaped by a resistance which the current cannot overcome. This S-shaped course of the river _in all ages_ should be remembered in considering questions of ancient local topography, such, for instance, as that of the site of Patala. It will then be seen to be impossible that the river can have run at the same period in its present course near Haidarâbâd, and, lower down through the Ghâro, or ancient Sindh Sâgara; also that if Patala was at Haidarâbâd, the western river-mouth of Alexander’s time must have lain, not at the western extremity of the sea-face of the Delta, but much to the east of that point. From these remarks (which I have abbreviated from the text), it will be seen that Haidarâbâd can no longer be taken to be the modern representative of Patala. Where then was the point at which, in Alexander’s time, the Indus bifurcated, and Patala was situated? Major-General Haig says that any precise identification of this site is hardly within the limits of possibility; but, for reasons for which his work itself must be consulted, he is of opinion that “the ancient capital of the Delta was most likely not far from a spot 35 miles south-east of Haidarâbâd”—a spot which happens to be 160 miles distant from each extremity of the Delta coast, as supposed to have existed in Alexander’s time. With regard to places which lie farther north than Patala, the views set forth in this volume do not differ from those of Major-General Haig. He is, however, of opinion that the kingdom of Mousikanos was of greater extent than is usually supposed, and must have embraced the district of Bahawulpur, which answers better to the description of that kingdom, as _the most flourishing in all India_, than the country around Alôr.

The Delta tract, as taken in the _Memoir_, extends from the sea northwards to the latitude of Haidarâbâd (25° 25´ N.), and is bounded on the east by the desert, the Purân or old course of the Indus, now dry, and by the Korî mouth, which is the Lonibare mouth of Ptolemy; on the west by the outer border of the plains, where the boundary runs S. by W. for 50 miles to near Thata, from which point it turns almost due west, and runs for 60 miles more to the sea, near Karâchî. This alluvial tract is everywhere furrowed by ancient channels, some continuous, both above and throughout the Delta, and others all but totally obliterated. Our author has a notice of each of the more important of these channels. Regarding the Ghâro, the western arm down which Alexander and his fleet sailed, he says that it runs nearly east and west along the southern border of the Kohistân (hill-country), that it is thus on the extreme edge of the Delta, and that it has a course of about 40 miles in length. Referring to the present channel of the Indus, he remarks:—

“This divides the lower Delta region into two unequal portions. Of these, the western, and much the smaller, portion is in the form of an equilateral triangle, having sides of about 64 miles in length, consisting of the river, the coast-line, and the southern edge of the Kohistân plains, and including an area of about 1700 square miles. This it will be convenient to call the ‘Western Delta,’ a name the more suitable that all the westward-flowing branches of the river have, or have once had, their mouths within the limits of the tract to which it will apply.”

A very interesting question is next discussed—that of the secular extension of the Delta seaward—and the conclusion arrived at, which is, however, conjectural, and below the estimate of Colonel Holdich, is that from Alexander’s time to 1869 A.D. the advance of the Delta seaward has been eight miles, or at the rate of rather more than six yards in a year, this being less than a fourth of the growth of the Nile Delta in a not much greater period of time.

We now proceed to show what new light we gain from the _Memoir_ respecting the voyage of Nearchos from the naval station in the Indus to Alexander’s Haven, now Karâchî. We abridge the account which Arrian has given in his _Indika_ of this part of the famous voyage:—

Weighing from the Naval Station, the fleet reached Stoura, about 100 stadia further down stream, and at the further distance of 30 stadia came to another channel where the sea was salt, at a place called Kaumana. A run of 20 stadia from Kaumana brought it to Koreatis, where it anchored. After weighing from this, a bar (ἕρμα) was encountered at the spot where the Indus discharges into the sea, and through this, where it was soft, a passage had to be cut at low water, for a space of five stadia. On this part of the coast, which was rugged, the waves dashed with great violence. The next place of anchorage was at Krokala, a sandy island, which was reached after a course of 150 stadia, that had followed the windings of the coast. Near this dwelt the Arabies, who had their name from the river Arabis, which separates their territory from that of the Oreitai. On weighing from Krokala, a hill called Eiros lay to the right, and to the left a low flat island, which stretched along the face of the coast, and made the intervening creek narrow. The ships having cleared this creek, reached a commodious harbour to which Nearchos gave the name of “Alexander’s Haven.” At the harbour’s mouth, two stadia off, lay an island named Bibakta, which, acting as a barrier against the sea, caused the existence of the harbour.

Our author thinks that some of the circumstances described in the above passage supply irresistible evidence that it was through the Ghâro that Nearchos sailed into the sea. If the obstruction at the mouth of the river was caused in part by rock, it is certain, he says, that that mouth cannot have been situated to the east of the Ghâro, for along the whole sea-border of the Delta, to a depth of several miles, no rock, not even a stone, is to be found. The description again of the coast adjoining the bar as rugged or rocky (τραχεῖα) can apply with great propriety to the plain west of the Ghâro, consisting, as it does, of a compact gravelly soil, frequently broken by outcropping rock, while the description would be utterly out of place if applied to the low mud-banks of the actual Delta coast. And further, the statement that the fleet, after leaving the river, ran a winding course, shows very pointedly that the Ghâro must have been the mouth by which the fleet reached the sea, since, if it had issued from any of the mouths east of the Ghâro, there would have been no windings to follow, the coast of the Delta being singularly straight and regular. The fleet probably entered the sea by the creek of the Ghâro known as the Kudro, not far from the present mouth of which there is a small port named the Wâghûdar, accessible to riverboats of light draught. Sir A. Burnes, however, who visited the Delta in 1831, took the Pitî channel to have been that by which Nearchos gained the sea. He had seen in that channel what he took to be a rock, and concluded that it was the obstacle which Nearchos had encountered. It was not a rock, however, but probably an oyster-bank, for when search was made for it afterwards during a survey it was no longer to be found.

The island of Krokala, which General Cunningham erroneously identified with the island of Kîâmârî, which lies in front of Karâchî, no longer exists as an island, but forms part of the mainland. It lay at the mouth of the Gisri Creek, by which the Malîr river pours its waters into the sea. The headland which Arrian calls Eiros is to be identified with the eminence called “Clifton,” the eastern headland of Karâchî Bay, the “narrow creek” which the fleet entered on leaving Krokala, is Chinî Creek, which leads into Karâchî Bay and harbour. Kîâmârî thus corresponds with the “low, flat island” of the Greek narrative, while Manora (mistaken by Cunningham for Eiros), exactly corresponds with Bibakta.

We must now briefly notice what is said regarding the eastern portion of the Delta. Here the most important of all the forsaken channels of the Indus is the Purân, which can still be clearly traced from two different starting-points in Central Sindh, one 24, the other 36 miles north-east of Haidarâbâd. The two head channels run south-east for about 50 miles, and unite at a spot 45 miles east by south from Haidarâbâd. The single channel has then a course of over 140 miles to the head of the Korî Creek, the last 50 miles being through the Ran of Kuchchha. The eastern arm of the Indus, which Alexander in person explored, was probably some channel running into the Purân not far above the point where it enters the Ran. On reaching the sea by this eastern branch, Alexander, as Arrian informs us, landed, and with some cavalry proceeded three marches along the coast. This statement the _Memoir_ declares to be a fabrication, since such a march would be an utter impossibility. At the same time, the notion of wells being dug in the locality is scouted as an absurdity.

The _Memoir_ further indicates the route by which Alexander, after starting from Patala to return homewards, reached the Arabis or Arabios—now the Purâli river, which flows through Lus Bela, and discharges into Sonmiyâni Bay. The eastern frontier of the Arabios lay near Krokala, and was very probably formed by the river called the Malîr. Alexander, according to Curtius, reached this frontier in a nine-days’ march from Patala, and the western frontier, which was about 65 miles distant from the other, in five days more. Our author, assuming that Alexander would not have marched his army across the comparatively waterless plain of the Kohistân, but would keep, if possible, within easy reach of the river or one of its branches, thinks it obvious that the earlier part of the route would follow the branch which ran westward—the branch, namely, of which the Kalrî and Ghâro formed the lower portion. From the position which he assigns to Patala, the distance traversed in the nine-days’ march would be 117 miles, while the point on the Malîr where Alexander encamped would be, he thinks, 7 or 8 miles east by north from Karâchî cantonments. The distance between the Malîr and the Purâli, it must be pointed out, is much greater now than it was in Alexander’s time, for, like the Indus, the Purâli has shifted its course far westward. The coast-line, moreover, at Sonmiyâni has advanced 20 miles, if not more, since then. Our author, therefore, placing the mouth of the river rather to the north of the latitude of Liâri, suggests that the point where the army reached the Arabios was about 10 miles east by north from Liâri, and 20 miles north or north by east from Sonmiyâni.

The last Appendix in the _Memoir_ is devoted to a review of the narrative of the voyage by which Nearchos in six days reached the mouth of the Arabios or Purâli from Alexander’s Haven. It states in the outset that the discovery of the great advance of the coast about the head of Sonmiyâni Bay serves to explain some difficulties in the account of the voyage which have hitherto defied solution. We here abridge that account:—

The fleet, on weighing from the haven, ran a course of 60 stadia, and anchored under shelter of a desert island called Domai. Next day, with a run of 300 stadia, it reached Saranga, and on the following day anchored at a desert place called Sakala. Another run of 300 stadia brought it on the morrow to Morontobara or Women’s Haven. This haven had a narrow entrance, but was deep, capacious, and well-sheltered. The fleet, before gaining the entrance, had passed through between two islets, which lay so close to each other that the oars grazed the rocks on each side. On leaving this harbour next day it had on the left a tree-covered island 70 stadia long which sheltered it from the violence of the sea. As the channel, however, which separated the island from the mainland was narrow, and shoal with ebb-tide, the passage through it was difficult and tedious, and it was not till near the dawn of the following day that the fleet succeeded in clearing it. A course of 120 stadia brought it to a good harbour at the mouth of the Arabios. Not far from this harbour lay an island described as being high and bare.

The island of Domai Colonel Holdich and others would identify with Manora. Manora, however, Haig points out, is even now 4 to 5 miles off from the nearest mainland, and must have been further in Alexander’s time. He would, therefore, place Domai rather more than 4 miles due west of the town of Karâchî, or perhaps further north. The fleet, in its course to Saranga, must have rounded Cape Monze or Râs Muâri, but this projection is not mentioned by Arrian. The position of Saranga, to judge from the recorded length of the run, must have been near the mouth of the Hub river, which is 26 miles distant from the position assigned to Domai. The Hub mouth has been silted up, and this led, last century, to its port being abandoned. Our author points out that if Κ were substituted for Σ in Saranga, we would then have in Karanga a very fair representation of Kharok, the name of the Hub port. However this may be, he adds, there can be no doubt that the Saranga of Nearchos was either at the Hub mouth or a few miles further north.

He then corrects a mistake into which Dr. Vincent and myself had both of us fallen in our respective translations of the record of the next part of the voyage—that from Saranga to Sakala, and thence to Morontobara. Our versions represented the two rocky islets, between which the fleet passed instead of taking a circuitous course out in the open sea, as being in the neighbourhood of Sakala instead of that of Morontobara. Sakala, Haig thinks, may be placed a little east of Bidok Lak—a place 24 miles distant from Saranga, if Saranga be taken to lie a few miles north of the Hub mouth. Between these two places the fleet must have passed the island of Gadâni, which is now a part of the mainland, and was probably the Kodanê of Ptolemy.

With regard to Morontobara, our author agrees with Colonel Holdich in thinking that it is now represented by the great depression known as “Sirondha,” which, though usually a fresh-water lake, is occasionally quite dry. This, as the Colonel states, was at no very distant date a commodious harbour or arm of the sea, which has extended north in historic times at least as far as Liâri, and possibly further. He adds that south-west of Liâri some of the land formation is probably very ancient, and that westward along the Makran coast there are many indications of local changes. The distance from Bidok Lak to the depression is estimated at about 27 miles, which represents very fairly the 300 stadia of the narrative. Liâri is now about 20 miles distant from the sea.