1 The confluence of
2 the Indus with the
3 Pavjnid.
4 The meat high roads
5 rennin piwrauel te the
6 fails,
7 4 HISTORY OF THE PANJAS,
8 tude, the river, which here assumes that name, is again contracted within
9 narrow limits, varying in width from 260 yards to 100 yards, but the
10 current is deep and rapid. The Indus is crossed at Atak, in the dry
11 season, by a bridge of boats and a ferry. The main trunk road to Peshd-
12 war and Afghanistin crosses it at this point, and a railway has been carried
13 over it on a bridge lately constructed. Lower down, as it enters the
14 hills, its breadth is still more contracted, so that at Nilab, fifteen miles below
15 Atak, it is sometimes only a stone’s throw across, but with a current of
16 great velocity. From this point the course of the river is south and south-
17 west, parallel to the Sulaiman ranges and along the western side of the
18 Panjab. The current, which, for ten miles below Atak, was calm, deep
19 and rapid, between high cliffs of slate rocks, hecomes rough, and, as it passes
20 round high perpendicular rocks with great velocity, the surface of the water
21 is lashed into whirlpools most dangerous to navigation. The water in
22 this part of the river is of a dark lead colour, from the blue limestone hills
23 through which it passes, and hence the name Nilab* or “ blue-water,”
24 given as well to the river as to a town on its bank twelve miles below
25 Atak. Winding among the bills, it reaches Kalabagh, 110 miles below
26 Atak, and then passes through the great salt range, again in a deep, clear
27 and tranquil stream. From Kdldbégh to Mithankot, a distance of 350
28 miles to the south, the banks are generally low, so that, as the inundations
29 advance, the country round is covered with water as far as the eye can
30 reach. The inundations, which originate in the melting of the snow in the
31 Himdlayas and the Hindu Kush, commence in spring and diminish on the
32 approach of autumn. Two or three miles below Mithankot, and in N.
33 lat. 28°55’, E. long. 70°28’, the river is joined by the Panjnad (the
34 Chinab), which conveys the collected waters of the Panjab rivers, after
35 a course of 1,650 miles, the junction being 490 miles from the sea. The arid,
36 sandy nature of the soil, below the confluence of the Indus with the Panjnad,
37 causes much absorption and evaporation, though the wasting of water is not
38 very apparent to the eye, owing to the gradual character of the diminution
39 of the current, Finally, the river empties itself, by many mouths, into the
40 Arabian Sea. Parallel to its western bank, runs, for several hundreds of
41 miles, the great north road from Sindh to Banmi, while along its eastern
42 bank lies the road from Multan to Rawalpindi. The .two great frontier
43 districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan are intersected by
44 polished stone. The fortis very interesting, and its situation is important from both a com-
45 mercial and military point of view. It has been the route of almost all the invaders of India
46 from the north, and was the point where the armies of Alexander, Taimir and Nadir Shah
47 crossed the river in three distant ages. The merit of discovering the route is given to Alex-
48 ander, who, after passing the mountains, encamped at Alexandria Paropamisana, the modern
49 city of Kandahar, and, having subdued the tribes to the west of the Indus, crossed the river at
50 Taxila, the modern Atak, the only place where the stream is so calm that a bridge can be
51 thrown over it. Near Khairdibad, on the opposite side, is a fine aqueduct, wade by a chief of
52 the Khatak tribe in old days, to irrigate the lands adjoining. To the west of the fort, 50
53 yards lower down, is the tomb of a Dewan of the Saint Abdul Kadar Gilini. The inserip-
54 tion, in the Tighra character, ona stone on the edge of the grave, gives the name ag Shekh
55 Abdul Rahmin, with the date 1132 1., or 1713 4.p._ Facing the north, a white mar au
56 is fixed on the Lahori Gate with the following inscription :— : i en
57 Besa tuel rele gsllss — yt xlis ple ylold ya
58 sis Akbar the King is king of the kings of the earth, Great is God and magnificent is his
59 ‘The inscription is dated 99] m.=15S3 a.p.
60 Si purine the time of the Moghal Emperors royal troops were cantoned in the fort.
61 nite 1, wat h his characteristic trickery, obtained possession of it in 1813 by bribing the Afghan
62 s Mane fee a eee naa of the Sikhs till the British conquest in 1849. TE was
63 Satantiy ntenar rb i i = : *dJorahble
64 British ‘letachmest i ¥ E cout oe ee ; in 1848, and is now occupied by a considerable
65 The Nanhilus, or Nanlihe, of Ptoleniy,
66 Ranjit
67 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com