1 * Sasson, 1 305,
2 5 Burnes’ Bokh.
3 Hi, 112,
4 6 Wd. 118;
5 Moorer. Pun}.
6 Bokh. i, 101.
7 7 Leech, Com. of
8 Mooltan, 80.
9 5 Malcolm, Hist.
10 of Persia, ii, 402;
11 Vigne, Ghuznee,
12 16.
13 Life of Runjeet
14 Singh, 117.
15 60 MOOLTAN.
16 bably any other place Jaid down in India by native engineers,*
17 though some of the ravages of the late siege have not yet been
18 repaired. It stands on a mound, and is an irregular hexagon,
19 with its longest side, which measures six hundred yards, to the
20 north-west.5 The wall, substantially built of burnt brick, is about
21 forty feet high outside, but only four or five feet from the ground
22 inside, in consequence of the accumulation of the materials of
23 older buildings. It is surmounted by thirty towers and protected
24 by a ditch, faced with masonry.* The only buildings within it
25 of any importance, are the battered palace of the former Khan,
26 and a lofty Mahometan shrine. It was stormed in 1818 by
27 Runjeet Sing, who cut to pieces the Afghan garrison of three
28 thousand, with the exception of five hundred admitted to quarter.
29 The booty on that occasion is said to have amounted to four
30 millions sterling.t The army of the besiegers consisted of 25,000,
31 of whom 1,900 were slain.
32 Mooltan is the largest town in the Sikh territory after
33 Lahore and Amritsir. The present town is built on a mound
34 of considerable height, formed of the ruins of more ancient
35 cities. The bazaars are extensive, and are well supplied with all
36 articles of traffic and consumption, and the shops amount alto-
37 gether in number to four thousand six hundred.’ Its principal
38 manufactures are silks, cottons, shawls, loongees, brocades,
39 tissues. Its merchants are considered rich, and abgut fifteen of
40 them are computed collectively to possess a million and a half of
41 rupees. Banking constitutes a large proportion of the business of
42 Mooltan, in which it has in some measure supplanted Shikarpoor;
43 and the prosperity of the town is in all respects considered on
44 the increase. It yields a revenue of 575,000 rupees.
45 The vicinity is covered with an amazing quantity of ruins of
46 tombs, mosques, and shrines, which shew the former extent and an-
47 tiquity of thecity. North® of the place is the magnificent shrine
48 of Sham Tabrezi, who, according to tradition, was flayed alive here
49 * ‘Such is Masson’s account (i. 396). Burnes (Bokhara, iii. 112) says,
50 ‘« The fortress of Mooltan has no ditch ; the nature of the country will not
51 admit of one.””
52 + Prinsep states, that Runjeet Sing compelled his troops to disgorge
53 their booty, which he appropriated to his own treasury. This, however, is
54 at variance with the account given by the Maharajah himself to Moorcroft ;
55 but his highness might not, perhaps, regard a slight sacrifice of truth to
56 the honour of his liberality.