1 108 JEHLAM.
2 There appears always to have been a town
3 on the banks of the stream on or near the site
4 of the present Jehlam. Close to it there is a
5 considerable mound, in which very old coins
6 and fragments of stone pillars have been found.
7 Jehlam fell into the power of Ahmed Shah
8 Abdali, and was subordinate to the government
9 of the neighbouring fort of Rohtas. In 1767,
10 when Charat Singh, Ranjeet Singh’s grand-
11 father, took Rohtas from the Afghans,;-Jehlam
12 had a small but very weak brick fort, contain-
13 ing about fifty houses, and there were besides
14 some thirty houses outside the walls. Charat
15 Singh took Jehlam at the same time as Rohtas.
16 _ It was plundered and burnt’ by Shah Zaman,
17 who remained forty days near the town on his
18 first expedition to India. On his second expedi-
19 tion he again destroyed the place, and it was on
20 his return from Lahore that he was here obliged
21 to leave his guns. The greater portion of his
22 troops had crossed, and the guns had been
23 brought to the banks of the river ready for
24 embarkation, when thc river suddenly swelled,
25 and swept away the sand on which the guns
26 stood: two or three of them were afterwards