Gazetteer Of The Muzaffargarh District 1883-84

· 1884 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Muzaffargarh District. ]

2CHAP, I.—THE DISTRI('T. 3

3ard the wind blew the sand into the heaps we now see. There

4"is no doubt that the Indus did flow down the thal at one time.

5Mr. O’Brien has secn a deed of sale in which Basira, a village now in the

6centre of the thal and equi-distant from the Indus and the Chindb, 13

7described as Bet Basfra. At Shdhgarh, which is the southern end of

8the thal,a long lake which used tu be the bed of the Indus. is still

9extant.

10The rest of the district is adead flat, and eonsists of strips of

11alluvial land running parallel to the bank of each river, which are

12irrigated by the* annual inundation, and of a tract lying within the

13alluvial strips protected from the fhvods and irngated by wells and

14canals, The alluvial lands are mtersected by many side-channels of

15the rivers, here called dAands or phdts. The strips of alluvial land

16rew wider as we proceed south, until the Indus strips meet the

17Jhindb strips three or four miles south of the town of Alfpur, and,

18from that point to the junction of the Indus and Chindb, the whole

19width of the district is subject to inundations, and is dependent on

20them fur its irrigation. In the cold season the district is of the size

21and shape shown in the map. In the hot weather the rivers rise

22and cover a long strip of land parallel with their banks. The strip

23so inundated by the Indusis much wider than that flooded by the

24Chindb. As the rivers become more swollen, they draw nearer to

25each other, until the Indus begins to force its way across the district

26at Jatoi, and flowing in a south-easterly direction, meets the

27rising waters of the Chindéb near the village of Pakka Naich, three

28voiles south of Alipur. This occurs about the end of June, and from

29this time till September the district, south of a line drawn from Jatot

30to Pakka Naich, is more or less submerged. At first the water keeps to

31the depressions in the ground; but as the season advances the Hood

32spreads over the whole country. Communication is effected by

33boats, and the town of Khairpur, a place of considerable mercantile

34activity, situated at an equal distance from the cold-weather streams

35of both rivers in the centre of the Doab, becomes a port from which

36cargoes are shipped to Sindh. Attached to every house in this flooded

37part of the district are one or more small platforms raised on

38poles called mannhdn (Hindustani machdn), on which people live when

39washed out of their houses. Aud a very hard life it is. From the

40end of June to the beginning of September the people are exposed

41to the hot sun by day, and to swarms of mosquitoes at night. Some-

42times they are unable to leave the mannhdns for days and weeks.

43together. When the water subsides, comes the season called sah,

44during which hardly any one escapes attacks of malarious fever. A

45proverb says that to go and live by the river side is to place a baby

46in a witch’s lap, and another—

47Vasandar bet = Residence in the het is to have no clothes for the body

48Na tan kapre and no bread for the belly,

49Wa rold pet,”

50There are, however, two sides to the question, for—

51Darya da hamaaya o fie neighbour of the river

52Na bhukha na trihaya.” j ~ \ Is neither hungry nor thirsty.

53Bounded by the thal on the north, and on its other three sides

54by the alluvial lands above described, is a tract naturally and artifi-

55Chapter I, A

56Descmptive.

57The Thal

58The country outsidi

59the that,

60Canal tract.