Amusing incident.
This was not the only incident of interest that occurred at Bukkur: we had a visit from an Afghan nobleman of rank, who had been on a mission to the Governor-General from the late Shah Mahmood of Herat, and was now on his return to his native country, by the way of Sinde and Mekran, the dissensions of dismembered Cabool preventing his passing by the usual route. He was one of the finest natives I ever saw, and had a flowing beard reaching to his waist: he was full of Calcutta and its wonders, and had adopted many of our customs. He rode on an English saddle; but said he had just found out that it was partly made of hog’s skin, and brought it to beg my acceptance of it, for he dared not take such a thing to his country, and would not again use it. I civilly declined the offer, and regretted that the information regarding the materials of the saddle had been traced to me; for, as he liked our fashions, it was a pity he could not carry them to his own country. Previous to the envoy’s leaving us, he begged I would give him an English brush, which I did with pleasure; but I did not consider it necessary to add that, in addition to the skin of the unclean beast, he would now have the bristles. He went away in great good humour with his gift, for which he offered me his palankeen.
Mihmandar.
I was sorry that I should have been the means of giving uneasiness to the Afghan; for it seems that he acquired his knowledge regarding the construction of his saddle from our Sindian Mihmandar, Tukkee Shah, who had taunted him with uncleanness. This person was a Syud, one of the strictest Mahommedans I ever met. He was a son of Meer Ismael Shah, and of Persian descent. We found him intelligent and learned, and his polished manners made us regret the loss of so agreeable a companion. He left us at Bukkur, to take temporary charge of the Shikarpoor district during the absence of his brother, the Nawab. The character of this person was singularly disfigured by Mahommedan bigotry and superstition; while sceptical and dispassionate on all other topics, there was no miracle too absurd for his credence in religion. Among other fables, he assured me that when the Imam Hoosein had been beheaded by the Yezeedees, and a Christian reproached them for murdering their Prophet, one of them fell on him; the man, instantly seizing the head of the Imam, placed it on his breast, and it pronounced the well-known words, “There is no God but one God, and Mahommed is his prophet;” which immediately silenced this Mahommedan Judas!
Alore, or Arore, the ancient capital.
While at Bukkur, I visited the ruins of Alore, which is said to have been once the capital of a mighty kingdom, ruled by the Dulora Rae, and on which Roree, Bukkur, and Sukkur, have risen. It extended from the ocean to Cashmeer, from Candahar to Kanoje, and was divided into four vast viceroyalties: the harbour of Diu, in Kattywar, is expressly mentioned as one of its sea-ports. It sunk under the Mahommedan arms so early as the seventh century of the Christian era, when subdued by the lieutenant of the Caliph of Bagdad, Mahommed bin Cassim, who invaded India, according to a Persian manuscript, in search of ornaments for the seraglio of the Caliph.
The particulars of its history are to be found at great length in the Chuchnama, a history of Sinde in Persian believed to be authentic, and so called from the ruler of Alore, a Brahmin, by name Duhr bin Chuch. The ruins of Alore are yet to be discovered in a rocky ridge four miles south-east of Bukkur, and are now marked by an humble hamlet, with some ruined tombs. A low bridge with three arches, named the “Bund of Alore or Arore,” constructed of brick and stone, alone remains of all its greatness. It is thrown across a valley, which in by-gone years formed the bed of a branch of the Indus, from which the waters fertilised the desert, and reached the sea by Omercote and Lucput,—a channel through which they still find egress in a great inundation.
The description of the battle which overwhelmed the city of Alore, and terminated the life and reign of the Dulora Rae, affords some clue to the manners of the age. The Brahmin appeared with a train of elephants, on one of which he was seated, with two females of exquisite beauty to supply him with wine and the betel nut. The Mahommedans, unable to oppose these animals, retired from the field to provide themselves with combustibles: they filled their pipes, and returned with them to dart fire at the elephants, which fled in dismay and disorder[8]. The Raja fell in the action, and his two virgin daughters, “more beautiful than the morn,” were despatched to Bagdad as fit ornaments for the seraglio of the vicegerent of the Prophet. The story of these ladies deserves mention. On their arrival at the holy city, they averred that the General had dishonoured them in the fever of victory, and the mandate for his death was forthwith despatched by the Caliph. The innocent Moslem, sewed up in a raw hide, was transported from the East to Arabia; and when his bones were produced in the seraglio, the daughters of Duhr bin Chuch freely confessed the falsehood of their accusation, and expressed their readiness to die, having avenged their father’s murder. They were dragged to death in the streets of Bagdad.
Alore the kingdom of Musicanus.
We have recorded the splendour of Alore, ruled by Brahmins so late as the seventh century of our era; and history, I think, Larkhanu, of Oxycanus. Minagur as Tatta, not Bukkur. identifies it with the kingdom of Musicanus, which Alexander found to be governed by Brahmins, and the richest and most populous in India. Here it was that that conqueror built a fort, as “the place was commodiously situated for bridling the neighbouring nations,” and where Mahommed bin Cassim a thousand years afterwards subdued the Brahmins who revolted from the Macedonians. Its prosperity at this late period confirms the probability of its former wealth. Bukkur is the ancient Munsoora[9], and has likewise been supposed to be Minagur, which I believe is erroneous. The second Arrian, in his Periplus, speaks of that city as the metropolis of Sinde, to which the cargo of the ships was carried up by the river “from Barbarike, a port in the middle branch of the Indus.” It has apparently escaped notice, that Minagur is to be identified with Tatta, as proved by a singular but convincing fact. The Jhareja Rajpoots of Cutch, who trace their lineage from Tatta, invariably designate it in these days by the name of Sa-Minagur, of which Minagur is evidently an abbreviation. I look upon the identity of Tatta and Minagur as conclusive, though the author of the Periplus never mentions Pattala. In Reechel we may also have the harbour of Barbarike. The historians of Alexander do not inform us of the name of the country of Musicanus, but only of its ruler. The position of Larkhanu, on the opposite side of the Indus, is well marked as the country of Oxycanus, which was famed for its fertility, since Alexander despatched from hence his superannuated soldiers, by the country of the Archoti and Drangi, to Carmania, or Kerman. The great road westward branches from Larkhanu, and crosses the mountains to Kelat by the pass of Bolan, which is the route to Kerman. The modern inhabitants of the Indus have no traditions of the conquest of the Macedonians to assist the enquirer in a subject that excites among civilised nations such intense curiosity.