Travels into Bokhara (Volume 3 of 3) / Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833

by Sir Alexander Burnes

Sindree on the Eastern branch of the Indus.

SINCE SUBMERGED BY THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1819.

From a sketch taken on the spot by Capt. Grindlay in 1808.

CHAP. XVI.
A MEMOIR ON THE EASTERN BRANCH OF THE INDUS, AND THE RUN OF CUTCH, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ALTERATIONS PRODUCED ON THEM BY AN EARTHQUAKE IN 1819, ALSO A DESCRIPTION OF THE RUN.

[I cannot introduce more appropriately than on the present occasion, the following paper, which was drawn up some time since. It is necessary to mention this circumstance, as a few of the facts communicated are already before the public, and have been noticed by Professor Lyell.[29] Of the Run of Cutch I am not aware of any other account having been published, though it is a tract without parallel on the globe.]

Cutch, its position.

In the north-western extremity of our Indian possessions, and under the tropic, is situated the small and sterile territory of Cutch, important to the British from its advanced position, but of more attraction to the student of history, from its western shore being washed by the waters of the classic Indus. Cutch is a country peculiarly situated.—To the west, it has the inconstant and ever-varying Indus; to the north and east, the tract called Run, which is alternately a dry sandy desert and a muddy inland lake; to the south, it has the Gulf of Cutch and the Indian Ocean, with waters receding yearly from its shores.

Alterations in its western coast by an earthquake.

The physical geography of such a province is full of interest; for, besides the alteration in its fluctuating boundaries, it is subject to earthquakes, one of which has lately produced some unlooked for changes in the eastern branch of the Indus. To particularly detail and explain these, is the object of the present memoir. Former fertility. Cutch at present labours under disadvantages inflicted on it by the vindictive hatred of a jealous and cruel neighbouring Government. Previous to the battle of Jarra, in the year 1762[30], the eastern branch of the Indus, commonly called the Phurraun, emptied itself into the sea by passing the western shores of Cutch; and the country on its banks participated in the advantages which this river bestows throughout its course. Its annual inundations watered the soil, and afforded a plentiful supply of rice; the country on its banks being then known by the name of “Sayra.”

Sindians destroy it, by damming the eastern branch of the Indus.