Indian Antiquary Vol 11

SR No.: 032503
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 396
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 7

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
VIJNÔT AND OTHER OLD SITES IN N. E. SINDH.
BY LIEUT.-COL. B. R. BRANFILL. VIJNOT is the name of a ruined town in entire brick, or a large piece of one, is not to be
upper Sindh, in the Ubauro táluka of seen on the surface of any of the undisturbed the Rohri Division. The spot is very accessible, mounds, the whole having been reduced to being only 3 or 4 miles south of the Rêtî rail. small sharp-edged irregular fragments, apparway station of the Indus Valley State Railway. ently by the action of the saltpetre present.
It lies about half a mile or so east from the Very many of the mounds, particularly the usually dry bed of the Rêni-nadi, a deserted larger ones, have been excavated quite recently course of the river Indus, on flats that have in lines along their outer slopes, evidently for apparently been inundated in recent times, the sake of the bricks which formed the foundaalthough the highest floods now-a-days are tions of the buildings of which the mounds are said never to cover the level places between the the ruins. Along the lines of excavation large mounds of the ruins.
brickbats, and here and there a few whole bricks The outlying sandhills and drifts of the lie scattered about, but mostly in a state of rapid desert have now come within a short dis- disintegration, which seems to set in on extance of the site to the south-east, but cultiva- posure to the air. The recent excavations were tion in a good season of high intndation is made to provide metal ballasting for the Indus still carried on in the vicinity of the old site, Valley State Railway, but the old site has proespecially on the north side.
bably been a quarry, for centuries, for any one On approaching the place one notices a great who wanted a few stones or burnt bricks, in that number of dark-coloured ridges and mounds part of the country. Bricks of the Vijnôt patrising to a height of from 16 to 20 feet above tern are to be seen on Muslim graves for many the flat ground at their base; and on reaching miles around and far into the desert to the them, they are found to consist of heaps of south-east. The bricks in the foundations broken bricks, both in small sharp-edged pieces, underground are in perfect preservation when and, in pulverized fragments, mixed with loose first taken out, and measure usually 15 inches salt soil and a large amount of charred wood long, 10 inches wide, and 2) inches thick : but in extremely small pieces. It is the presence a few were found as large as 18" X 12" X 4". of this comminuted charcoal chiefly that gives They are roughly moulded but well burnt the dark colour to the mounds of debris ; but generally and of a godd deep red colour. A on examination a considerable proportion of large proportion of them are overburnt and the brick fragments is seen to be composed of partially vitrified, as if the kilns or clamps semi-vitrified brick of a dark colour. An had been fired with the kandi (thorn-tree)