Indian Antiquary Vol 59

SR No.: 032551
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 380
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ DECEMBER, 1930
would be about 70 miles, the party must have been delayed en route, as ten days were spent on the road. Here they were attacked by a band of hostile Rajputs, but, forming a bareba with the camels and opening fire, they cowed their assailants. After this they wandered across sand and desert for some ten days 39 till they reached Wanga, which lay, Sidi 'Ali tells us, on the frontier of Sind. This is Wanga or Wango Bazár, marked on nearly all maps of Sind, on the bank of the Nara, 80 miles SW. from Hyderabad, on the road that crosses the Rann of Kacch to Bhoj. It is of geographical interest to learn that this was regarded as the eastern boundary of Sind at that period; and we may, I think, assume that this boundary was formed by an important river, probably the main eastern branch of the Indus.
From Wanga, where they hired fresh camels, they moved on to Jûn and Bagh-i. Fath. Jan is the Joon of James Burnes's map of 1827-28,30 marked as situated about 45 miles E. by N. from Tatta and some 12 miles S. by E. from Tando Muhammad Khan. Though there is now only a dehi of this name in Taluka Guni, Hyderabad district, to mark its site, Jan was once a place of considerable importance, situated near the bank of one of the branches of the Indus, 3: the lands around being well irrigated and fertile. It was here that Humâyûn settled down for some eight months33 after leaving Umarkot, being influenoed in moving there by the prospect of obtaining supplies of grain for his troops and followers. He pitched his tent in a large garden, while his whole encampment was surrounded by an earthen rampart and ditch as a protection from attack by Shah Mirza Husain. In his Tarkhan-náma, Saiyid Jamål writeg34 of Jûn : "This place is celebrated amongst the cities of Sind for the number and beauty of its gardens, abounding in rivulets which present fresh and delightful scenes." Lla'sum in his History of Sind, 35 writes: "There are many gardens there, such as the heart rejoices in, with fruit trees, on which account it raises its head above all the other towns in Sind." Bagh-i-Fath does not appear to be marked on the Survey sheets available, but it lay a few miles further on, to the NNW. of Jûn. Both Jun and Bagh-i-Fath are named in the Afn-s-Akbari36 as mahals of sarkár Hajkan, the heavy Assessment on the former indicating its reputation for fertility. The only maps I know of, in which both these places are shown are-(1) Map III, facing p. 30, in Major-General Haig's work, The Indus Delta Country, and (2) the map forming Plate CIII to Mr. H. Cousens' Antiquities of Sind (1929).37 On the latter map they will be seen marked about 11 and 6 miley, respectively, SE. of Tando Muhammad Khan, on the route to Badín. In fact all these three places (all of them old sites) probably lay on the then main route northwards to Naşrpur, Sehwan and Bukkur, which, with Tatta, were the most important towns in Sind at that time. It must be remembered that there was no such place as Hyderabad in those days. The main western branch of the Indus then flowed a long way east of the site on which Hyderabad
39 As there was no direct road, the distance travelled might be anything from 100 to 120 miles. 80 A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, 1831, frontispicco. 81 Gazetteer of the Province of Sind, 1907, p. 103. 88 The Rain river, according to Saiyid Jamal, see Elliot and Dowson, Hist. of India, I, 318. 33 From November 1542 to July 1543. 81 Eee extract from the Tarkhan-ndına in Elliot and Dowson, Hist. of India, I, 318.
86 Muhammad Ma'sum, History of Sind, translated by Captain G. G. Malet, Bombay Government Record, 1855, p. 113. Jauhar also describes Humayun's stay at Jun, sde Tazkiratu'l-vdqi'at, translated by C. Stowart, Oriental Trans. Fund aeries, 1832, p. 44 l.
38 Spelt Jaun' and Bagh Fath' in Blochmann & Jarrett's translation, II, 339. Bagh-i-Fath must also have been a place of importanoo at one time, as we are told in Jamal's Tarkhan-ndma that Mirza 'IBA Tarkhan (who was Governor of Tatta in 1666) had been " Governor of Fath Bagh "in 1553.
Prof. Vambéry supposed that Jono (or Juna, as he writes it) was a mistake for Junagarh (in Kathiawady 7 Archaeological Survey of India, vol. XLVI, Imperial Series, last plate,