Indian Antiquary Vol 11

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 15

JANUARY, 1882.)
VIJNOT AND OTHER OLD SITES IN N. E. SINDH.
bright brick red, and except for the peculiar | Layers of blackened soil in the excavations patterns impressed, not at all unlike that now show that the place has been burnt down, but in use in the same part of the country. No the mounds do not wear a generally dark hue trace of roofing tiles or of the ordinary small as they do at Vijnôt. A few carnelian beads sized bricks was noticed; but several very large and relics of ornaments, &c., are picked up here waterspout pipes or tubular drainage tiles occasionally, just like those found at Vijnôt. were found, one of them nearly entire, about The present Pir, Sheikh Sannat Ali Kore30 inches long and 6 to 8 inches in diameter. shi, incumbent of the Khângâh of Hazrat
Sarwâ hi:-This name is also variously Musa Nawab, showed the two blocks of stone, given as Sirwâhî, Serwai, and Seorai, said to the capital and base of a pillar, sketches of which be so called after a prince (Râe) of that name, have been included in those from Vijnôt. (or Siva Ra), father of the last prince Sital Rå. General Cunningham in his Ancient GeoIt is about 3 miles N. W. from the Walhar
graphy of India, page 254, mentions Seorai as Station of the Indus Valley State Railway, and having been captured by Husen Shâh Arghun about 5 miles N. E. from Sabzalkot in Bahâ- on his way from Bhakar to Multan in A.D. 1525. walpur, half a mile S. from New Sañjarpur. Some 10 miles north of the Naushahrâ railway
The place is the site of an ancient fort and station there is another ancient site-that of town, plainly indicated by two mounds of a fortress called Mau (P Moh) Mubarak, ruins. That of the former has very steep reckoned one of the six fortresses of Råd Sahâsi sides which were till quite recently faced with II. (died A. D. 630),--the other five being a thick revetment of burnt brick, rising to a Uch (Biloch), Seor å i, Nagar Mathé la, height of from 40 to 50 feet above the adjacent Alôr, and (?) Sehwân. Må u is reported plain. The bricks have been taken away for to be about 550 yards in circumference, and to the Indus Valley Railway, but a few fragments have had a continuous rampart, with towers remain to show that they were of the old or bastions at regular intervals; the ruins of Indian pattern like those of Vijnôt. The fourteen of these may still be counted, and one fort must have been nearly a square of from of them is still 40 feet in height, much resem150 to 200 yards, having its main entrance on bling, in short, the description of Seorai. The the east as shown by the opening on that side, local tradition given is that some 2,000 years whence the masonry of the gateway has been ago Haskarôr, a Hindu, was the Raja. removed, leaving a great gap through which Some 500 or 600 years ago one Shekh Hakim there is a steep sloping way up into the Sahib took up his abode here and set up a centre of the fortress, which was once filled up shrine for a hair of the Prophet (whence the solid with earth, and is now honey-combed modern name Moh Mu'e) Mubarak, or Mâu. with the excavations of the spoilers. The | The walls are very strongly built; on the place was inhabited, till within living memory, outside is a wall about one yard in thickness, and contains the rozah or Khángáh of Hazrat built of the large old-fashioned burnt bricks Musa Nawab, but it seems to have been totally (16' X 8" X 4"), within which is a second wall destroyed by fire within the last 50 years. The built of smaller burnt bricks. A third wall is Khângah has been rebuilt on the comparatively built of sun-dried bricks, and the interior is low ground adjacent, on the north side.
filled up with solid earth. This fort is stated Having been recently occupied, old and new to have been taken by Shah Hasan Arghun fashioned pottery is found mixed together, but (? Husen Shah) in 1525. The mound is now the recent excavations in search of bricks and occupied by a village, and is a place of pilgrimtreasure have brought to light amongst other age for the devout Musalmans of the country things some big balls of burnt clay, about the side. size of a man's head. In the absence of stones Another place of interest near here is Pat. or metal balls these would be effective missiles. tan Minára, about 7 miles south of Xan
The ruins of the town occupy a long oval shahra in the Khânpar division of Bahawalpur. mound running N. and S. from the S. E. The writer having no leisure to visit this corner of the fort, to which it is joined by a place sent a native messenger-who brought low ridge.
back word that it was a brick tower 62 fect