Indian Antiquary Vol 28

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 19

JANUARY, 1899.) ARCHÆOLOGICAL TOUR WITH THE BUNER FIELD FORCE. 15
Sanghau. - On the 8th January the force moved from Katlang to Sanghau, at the entrance of the defile leading to the Tangē Pass which had been selected as the route for the advance into Bunőr. A reconnaissance conducted by General Blood up the defile showed that the pass Wats held by a gathering of tribesmen under numerous standards. Accompanying this reconnais sance, I came in the narrow ravine through which the path leads, and about a mile and a half above Sanghau village, upon unmistakeable traces of an ancient road. I was able to examine these before the Sappers had commenced their work of improving the track. In several places where the present path runs along rocky cliffs high above the stream draining the gorge, I noticed supporting walls of rough but solid masonry. They resembled closely in their construction the walls over which the ancient so-called "Buddhist" roads on the Malakand and Shāhkot Passes are carried in parts. Higher up in the defile the traces of this old road seem to be lost. At least I did not come across any on the following day either on the track chosen for the transport route or during my climb up the hillside to the north.
When returning to the camp it was too late to examine closely the ruins which were point. ed out to me as those of 'old Sanghau' on a spor about 13 miles to the east of the village, Seen from below they appeared to consist of groups of solidly built old dwelling-places, such as are found in great numbers covering the hillsides at various points of the Lower Swat Valley. About half a mile further in a north-easterly direction old remains are said to exist near a large spring, the water of which is now brought by a stone-conduit down to Sanghau village. A great deal of ancient Buddhist scalpture has been extracted at various times from ruined sites near Sanghau, but it is only of the excavations conducted for General Cunninghanı that some account can be traced,
The night passed in camp at Sanghau, and thus yet within British territory, brought some "Sniping" which was attributed by competent judges to loyal' subjects of that neighbourhood. On the afternoon of the following day the Tange Pass was taken after a prolonged artillery fire and some fighting. While the Pathāns, Sikhs and Dogrās of the XXth Regiment, Punjab Infantry, climbed in splendid style the high peak commanding the pass on the west, the Highland Light Infantry, West Kent and XXIst P. I. Regiments carried the naturally strong position of the enemy in front. I watched the interesting engagement from the spur occupied by the mountain batteries in action and climbed up to the narrow rocky ridge which forms the pass, as soon as it had been taken. From that commanding height, circ. 3,800 feet above the sea, there opened a wide view over the western portion of Bunēr bounded in the direction of Upper Swat by Mounts Ilm and Dosirri.
Tanga Pass. - At a poiut where the crest forms a salient angle to the west, and about 300 yards from the saddle by which the mule-track crosses the pass, I noticed the remnant of what was probably once a small fortification, in the form of a semi-circular platform built of rough masonry. The outside wall supporting it was traceable for a length of 20 feet. The tribesmen holding the pass had raised one of their main sangars on this very platform. The gathering of standards I had noticed near this spot in the early part of the day showed that it had been considered important and held in force aleo by the most recent defenders of the pass. The heavy shell and shrapnell fire from the field and mountain batteries must have made the place uncomfortable in the earlier part of the day.
The absence of other traces of old fortification on the ridge is easily accounted for by its extreme narrowness and the steepness of the cliffs on its western face. These cliffs themselves would form a sufficiently strong line of defence against any enemy not armed with modern guns. On the Tangā Pass there was thus neither room nor need for such extensive fortifications as can still be traced in ruins of evidently ancient date on the Malakand and Shāhkot Passes.
Accompanying the troops of the 1st Brigade which I still found on the rest of the pass, I reached by nightfall Kingargalai, a Banēr village belonging to the Salarzai tribe, situated in