Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 308

14
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
APRIL, 1929
the year practicable for laden mules and ponies, from the open side valleys which leave the Swat river at the large villages of Manglawar, Chârbågh, and Khwaja-Rhela, respectively. A single day's march from the riverine plain of Swåt suffices to bring the traveller over any of these passes to the head of the Ghôrband valley, whence access is easy to the rest of those valleys. In addition there are routes from Mingaora, more direct if not quite so easy, con. necting that important place in Central Swât with Puran and Kabalgrâm on the Indus.
The advantages which this side would offer for retreat from invaded Swat are clear enough. By crossing the watershed range towards the Indus the fugitives would place a natural bar. rier between themselves and the enemy. In the tracts there reached they could count upon finding resources sufficient for their maintenance until the danger had passed.29 The great distance intervening between those tracts and the Peshawar valley might offer protection from the Macedonian forces in the plain. Finally, having secure access to the Indus, they could easily draw help from across the river when further attack threatened, or else continue their retreat to that side if fresh resistance failed.
With regard to the last-named advantage the evidence available from historical facto both ancient and modern may conveniently be at once pointed out here. We have seen already above that what prompted Alexander to hasten in person to the siege of Ora was the news of assistance being sent to its defenders by Abisares.30 It is true that the Abhisára territory whose king is here meant comprised in later times mainly the lower and middle hill tracts to the east of the Vitastå or Hydaspes, the present Jhelam.31 But there is good reason to believe that at the time of Alexander's invasion its ruler's power extended also over the hill portion of Urasa, the present District of Hazara, east of the Indus. This is proved by what Arrian tells us of the Indians who after the capture of Aornos had fled from neighbouring parts across the Indus to Abisares, and also by what he subsequently relates of an embassy from Abisares which Arsakes, ruler of an adjacent territory, attended as a feudatory.39 It has been recognized long ago that by Arsakes the chief of Urasa is intended. the territory which in Ptolemy's 'Geography' appears under the name of "Apox or Olapra.33
The close relation between Swat and Hazara is fully explained by the map. This shows us that the above-mentioned tracts of Chakêsar and Ghörband are faced immediately to the east of the Indus by the comparatively large and open valleys of Nandihår and Allahi. These are now occupied by Pathân tribes, all here, as also farther down by the Black Mountain, closely linked with those established on the other side of the river. From these valleys easy routes lead to Agrôr and the fertile central plain of Hazara known as Pakhli, about Mansehra and Baffa. This geographical nexus is well illustrated by the fact that the population of this part of Hazara is largely composed of a tribe known as Swatis, descended from the pre-Muhammadan inhabitants of the Swât valley whom historical records and living tradi. tion alike prove to have been driven out of their original seats by the Pathan invasion of the fifteenth century. The game close relation is reflected also, to come down to very recent times, by the fact that during the several Black Mountain expeditions since the annexation of the Panjab, the various Pathân tribes settled on both the Swât and the Hazara sides of the river always took their common share in the fighting.
20 The extent of these resources even at the present time is illustrated by the following data ascertained on my passage through Chakésar and Paran. Both tracts have suffered severely from protracted local feuds as well as by the heavy fighting which preceded their conquest hy the Miângul in 1923. Yet the revenue in kind paid now to the ruler of Swât at the lightly assessed rate of one-tenth of the produce was reckoned at 6,000 maunds of grain for Chakêsar and at about 4,000 maunds for Púran. Yet in the latter area I noticed that a very great portion of the available land had gone out of cultivation. In Chakesar, too, abandoned cultivation terraces could be seen in many places. Half-deserted villages were conspicuous in Kána and in what I saw of Ghörband.
8. See Arrian, IV. xxvii. 7; above, p. 5. 81 Cf. Stein, Rajatarangini' transl., notes on i. 180 ; v. 217. 92 Cf. Arrian, IV. xxx.; V. xxix. 38 For the identification of Arsa and Arrakes, of. my note on 'Rajatarangini' v. 217.