国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

CURIOUS SOURCES OF THE GANGES, INDUS AND BRAHMAPUTRA.

IOI

the legend : »Sources of the Ganges' ; on the northern slopes : »Sources of the Indus>>; and on the eastern: - Sources of the Brahmaputra"). I do not know how this extraordinary map has ever been constructed. The outlines of the lakes are taken, probably, from the Pundit's maps, as they are much better represented than on Strachey's map. The Sarno-tsangpo has exactly the same appearance as on Nain Sing's map. There is no channel between the two lakes, although Strachey had found one which Drummond may not have seen. The Satlej is drawn as going out of the Rakas-tal. But not a single rivulet enters this lake from the Gurla. To the Manasarovar, on the other hand, four small rivulets go down from the Gurla. And these are, obviously, meant to be the sources of the Indus. But, as on Webber's map, the Manasarovar has no outlet whatever, it is difficult to understand how these rivulets can ever belong to the Indus. For he cannot know anything about a subterranean outlet and he had no idea of the periodicity of the channel. If he had, the channel should have been entered with a clotted line, or in full as the Satlej, which cannot possibly have gone out of the Rakas-tal without there having been first a communication between the two lakes.

Only the last seven miles of the Tage-tsangpo are entered with a dotted line. If the red line of the travellers' route were entered correctly, they must have crossed the source region of the Tage-tsangpo. But instead of this we find the uppermost Brahmaputra stretching far to the west. It is interesting to notice that so late as 1902 a book and a map were published, teaching the world that the source of the Indus was on the Gurla. And still, 25 years earlier, the Pundits had found out that the Singi-kabab, or source of the Indus, had to be searched for N.E. of Kailas, and some 14o years earlier a Catholic father knew that the Satlej, not the Indus, went out of the Manasarovar.

It is also surprising that such an intelligent and clever man as ROBERT SHAW could write the following words on the source of the Indus, — in spite of all that really was known in 1867 and 1868: »It rises in the mysterious and sacred Lake of Mansorâwar, near the source of the great Brahmaputra.» And again, about the Manasarovar, that it is --one of the sources of the Indus».'

I Visits to High Tartary, Yârkand, and Kâshghar etc. London 1871, p. 7o and 83. Petermann goes so far in the right direction that he even doubts that the source of the Indus can be situated on the Kailas. He finds it more probable that it begins further east. On his map, which is chiefly drawn from J. T. Walker's, Petermann has a channel between the two lakes and the Satlej starting from the

Rakas-tal. Petermanns Mitteilungen, 1869, p. 104.

The hydrography of our region was still unclear to scholars in Europe about this time. An article: »Das Setledsch-Thal im Himalaya», by Dr. F. Stoliczka, being an extract from an article published in the Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal 1868 begins: »Durch die wertvollen Untersuchungen von Moorcroft, Strachey and anderen ausgezeichneten Reisenden ist es bekannt, dass der Setledsch westlich von dem Mansarowar-See entspringt and zunächst die chinesische Provinz Nari (oder Gughi) durchläuft.» Petermanns Mitteilungen, 187o, p. 8. Moorcroft had found that one branch came from the Rakas-tal, and Strachey,that at certain seasons the river perhaps could start from the lake. But as nobody knew how it was in reality, the most convenient way was to say the river had its source west

of the Manasarovar.