IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
ANTONIO DE MONSERRATE.
22
regions in its immediate vicinity, and on his map he has sketched mountain ranges which could easily be regarded as belonging to the Kara-korum.1
Before entering in a more detailed way upon the question of Monserrate's information regarding the Manasarovar Lake, I will quote a few passages of his text which seem of particular interest to me. In his narrative of the Kabul campaign of Akbar, I 58I— 1582, Monserrate gives the following short description of the River
Satlej:
Atque inde Machiuåram, id est, piscium uicum praeteruectus , ad ripam Satanulgae,
qui ab antiquis, Zarådrus dicitur, dum ligneus pons construitur, castra posuit. Cuius quidem fons, et caput, haud multum, ab eo loco distat. Nam ad Imaum proxime, exercitum Rex duci imperauerat. A quo Zaradrus, uersus ocasum solis fluit : et Indo, se immiscet.2
He calls the Satlej Satanulga, the Zaradrus of the Ancients. X, 1. e. the unknown annotator, has written Satanledge in the margin. Machiuåra, by X called Mutchy-wåra, now Machawara, is situated in Ambala on the Satlej, only a few miles from where the river issues from the mountains and the Hill States, some 20 miles above Ludhiana. On Monserrate's map both »Machiwara» and »Ludiana», and Serind, Sirhind, are entered. In his text he says that the source and origin of the river is situated not far from Machawara, proving herewith that he had no idea of the situation of the real source of the Satlej, which also is proved by his map, where he puts the beginning of the river in the midst of the Himalaya. For this system he uses the classical name, Imaus. The Emperor had ordered the army first to march to the Himalaya, 1. e. to the foot of the hills. From there the Satlej flows towards the west and joins the Indus , which is indeed correct. In this short description not a word is said of the Manasarovar as the source of the river. We shall return to his view on the hydrography in connection with the discussion of his map.
He gives a description of the natives and gives the following statement which also may be said to be correct:3
Supra earn arcem (Nagarkot), ad orientem solem, in interiori Imao, immanis, et Barbara, Bothorum, vel Bothantum natio, per contubernia, sine rege, in pagis degit qui lanae coagmentum, quale est petasorum, corpori, quam proxime possunt, suendo annectunt; ... .
Thus east and above Nagarkot there lives, in tent communities, a numerous and wild people called Both or Bothant, in which we easily recognize the Tibetans. His statement »in the interior of Himalaya» is not to be taken literally, as the whole mountainous country to the north of India was supposed to be the Imaus, the breadth of which was unknown. He then says a few words of the snows of the Himalayas:
Probably Akbar and his Court had no knowledge of the Kara-korum either. In a letter of 1595 the Emperor just mentions the mountains north of Kabul saying: »nous poussâmes notre voyage jusque'aux limites extrêmes des montagnes de Cachmir et du Tibet». L'Empereur Akbar. Par le Comte F. A. de Noer. Trad. de l'allemand. Paris 1877. Vol. II, p. 208.
2 Op. cit., F. 59 a. 4.
3 Op. cit., F. 6o b. 3.
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