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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

2   ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN IN THE PANJAB   [Chap. I

certainty the point where the Hyphasis was struck. Nor had any remains that could possibly be connected with Alexander's altars been traced by the time when the need for a systematic search of such remains was urged by the late Mr. Vincent Smith in the close analysis he devoted to Alexander's campaign in the first two editions of his Early History of India.2 He had been led to look for the position of Alexander's camp on the Beds in that area where the river, after skirting the south-western foot-hills of Kdngra, bends to the south and emerges into the plain east of Gurddspur.

When, in response to his appeal for close local inquiry, Mr. Shuttleworth,

I.C.S., then Deputy Commissioner of Kangra, made a search for any traces of those massive memorial altars in the area indicated, it proved fruitless. On communicating this negative result, as recorded in the third edition of Mr. Vincent Smith's work, Mr. Shuttleworth had taken care to call special attention to the considerable shifting which the course of the river had evidently undergone from the point where it leaves the foot-hills. He had justly pointed out that any such change in the bed of the Beds taking place since antiquity would suffice to account for the complete disappearance of structures once erected on its former bank.

This judicious observation, while affording an adequate explanation as far as

the area specially suggested by Mr. Vincent Smith was concerned, could yet not dispose of the need of an examination of the ground farther down the river; for, as already stated, the available data do not allow of any definite conclusion as to which portion of its course Alexander's advance had actually reached. I accordingly decided to acquaint myself, as closely as the limited time available would permit, with the ground along the western bank of the Beds, from near its junction with the Sutlej to the point where its bed makes a bend towards the plain, turning away from the glacis of the foot-hills. While examining this stretch of ground, close on 70 miles long in a straight line, I could hope also to gather some archaeological evidence as to any change which the river's course might have undergone here since earlier times.

My short tour extending from the 10th to the 18th of November, 1931, was greatly facilitated by the arrangements made on my behalf by the local authorities under the orders which H.E. Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency, the late Governor of the Panjdb, had very kindly issued. During my brief stay at Lahore, the provincial head-quarters, I was joined by that keen young archaeologist Dr. C. L. Fâbri, of the Kern Institute, Leiden, whose willing and very efficient assistance was to be enjoyed by me throughout the season's field work. There,

too, my modest staff was completed by the arrival of Surveyor Muhammad

2 See Vincent Smith, Early History of India2, pp. 69 sqq.