Serindia : vol.3 / Page 224 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0224	Serindia : vol.3

Numismatic
evidence of
early occu-
pation.

already been of old date when Sung Yün visited Han-mo. While among the coins actually picked up
there on my own visit or R. B. Lāl Singh's preceding reconnaissance one is a Sung dynasty piece of
A. D. 1102–7 and another a Muhammadan coin ascribed to the fourteenth century, there were
secured also some much-worn Wu-chu pieces and one coin which seems to be of the Sino-Kharoṣṭhi
class.⁵ These finds of early coins are of special interest because they bear out Sung Yün's
statement with regard to the antiquity of the shrine with the miracle-working Buddha statue
which he visited 15 li to the south of Han-mo, i.e. at the site now marked by the pilgrimage
place of Ulūgh-mazār. He mentions that of the multitude of votive banners he saw there
about half showed dates of the Wei dynasty (A. D. 386–534), while one was of the period A. D.
384–417.⁶

Ruined fort
north of
Ulūgh-
mazār.

During my halt of one day at Ulūgh-mazār I was able to make an excursion northward to
the nearest portion of the Uzun-tati débris area, and in the course of it found the remains of
a roughly built structure, undoubtedly of Muhammadan origin and probably a mosque, about
half a mile to the north of the ruined fort described in Ancient Khotan.⁷ As other traces of
later occupation were found in the immediate vicinity, the view previously expressed as to the
late origin of the fort has been strengthened. It may well date from an attempt made to re-
occupy this ground long after Marco Polo's 'Pein' was abandoned to the desert.

Ulūgh-mazār was the last place which saw my whole party reunited at the close of our
winter campaign (Fig. 320). On March 22 I moved south to the oasis of Chīra, and from
there Naik Rām Singh, my 'handy-man', started eastwards in the company of Ibrāhīm Bēg on
the long journey which was to take him back to the temples of Mīrān—and from which he returned
blind three months later.

Oasis of
Chīra.

Chīra, reckoned at no less than 3,500 households, is a large and flourishing tract with
cultivation dependent mainly on the abundant ak-su which its river brings down straight from the
slopes of the great glacier-crowned massif of the Muz-tāgh Peak. Here, too, the extension of the
irrigated area was proceeding rapidly, the annual increase being reported at fully a thousand
Chinese mou. Of the way in which this recent reclamation of land, centuries ago abandoned to the
desert, is bound to affect any old remains there surviving, I had a good illustration on visiting

Rawak
ruins.

the ruins known as Rawak, about a mile to the west of Oghrelik, where my camp stood. There, in
the midst of new fields, I found the walls of a relatively large structure, built of stamped clay and
now crumbling under the effect of the heavy flooding which the ground all round had received from
a recent canal extension. The extant portions of the structure comprised a hall measuring 48 feet
by 37, with three rooms of considerable size adjoining at its back. There was no clear indication

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books