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

Alexander's surveyors,²⁶ is distinctly greater than that measured to Jhēlum,
whether by the line of the Grand Trunk Road or by that of the earlier road lead-
ing there past the fortress of Rohtās. He rightly saw that this distance points
to a longer route striking the Jhēlum lower down.

The serious difficulty already indicated about General Cunningham's loca-
tions, however, remained; and Mr. Vincent Smith's critical examination has
shown that some minor arguments adduced by him were not conclusive.²⁷ It was
clear that both rival theories involved serious difficulties. What alone could
offer a chance of settling the question was a careful scrutiny on the spot of the
recorded historical data in the light of topographical facts and of whatever
definite antiquarian indications might be found.

My survey was started on November 21st from Jhēlum Cantonment, which
I had reached the day before after a brief halt at Lahore. When by a long day's
ride extending as far as the vicinity of the Upper Jhēlum Canal head at Jātlī I
closely examined the ground which stretches up the left bank of the river to the
north-east, I convinced myself that the battle with Poros could not possibly have
been fought there as assumed by Abbott and Vincent Smith. Within three miles
above the ground opposite to Jhēlum town, where according to their assumption
the camp of the Indian army must have stood while facing that of the invader,
there begins a series of marshy flood beds which stretch right across the narrow
riverine belt and, with short interruptions, extend for over five miles up the
river. These successive beds of the Jabba, Bandar Kas, and Sukētar Nālas receive
the drainage of numerous torrents descending from the Pabbi range and the
hills of Bhimbhar and Mīrpur. They are from one-half to one and a half miles
in width where they pass across the riverine flat before they join the Jhēlum.
Quicksands remain in them, as ocular evidence showed, even after the rains of
the 'hot weather' months have passed. During those months they are quite
impassable, whether on foot or horseback; the only route then practicable lies
along the very broken ground at the foot of the hills to the east, entailing long
detours. Some idea of the difficulties presented by this ground can be gained
from the numerous and elaborately constructed bridgings and barrages, some
over a mile long, over which the Upper Jhēlum Canal, taking off higher up the
river, had to be carried here.

It would have been an impossible proposition to take the large army of Poros
with its chariots and elephants over such ground in the season of rains. It proved
equally certain in view of the topographical facts clearly shown by the Survey of
India's detailed maps (e.g. No. 43. H. north-east) that the limited width of
tolerably flat ground to be found beyond the great marshy bed of the Sukētar