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

Pind Dādan Khān. The last-named route was undoubtedly followed by a later
great invader of India, the Emperor Bābur, when he made his first successful
inroad into the Panjāb across the Salt Range. Coming from the Peshawar side,
he crossed the Indus on February 17th, 1519, as we are told in his famous
Memoirs. Having by three long marches reached the lake of Kallar-kahār, he
thence crossed the pass of Dandōt and descended to the Jhēlum, east of Old
Bhēra, on February 21st.³

The four routes above referred to are, in order from east to west, those leading
past the villages of Bāghānwāla, Chanuwāla, and Kusuk, and the one descending
to the salt-mine of Khewra. It is not necessary to concern ourselves with each
of these routes, though I took occasion to visit all of them; for fortunately there
is one among them, the first, to which historical records of an invasion far older
than that of Bābur were bound to attract my special attention.

Muhammadan chronicles of India repeatedly mention the fort of Nandana and
the pass in the Salt Range guarded by it in connexion with the campaigns by
which Maḥmūd of Ghazna carried the sway of Islām into north-western India,
and also with later events down to the thirteenth century. The merit of having
first correctly located this place, examined its surviving remains, and recognized
the importance of the route passing it, belongs to my friend, the late Mr. W. S.
Talbot, C.S.I., of the Indian Civil Service. While holding charge of the Jhēlum
District and in course of the Settlement conducted by him there, he took a close
interest in its antiquities and historical past. He found the name Nandana still
attaching at the present time to a remarkable hill stronghold (see Figs. 2, 7, 11)
which completely closes a route leading down steeply from a plateau of the east-
ern branch of the Salt Range to the village of Bāghānwāla and the open riverine
plain of the Jhēlum beyond it.

Before I discuss the early historical references to Nandana and the bearing of
its position upon the question of Alexander's route to the Hydaspes and his
subsequent passage of the river, I may appropriately quote the brief but very
apt description of the position from Mr. Talbot's Gazetteer of the Jhelum District
(p. 46): 'About fourteen miles due east of Choa Saidān Shāh, between the
villages of Bāghānwāla and Āra above, the outer Salt Range makes a remarkable
dip; the road over the hills winds up the face of a steep rocky hill, with per-
pendicular precipices at the sides: so that in former times the holder of this hill
had the absolute command of what is one of the most obvious routes across the
range.'