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

since medieval times to have held a large portion of the Salt Range. Bāghān-
wāla might well have provided a very suitable place of residence in times of
peace for whoever held charge of Nandana, that ancient gate of the Salt Range.

Interesting archaeological evidence of this is furnished by the conspicuous
ruin known as 'Shāhī Darwāza' ('The Royal Gate'), situated by the right bank
of the stream of Bāghānwāla and about half a mile below the main portion
of the village. It consists of a gateway with porch, central domed chamber,
and two pentagonal apses, one on either side of the central chamber, the
whole built with carefully dressed slabs of red sandstone. The square
structure measures 30 feet outside and the entrance under the porch 12
feet 8 inches in width, the arch over the latter being 15 feet in height. The
dome over the central chamber, mostly fallen, and the vaulting over the apses
are constructed with horizontal courses, while the porch and inner gate on both
sides of the chamber are surmounted by true arches. The mixture of the two
systems of vaulting seems to point to construction in Muhammadan times.

No side walls adjoin the structure. As tradition also asserts, it seems to have
served as the ornamental gateway to a garden after the fashion of bārabdarīs
found at gardens of the Mughal period. Stairs at the back give access to the roof.
The construction of this gateway and of the garden is ascribed to a Rāja Tōrhind
in the account of local traditions which Ghazan Khān, head of the Bāghānwāla
family of Janjūas, had recorded for me. This traditional record does not pretend
to reach back farther than the eighth century of the Muhammadan era, and
does not furnish any reliable data as regards the earlier history of Nandana.

Leaving Bāghānwāla and crossing below it the alluvial plain, well cultivated
almost throughout, we come after about 9 miles to the large village of Haran-
pur, and beyond it to the bank of the Jhēlum. The river flows here, as already
mentioned, in a single well-defined bed, and it deserves to be noted that the
width of this bed, half a mile, corresponds closely to the four stadia which
Curtius records as the breadth of the river at the point where Poros guarded
the passage and where Alexander's main camp stood facing that of his adver-
sary.⁷ I have before had occasion to point out that the road distance between
the river bank here and Jalālpur corresponds exactly to the 17½ miles recorded
by Arrian between Alexander's camp and the place where he ultimately crossed
the Hydaspes. It only remains to add that, as the maps show, the present road
between Haranpur and Jalālpur runs at such a distance from the river as would
have effectively screened the final move of Alexander's force from the enemy's
observation, a point which Arrian specially mentions.