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

about which I had received information through the helpful local Naib Tahsildār,
Lāla Indar Sain. The use of a motor-car placed them within convenient reach.
At a distance of about 5 miles to the south-east of Bhēra the Reserved Govern-
ment Forest of Rakh Chirāgha contains a conspicuous mound known as 'Amra-
wālī Ālī'. It rises to about 20 feet and measures some 240 yards in diameter.
Among the broken pottery which thickly covers its surface relief-decorated
pieces were plentiful. Among the designs impressed from moulds I noted that
several well known from the decorative style of Gandhāra, such as the four-
petalled clematis, open lotus and rosette, recur frequently and are usually sur-
rounded by a pearl border (see Amra. 3, 5, 7, 8, 14; Pl. 1). Amra. 14 is a fragment
of a mould and therefore indicates local production.

As the pearl motif is definitely associated with Sasanian art, it appears very
probable that the occupation of the site dates back to that pre-Muhammadan
period when the artistic influence of Īrān made itself felt in the north-west of
India. The painted pottery showed simple designs in black over red ground,
such as horizontal bands and festoons, affording no definite chronological clue.
Three more mounds known as the Surkanwālī, Harmalwālī, and Rattapind
'Ālīs' were visited within the same area. They lie in a line approximately to
the north-east at distances of half a mile to one mile from each other. The
mound of Rattapind, the largest of the three, measures about 260 by 220 yards
and rises to 20 feet in height. Relief-decorated pieces of the same type (see
R.P. 6, 7, 11, 13; Pl. 1) were found at all these sites. The mound of Rattapind
yielded in addition three moulds of hard-baked clay for producing pearl
border and leaf-shaped ornaments in relief (see R.P. 1, 2, 3; Pl. 1). A few
fragments of blue-glazed ware agreed with the previously suggested date.

A subsequent drive of some 12 miles along a branch of the Lower Jhēlum
Canal then brought us to the old town of Miānī, once a prosperous place as
shown by the fine wood-carved gates and façades displayed here as at Bhēra
by decaying old houses. The plentiful supply of timber brought down on the
Jhēlum accounts for this lavish use of architectural wood carving in both places.
In much of its designs it is easy to trace the survival of motifs familiar from the
Graeco-Buddhist reliefs of Gandhāra. Returning towards Bhēra we visited the
large and very conspicuous mound known as Sabzpind situated at 3 miles' distance
from the west gate of Miānī and close to the railway line. It measures some 500
yards from east to west, with a maximum width of more than half its length,
and rises to fully 40 feet in the centre. Erosion has cut deep ravines into the
mound, disclosing everywhere layers of debris full of potsherds, broken bricks,
and ashes. Bricks have been brought from this debris and deposited on three
low barrows supposed to mark the burial-places of holy 'Naugaz Sāhibs' on a