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

Here, too, the pottery ornamented in colour or relief like the ribbed fragment
(Kuk. 4, Pl. II) exhibited types agreeing with those noted at Bahūr. As an
interesting find may be specially noted a well-modelled spout from a vessel, in
the shape of a grotesque animal with eyes, ears, and whiskers carefully indicated
(Kuk. 5; Pl. II). A large burnt brick exposed in situ measured 16 × 10½ × 3
inches. A collection of forty-seven much-corroded copper coins was brought by
a villager as having been found in a small pot dug up at the site. It has been
determined by Mr. J. Allan as comprising issues of the Kushan-Sasanian type,
two legible coins being of Hormizd as Governor under Shāpur I (A.D. 264–72).
The general impression I derived from the examination of the sites in the
vicinity of Sahiwāl was that this tract, owing to the ease with which irrigation
could be secured here by means of seasonal inundation canals from the Jhēlum,
must have enjoyed special fertility and supported a considerable settled popula-
tion since early times. The rest of the lower Chaj Doāb towards the Chenāb
was, until the recent construction of the Lower Jhēlum Canal, a jungle-covered
waste frequented only by semi-nomadic herdsmen—and cattle thieves.

On December 19th we left Sahiwāl for the right bank of the Jhēlum. Along
this section of its course the river forms the north-eastern boundary of the great
sandy area of the Thal, part of the Sindsāgar Doāb stretching away to the Indus.
Proceeding to the north-west across well-cultivated ground liable to inundation
at times of great floods, we forded after 5 miles the much-shrunk river to the
village of Lāl Husain. It was of interest to note that here, as also about Sahiwāl,
most of the old cultivated land is owned by families of Balūch origin, belonging
to that virile race which has pushed its way up the Indus since the late Middle
Ages. It represents the latest foreign invasion from the south-west. The
mound to the north-west of the village about which I had been told at Shāhpur
proved a large one, measuring about 550 yards from the north-west to south-
east and about half that across. But the plentiful potsherds, showing only simple
painted designs and rarely coarse relief ornamentation (see Lal. H. 3, 5; Pls. I, II),
indicated occupation not earlier than the Muhammadan period. With this con-
clusion agreed numerous pottery lids of modern shape found on the mound, and
the Muhammadan copper coins which were brought to us by the Balūch headman
of the village.

A five miles' ride along the narrow but fertile riverine belt brought us thence
to Girōt. Adjoining the village on the south-west is debris-strewn ground
stretching away for half a mile to an old mosque of some size, said to date from
Akbar's time. Near it is found a temple of Krishna frequented by sādbus, and
a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. The pottery remains proved of the same type
as at Lāl Husain, belonging to the Muhammadan period.