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

certainty the point where the Hyphasis was struck. Nor had any remains that
could possibly be connected with Alexander's altars been traced by the time
when the need for a systematic search of such remains was urged by the late
Mr. Vincent Smith in the close analysis he devoted to Alexander's campaign in
the first two editions of his Early History of India.² He had been led to look
for the position of Alexander's camp on the Beās in that area where the river,
after skirting the south-western foot-hills of Kāngra, bends to the south and
emerges into the plain east of Gurdāspur.

When, in response to his appeal for close local inquiry, Mr. Shuttleworth,
I.C.S., then Deputy Commissioner of Kāngra, made a search for any traces of
those massive memorial altars in the area indicated, it proved fruitless. On
communicating this negative result, as recorded in the third edition of Mr. Vin-
cent Smith's work, Mr. Shuttleworth had taken care to call special attention
to the considerable shifting which the course of the river had evidently under-
gone from the point where it leaves the foot-hills. He had justly pointed out
that any such change in the bed of the Beās taking place since antiquity would
suffice to account for the complete disappearance of structures once erected on
its former bank.

This judicious observation, while affording an adequate explanation as far as
the area specially suggested by Mr. Vincent Smith was concerned, could yet not
dispose of the need of an examination of the ground farther down the river; for,
as already stated, the available data do not allow of any definite conclusion as to
which portion of its course Alexander's advance had actually reached. I accord-
ingly decided to acquaint myself, as closely as the limited time available would
permit, with the ground along the western bank of the Beās, from near its
junction with the Sutlej to the point where its bed makes a bend towards the
plain, turning away from the glacis of the foot-hills. While examining this
stretch of ground, close on 70 miles long in a straight line, I could hope also to
gather some archaeological evidence as to any change which the river's course
might have undergone here since earlier times.

My short tour extending from the 10th to the 18th of November, 1931, was
greatly facilitated by the arrangements made on my behalf by the local authori-
ties under the orders which H.E. Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency, the late Gover-
nor of the Panjāb, had very kindly issued. During my brief stay at Lahore, the
provincial head-quarters, I was joined by that keen young archaeologist Dr.
C. L. Fábri, of the Kern Institute, Leiden, whose willing and very efficient
assistance was to be enjoyed by me throughout the season's field work. There,
too, my modest staff was completed by the arrival of Surveyor Muhammad