Page:The Ancient Geography of India.djvu/297
WESTERN INDIA. 251
cation, for the Indus formerly flowed to the east of
Alor, down the old channel, now called Nára, and the
change in its course did not take place until the reign
of Raja Dâhir,* or about fifty years after Hwen
Thsang's visit. The native histories attribute the de-
sertion of Alor by the Indus to the wickedness of
Raja Dâhir; but the gradual westing of all the Panjâb
rivers which flow from north to south, is only the
natural result of the earth's continued revolution from
west to east, which gives their waters a permanent bias
towards the western banks. The original course of
the Indus was to the east of the Alor range of hills;
but as the waters gradually worked their way to the
westward, they at last turned the northern end of the
range at Rori, and cut a passage for themselves through
the gap in the limestone rocks between Rori and Bha-
kar. As the change is assigned to the beginning of
Dâhir's reign, it must have taken place shortly after
his accession in a.d. 680;—and as Muhammad Kasim,
just thirty years later, was obliged to cross the Indus to reach Alor, it is certain that the river was perma- nently fixed in its present channel before A.D. 711. The old bed of the Indus still exists under the name of Nâra, and its course has been surveyed from the ruins of Alor to the Ran of Kachh. From Alor to Jakrao, a distance of 100 miles, its direction is nearly due south. It there divides into several channels, each bearing a separate name. The most easterly
- Postans, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1838, p. 103.
† All streams that flow from the poles towards the equator work gradually to the westward, while those that flow from the equator towards the poles work gradually to the eastward. These opposite effects are caused by the same difference of the earth's polar and equatorial velocities which gives rise to the trade winds.