Page:The Ancient Geography of India.djvu/300
254 THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA.
eastern district of Sindh, about Umarkot, but according
to M'Murdo,* who is generally a most trustworthy
guide, there is good reason to believe that they once
held large possessions on the banks of the Indus, to
the northward of Alor. In adopting this extension of
the territory formerly held by the Sodha Rajputs, I
am partly influenced by the statement of Abul Fazl,
that the country from Bhakar to Umarkot was peopled
by the Sodas and Jharejas in the time of Akbar,+ and
partly by the belief that the Massana of Diodorus are
the Musarnei of Ptolemy, whose name still exists in
the district of Muzarka, to the west of the Indus
below Mithankot. Ptolemy also gives a town called
Musarna, which he places on a small affluent of the
Indus, to the north of the Askana rivulet. The
Musarna affluent may therefore be the rivulet of
Kâhan, which flows past Pulaji and Shahpur, towards
Khângarha or Jacobabad, and Musarna may be the
town of Shahpur, which was a place of some conse-
quence before the rise of Shikarpur. "The neigh-
bouring country, now nearly desolate, has traces of
cultivation to a considerable extent." The Sogdi, or
Sodra, I would identify with the people of Seorui,
which was captured by Husen Shah Arghun on his
way from Bhakar to Multân.§ In his time, A.D.
1525, it is described as "the strongest fort in that
country." It was, however, deserted by the garrison,
and the conqueror ordered its walls to be razed to the
ground. Its actual position is unknown, but it was
- Journ. Royal Asiat. Soc. i. 33.
Thornton, Gazetteer,' in voce.
§ Erskine's Hist. of India, i. 388. Bengal, 1841, 275.
† Ayin Akbari,' ii. 117. Postans, Journ. Asiat. Soc.