THE INDUS

EDWARD BALFOUR

THE source of the Indus is in latitude 31° 20′ north, and longitude 80° 30′ east, at an estimated height of 17,000 feet, to the north-west of Lakes Manasarowara and Rawan H’rad in the southern slopes of the Gangri or Kailas Mountains, a short way to the eastwards of Gartop (Garo). The Garo river is the Sing-ge-chu or Indus. From the lofty mountains round Lake Manasarowara, spring the Indus, the Sutlej, the Gogra, and the Brahmaputra. A few miles from Leh, about a mile above Nimo, the Indus is joined by the Zanskar river. The valley where the two rivers unite is very rocky and precipitous, and bends a long way to the south. From this point the course of the Indus, in front of Leh and to the south-east for many miles, runs through a wide valley, but the range of the mountains to the north sends down many rugged spurs. A little lower, the Indus is a tranquil but somewhat rapid stream, divided into several branches by gravelly islands, generally swampy, and covered with low Hippophae scrub. The size of the river there is very much less than below the junction of the river of Zanskar. The bed of the Indus at Pitak, below Leh, has an elevation of about 10,500 feet above the level of the sea, but the town is at least 1,300 feet higher. From the sudden melting of accumulations of ice, and from temporary obstacles, occasioned by glaciers and avalanches in its upper course, this river is subject to irregularities, and especially to debacles or cataclysms, one of which, in June, 1841, produced terrific devastation along its course, down even to Attock.

At the confluence of Sinh-ka-bab with the Shayok, the principal river which joins it on the north from the Kara-Korum Mountains, the river takes the name of Aba-Sin, Father of Rivers, or Indus proper, and flows then between lofty rocks, which confine its furious waters, receiving the tribute of various streams; and at Acho, expanding into a broader surface, it reaches Derbend, the north-west angle of the Panjab, where (about 815 miles from its source) it is 100 yards wide in August, its fullest season. From Derbend it traverses a plain, in a broad channel of no great depth in Attock, in latitude 33° 54′ north, longitude 72° 18′ east, having about 200 yards above this place received the river of Kabul, almost equal in breadth and volume, and attains a width of 286 yards, with a rapid boiling current, running (in August) at the rate of six miles an hour. The breadth of the Indus at Attock depends not only upon the season but the state of the river upwards, and varies from 100 to 260 yards. The whole length of its mountain course, from its source to Attock, is about 1,035 miles, and the whole fall is 16,000 feet, or 15.4 per mile. From Attock to the sea the length is 942 miles, making its whole length, from the Kailas Mountains to the Indian Ocean, 1,977 miles. Its maximum discharge, above the confluence of the Panjab or Five Rivers, occurs in July and August, when it is swollen by the seasonal rains, and it then reaches 135,000 cubic feet, falling to its minimum of 15,000 in December.

In the Tibetan of Ladakh it is commonly designated Tsang-po, or the river, and is the Lampo-ho of the Chinese Pilgrim, Hiwen Thsang, who travelled in the middle of the Seventh Century.

Below the junction of the Panjab rivers down to Schwan, the Indus takes the name of Sar, Siro, or Sira; from below Hyderabad to the sea it is called Lar, and the intermediate portion is called Wicholo (Bich, Hindi), or Central, representing the district lying immediately around Hyderabad, just as, on the Nile, the Wustani, or Midlands of the Arabs, represents the tract between Upper and Lower Egypt. Sir A. Burnes mentions that Sar and Lar are two Baluch words for north and south. The Indus or Sind has been called by that name from time immemorial to the present day, by the races on its banks. The ancients knew that this was the native appellation. Pliny (lib. 6, vi), says, “Indus incolis Sindus appellatus.” The Chinese call the river Sin-tow.

From Attock the course of the Indus to the sea, 940 miles, is south and south-west, sometimes along a rocky channel, between high and perpendicular cliffs, or forcing its way, tumbling and roaring, amidst huge boulders, the immense body of water being pent within a narrow channel, causing occasional whirlpools, dangerous to navigation, to Kalabagh, in latitude 32° 57′ north, longitude 71° 36′ east, situated in a gorge of the great Salt Range, through which the river rushes forth into the plain. In this part of its course it has acquired the name of Nil-ab, or Blue Water, from the colour imparted to it by the blue limestone hills through which it flows. There are some remains of a town on the bank of the river, named Nil-ab (where Timur crossed the Indus) supposed to be the Naulibus or Naulibe of Ptolemy. At Kalabagh the Indus enters a level country, having for a short time the Khursuri Hills, which rise abruptly on the right. It now becomes muddy, and as far as Mittunkote, about 350 miles, the banks being low, the river, when it rises, inundates the country sometimes as far as the eye can reach. Hence the channels are continually changing, and the soil of the country being soft—a mud basin, as Lieutenant Wood terms it,—the banks and bed of the river are undergoing constant alterations. These variations, added to the shoals, and the terrific blasts occasionally encountered in this part of the river, are great impediments to navigation. The population on its banks are almost amphibious; they launch upon its surface, sustained by the inflated skins or mussaks, dried gourds, and empty jars used for catching the celebrated pulla fish, the Hilsa of Bengal. At Mittunkote the Indus is often 2,000 yards broad, and near this place, in latitude 28° 55′ north, longitude 70° 28′ east, it is joined, without violence, by the Panjnad, a large navigable stream, the collected waters of the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. Its true channel, then a mile and a quarter wide, flows thence through Sind, sometimes severed into distinct streams, and discharges its different branches by various mouths into the Indian Ocean, after a course of 1,977 miles. The Indus, when joined by the Panjnad, never shallows, in the dry season, to less than fifteen feet, and seldom preserves so great a breadth as half a mile. Keeled boats are not suited to its navigation, as they are liable to be upset. The Zoruk, or native boat, is flat-bottomed. Other boats are the Dundi, Dund, Kotal, and Jumpti. Gold is found in some parts of the sands of the Indus.

The shore of its delta, about 125 miles in extent, is low and flat, and at high tide, to a considerable distance inland, overflowed; and generally a succession of dreary, bare swamps.

In the mouths of the Indus, the tides rise about nine feet at full moon, and flow and ebb with great violence, particularly near the sea, when they flood and abandon the banks with incredible velocity. At seventy-five miles from the ocean they cease to be perceptible.

Between the Seer and Kori mouths, at the south-east of the delta, it is overspread with low mangrove jungle, running far into the sea, and from the Seer is a bare, uninhabited marsh. The main stream of the Indus has discharged its waters at many points between Cape Monze, immediately west of Kurachee and gulf of Cutch, if not even that of Cambay. Pitti, Hajamri, and Kediwari, now sea-channels and tidal creeks, shut off from the river, except during the monsoon, are all former mouths of the Indus. The Buggaur or Gharra is still a considerable stream during the inundation; it takes off from the Indus close to Tatta.