FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391  
392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   >>   >|  
ll the end of the century. But we find in that historian no hint of the chief circumstances of this part of the story, viz., the conquest of Kashmir and the occupation of _Dalivar_ or _Dilivar_ (G. T.), evidently (whatever its identity) in the plains of India. I do find, however, in the history of Kashmir, as given by Lassen (III. 1138), that in the end of 1259, Lakshamana Deva, King of Kashmir, was killed in a campaign against the _Turushka_ (Turks or Tartars), and that their leader, who is called Kajjala, got hold of the country and held it till 1287.[1] It is difficult not to connect this both with Polo's story and with the escapade of Nigudar about 1260, noting also that this occupation of Kashmir extended through the whole reign of Ghaiassuddin. We seem to have a memory of Polo's story preserved in one of Elliot's extracts from Wassaf, which states that in 708 (A.D. 1308), after a great defeat of a Mongol inroad which had passed the Ganges, Sultan Ala'uddin Khilji ordered a pillar of Mongol heads to be raised before the Badaun gate, "_as was done with the_ Nigudari _Moghuls_" (III. 48). We still have to account for the occupation and locality of _Dalivar_; Marsden supposed it to be _Lahore_; Khanikoff considers it to be _Dirawal_, the ancient desert capital of the Bhattis, properly (according to Tod) _Deorawal_, but by a transposition common in India, as it is in Italy, sometimes called _Dilawar_, in the modern State of Bhawalpur. But General Cunningham suggests a more probable locality in DILAWAR on the west bank of the Jelam, close to Darapur, and opposite to Mung. These two sites, Dilawar-Darapur on the west bank, and Mung on the east, are identified by General Cunningham (I believe justly) with Alexander's Bucephala and Nicaea. The spot, which is just opposite the battlefield of Chilianwala, was visited (15th December, 1868) at my request, by my friend Colonel R. Maclagan, R.E. He writes: "The present village of Dilawar stands a little above the town of Darapur (I mean on higher ground), looking down on Darapur and on the river, and on the cultivated and wooded plain along the river bank. The remains of the Old Dilawar, in the form of quantities of large bricks, cover the low round-backed spurs and knolls of the broken rocky hills around the present village, but principally on the land side. They cover a large area of very irregular character, and may clearly be held to represent a very considerable town. The
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391  
392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Darapur

 

Dilawar

 
Kashmir
 

occupation

 
General
 

Cunningham

 
opposite
 
Mongol
 

called

 

village


present
 
Dalivar
 

locality

 

justly

 

battlefield

 
Nicaea
 

Bucephala

 

Alexander

 
identified
 

DILAWAR


Deorawal

 

transposition

 
common
 

capital

 

Bhattis

 

properly

 

modern

 
century
 
probable
 

Bhawalpur


suggests

 

Maclagan

 

backed

 
knolls
 
broken
 

quantities

 

bricks

 
character
 

represent

 

considerable


irregular

 
principally
 

remains

 
Colonel
 

friend

 
desert
 

request

 

visited

 

December

 

writes