Be the fact good or bad for the Province, fact it is. The beauties of
Sind are not for the stranger, or casual visitor. He, perhaps merely
seeking the shortest and quickest route to some temporary post up
North, or possibly to his permanent home in the damp, grey West,
notices only torrid heat, arid wastes, blinding glare, suffocating
dust, and a coastal Port somewhat reminiscent of Suez or Port Said. Not
for him the enchanting views from the little islands at Bhukkar, or
from the banks of the lower reaches of the Indus below Hyderabad. Not
for him the green grain fields and shady forests that fringe the great
river between Larkana and the late Capital. Not for him the scent of
the old Kumbar Road, or the myriad bird life of the Munchar Lake. Not
for him the moonlight on the great desert on our Eastern frontier; or
the sunrise from the Indus delta, throwing its golden shafts across
Karachi’s beautiful lagoon to the rugged sky-line of the Hub hills.
But for the old Sindhi these things mean much. Further, nobody who has
lived long in Sind, can have failed to be affected not only by its
beauties, but by the atmosphere of romance that pervades the whole
Province. It meets one on every side—north, south, east and west. But
little imagination is required to picture the argosies of bygone
centuries sailing silently down the river past the green fields of
Kushmore: or the old caravans from Kandahar with their strings of
stately camels slowly emerging from the foot of the Bolan Pass on their
way to Shikarpur: or the buggalas of old Nearchus nestling in the
Chinna Creek in the shelter of the Oyster Rocks during the monsoon,
patiently awaiting the arrival of the Great Alexander shortly to appear
at the Ghizree mouth of the Indus on the conclusion of his triumphal
progress through Western Asia! Then, too, think of the circumstances
leading up to the birth at Oomerkot of that infant who was afterwards
to be one of the greatest rulers in Indian history,—the mighty Akbar.
Here are materials for romances galore.
We are not dependent, however, simply on historical incidents to
stimulate our imaginations. Though the vagaries of the Indus and the
severity of the hot season in the interior combine quickly to
obliterate man’s puny strivings for permanency, material evidence
exists in many places of the great vitality and culture of those who
have lived before us in this ancient land of Sind. The beautifully
coloured and perfectly glazed tiles and pottery of Hala bear testimony
to an art lost to the present generation of Sindhis; whilst the
ornamented graves and temples which can still be seen in many parts of
the Province, reveal the existence in the past of a God-fearing people
with well developed notions of sculpture and architecture. Who can
regard the wonderful tombs on the Makli Hill at Tatta or the ruins of
the great city of Brahmanabad without realising that those responsible
for these things must have been, in their day, well advanced in social
and civilised life, and deserving of the respect of the present
generation.
It is about certain leaders—religious and political—of these peoples of
the bygone centuries that the Hon. Mr. Justice Kincaid has compiled the
stories that have been reproduced in the following pages. The stories
which have been passed on from generation to generation, are, like the
legends of the West, to some extent mythical, but no doubt based on
actual incidents in the past which, in the repeated telling, have been
added to and embroidered in a way calculated to impress the minds of
the simple folk who heard them; and thus their remembrance and
transmission to later generations has been assured. Mr. Kincaid has
well caught the spirit of the stories, and his transcriptions are in
his happiest style. The thanks of every patriotic Sindhi will go out to
him for thus preserving in the printed page the legends that have grown
up around some of the more celebrated figures and remains of ancient
Sind.
But we hope that Mr. Kincaid’s good work will not cease yet. The
investigations of the Archaeological Department of the Government of
India have recently brought to light facts that have turned the eyes of
the whole world towards the valley of the Indus. Searching amongst the
ruins of northern Sind, Mr. Rakhaldas Bannerji has discovered at
Mohenjo Daro in the Larkana District buildings and domestic articles
that seem to indicate the existence in Sind of an advanced civilisation
some thousands of years ago! This discovery is confirmed by the
unearthing, almost at the same time, of similar remains 400 miles away
at Harappa in the Montgomery District of the Punjab. These remains
include “houses and temples, massively built of burnt brick, and
provided with well constructed water conduits covered with marble
slabs. The smaller antiquities include a quantity of pottery—painted
and plain, terra cotta, toys, bangles of blue glass, paste and shell,
new types of coins (or tokens), curious stone rings and dice.” Further,
there are a number of engraved and inscribed seals bearing inscriptions
in a hitherto unknown pictographic script. A careful comparison has now
confirmed the surmise that these antiquities are closely connected and
contemporary with the Sumerian antiquities of southern Mesopotamia,
dating from the third or fourth millennium before Christ. And so the
conclusion has been arrived at that the peoples of Sind and the Punjab
were living in “well-built cities in a relatively mature civilisation
with a high standard of art and craftsmanship and a developed system of
writing 5,000 years ago.” (vide Sir John Marshall, Director-General of
Archaeology in India’s communications to the Pioneer and to the Times
in November and December, 1924).
Whether any trace of this remote civilisation can be detected in any of
the old legends at present current among the country-folk of Sind, it
is impossible to say. We hope that Mr. Kincaid will be able to continue
his investigations into these matters, and will give to the public all
that he can find. With the translation of the pictographic script on
the recently discovered seals, some clue or connection with later
civilisations may possibly be traced. A fascinating vista of Sind,
i.e., the land of the Indus, as the cradle of modern Civilisation has
been opened up, (for Sumerian culture was probably the source of
Babylonian, Assyrian and Western Asiatic culture). It is to be hoped
that the Government of India will continue its investigations with
redoubled energy, and will further explore the rich plains on both
banks of the Indus.