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. There are no
indications of the form of buildings,... but simply large quantities of
large bricks, which for a long time have been carried away and used for
modern buildings.... After rain coins are found on the surface.... There
can be no doubt of a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and
uninviting character, having been covered at some time with buildings. The
position on the Jelam would answer well for the Dilawar which the Mongol
invaders took and held.... The strange thing is that the name should not
be mentioned (I believe it is not) by any of the well-known Mahomedan
historians of India. So much for Dilawar.... The people have no
traditions. But there are the remains; and there is the name, borne by the
existing village on part of the old site." I had come to the conclusion
that this was almost certainly Polo's Dalivar, and had mapped it as such,
before I read certain passages in the History of Ziyauddin Barni, which
have been translated by Professor Dowson for the third volume of Elliot's
India. When the comrades of Ghaiassuddin Balban urged him to conquests,
the Sultan pointed to the constant danger from the Mongols,[2] saying:
"These accursed wretches have heard of the wealth and condition of
Hindustan, and have set their hearts upon conquering and plundering it.
They have taken and plundered Lahor within my territories, and no year
passes that they do not come here and plunder the villages.... They even
talk about the conquest and sack of Delhi." And under a later date the
historian says: "The Sultan... marched to Lahor, and ordered the
rebuilding of the fort which the Mughals had destroyed in the reigns of
the sons of Shamsuddin. The towns and villages of Lahor which the Mughals
had devastated and laid waste he repeopled." Considering these passages,
and the fact that Polo had no personal knowledge of Upper India, I now
think it probable that Marsden was right, and that Dilivar is really a
misunderstanding of "Citta di Livar" for Lahawar or Lahore.
The Magical darkness which Marco ascribes to the evil arts of the
Karaunas is explained by Khanikoff from the phenomenon of Dry Fog, which
he has often experienced in Khorasan, combined with the Dust Storm with
which we are familiar in Upper India. In Sind these phenomena often
produce a great degree of darkness. During a battle fought between the
armies of Sindh and Kachh in 1762, such a fog came on, obscuring the light
of day for some six hours, during which the armies were intermixed with
one another and fighting desperately. When the darkness dispersed they
separated, and the consternation of both parties was so great at the
events of the day that both made a precipitate retreat. In 1844 this
battle was still spoken of with wonder. (J. Bomb. Br. R. A. S. I. 423.)
Major St. John has given a note on his own experience of these curious
Kerman fogs (see Ocean Highways, 1872, p. 286): "Not a breath of air was
stirring, and the whole effect was most curious, and utterly unlike any
other fog I have seen. No deposit of dust followed, and the feeling of the
air was decidedly damp. I unfortunately could not get my hygrometer till
the fog had cleared away."
[General Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 493, writes: "The magical darkness
might, as Colonel Yule supposes, be explained by the curious dry fogs or
dust storms, often occurring in the neighbourhood of Kerman, but it must
be remarked that Marco Polo was caught in one of these storms down in
Jiruft, where, according to the people I questioned, such storms now never
occur.
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