The Chachnama-An Ancient History of Sind

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TITLE PAGE iPREFACE iINTRODUCTION iiiTHE PERSIAN TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 1THE CONQUEST OF HIND AND SIND 11

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THECHACHNAMAH,AN ANCIENTHISTORY OF SIND,Giving the Hindu period down to the Arab Conquest.TRANSLATED FROM THE PERSIANBYMIRZA KALICHBEG FREDUNBEG,Deputy Collector, Naushahro, Hyderabad District.Barachi:PRINTED AT THE COMMISSIONERíS PRESS.1900.

DEDICATED

TOH. E. M. JAMES, Esq., C.S.I., I.C.S.,COMMISSIONER IN SIND.

PREFACE.

There is a real need for a good history of Sind. As it requires an abler hand towrite such a history, I thought of furnishing materials for it, in the form of bare

historical facts, collected and translated from some Persian manuscripts,which are mostly unknown to the public, and often difficult to obtain.Commencing with the ancient history of Sind, which consists of the Hindúperiod down to the Arab conquest, I could only find three books of someimportance on the subject, viz.,—the Chachnámah, the Táríkh Maasúmí, andthe Tuhfatulkirám. As the last two books were written after the first book andwere partly based on it, and as they did not give much detailed account of theperiod, I preferred the Chachnámah as my text book, and commencedtranslating it. At first I intended to give as many facts on the same subject as Icould collect from different books, in my own words, but I was advised by alearned friend of mine to confine myself, in the beginning, to one book aloneand give a faithful translation of it, leaving the future historian as well as thegeneral public to form their own judgment about the verity of the facts fromthe style, the tone and the cheracteristics of the original author. Accordingly Itook in hand the literal translation of the Chachnámah.But in doing that work I experienced many difficulties. There were so manymistakes and gaps in my copy of the book, that I was obliged to collect asmany copies as possible from different quarters, in order to compare my copywith them and to fill up the blank spaces and correct the mistakes. Isucceeded in securing seven or eight copies from Hyderabad, Tatta, Sukkur and Shikárpur, through the kindness and indulgence of some of my friends.After a deal of trouble and patience, and with the assistance of some Arabioscholars, I corrected the mistakes and filled up the gaps as far as possible.*Then I translated the book, keeping as close to the original words as possible.I have given numerous notes, both explanatory and referential, which, I hope,will prove useful to the reader. I have also given comparative extracts trans-lated from the Táríkh Maasúmí and the Tuhfatulkirám, about the sameevents. I have given references to chapters and parts of the Koran for theverses quoted from it, often using Sale’s translation. I have given equivalentyears of the Christian era for those of the Muhammadan era from Mr.Richardson’s Chronological Tables. In writing proper names I have followedthe Hunterian system of transliteration, except that for the letter ?? (ain) Ihave used the letter A.In doing the translation, I have been obliged occasionally to use a few wordsand phrases, for the sake of idiom or style, that are not in the original book.These will be found in parenthesis.A word now about the Chachnámah itself and some other histories of Sind. Itwill be seen from the book that the Chachnámah is a Persian translation of anArabic manuscript on the conquest of Sind by Arabs, written by Alí son of Muhammad Kúfí, originally of Kúfah (in Syria), but subsequently a resident of Uch, in 613 A. H. (1216 A. D.) About the year 991 A. H. (1583 A. D.),* Mír Muhammad Maasúmsháh, a Sayad of Bakhar, wrote a history of Sind inPersian and called it the Táríkh Maasúmí. It gives the Hindú as well as the

Mussalman period down to his own time.* Then in the reigns of Emperor Akber and his son Jahángír, other books were written on the subject, as for instance, the Arghún námah, the Tarkhán námah, and the Beglar námah,which treated chiefly of some particular rulers in whose periods their authorslived. Later on in 1187 A. H. (1773 A. D.) Sayad Alí Sher Kánea, a resident of Tatta, wrote a book on universal history in three parts, the last of whichtreated of the history of Sind. It contains a concise history of Sind up to hisown time, i.e., up to the reign of Mian Sarfráz Kalhórá.KALICHBEG.Hyderabad,20

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November 1900.NOTE.I have to offer my hearty thanks to Dayaram Gidumal, Esq., B.A., LL. B., C.S.,Sessions Judge, Shikarpur, for the trouble he has taken in going through themanuscript and seeing the proofs of the book, and in writing a learnedintroduction for it.K. F. M.INTRODUCTION.The Chachnámah is the oldest history of Sind. It was at one time thought aromance, but ever since Elphinstone rehabilitated its real character, there hasbeen no doubt as to its being a history. There have been, however, conflictingopinions as to the weight to be attached to it, and, it was, therefore, thoughtdesirable to translate the whole of the book, as literally as possible, in order toenable historical students to settle this question for themselves.The so-called translation by Lieutenant Postans in the Journal of the AstaticSociety of Bengal (No. LXXIV, 1838 and No. CXI, 1841) is really notranslation at all, as Sir H. Elliot has pointed out, (vide the History of India astold by its own Historians, Vol. I, p. 137); and Elliot’s own extracts, thoughcopious, are a very small part of the book. The present translation, therefore,is really the first, and in order to make it completely independent, thetranslator has not even looked at Postans’ work or Elliot’s.The Chachnámah is a valuable record for various reasons. It shows us, in thefirst place, that Buddhism was the dominant religion in Sind, in the 7

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century.The word Samání (originally Shráman) occurs several times, and we are toldof Buddha temples, Buddha monasteries, and even of Buddha extremists,who considered it against their religion to take up arms in their own defenceagainst the Mussalmans. We, moreover, read of Buddhia “a district