The Gates of India: Being an Historical NarrativeHoldich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
History
The Gates of India: Being an Historical Narrative
Holdich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
Afghanistan -- Description and travel; Balochistan (Pakistan) -- Description and travel
We must now turn to Alexander. We left him near the mouth of the
Hingol, then probably four or five miles north of its present
position, and nearer the modern telegraph line. So far he had almost
step by step followed out the subsequent line of the Indo-Persian
telegraph, and at the Hingol he was not very far south of it. Near
here Leonatus had had his fight with the Oritæ, and Alexander had
spent much time (for it must be remembered that he started a month
before his fleet, and that the fleet and Leonatus at least joined
hands at this point) in collecting supplies of grain from the more
cultivated districts north, and was prepared to resume his march along
the coast, true to his general tactical principle of keeping touch
with his ships. But an obstacle presented itself that possibly he had
not reckoned on. The huge barrier of the Malan range, abutting direct
on the sea, stopped his way. There was no "Buzi" pass (or goat track)
in those days, such as finally and after infinite difficulty helped
the telegraph line over, though there was indeed an ancient stronghold
at the top, which must have been in existence before his time, and was
likely enough the original city of Malan. He was consequently forced
into the interior, and here his difficulties began.
We should be at a loss to follow him here, but for the fact that there
is only one possible route. He followed up the Hingol till he could
turn the Malan by an available pass westward. Nothing here has altered
since his days. Those magnificent peaks and mountains which surround
the sacred shrine of Hinglaz are, indeed, "everlasting hills," and it
was through them that he proceeded to make his way. It would be a
matter of immense interest could one trace any record of the Hinglaz
shrine in classical writings, but there is none that I know of. And
yet I believe that shrine which, next possibly to Juggernath, draws
the largest crowds of pilgrims (Hindu and Mussulman alike) of any in
India, was in existence before the days of Alexander. For the shrine
is sacred to the goddess Nana (now identified with Siva by Hindus),
and the Assyrian or Persian goddess Nana is of such immense antiquity
that she has furnished to us the key to an older chronology even than
that of Egypt. The famous cylinder of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria,
tells us that in the year 645 B.C. he destroyed Susa, the capital of
Elam, and from its temple he carried back the Chaldean goddess Nana,
and by the express command of the goddess herself, took her from
whence she had dwelt in Elam, "a place not appointed her," and
reinstated her in her own sanctuary at Urukh (now Warka in
Mesopotamia), whence she had originally been taken 1635 years before
by a conquering king of Elam, who had invaded Accad territory. Thus
she was clearly a well-established deity in Mesopotamia 2280 years
B.C. Alexander, however, would have left that Ziarat hidden away in
the folds of the Hinglaz mountain on his left, and followed the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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