Travels Into Bokhara (Volume 1 of 3): Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833 — John Shaqi
Travels Into Bokhara (Volume 1 of 3): Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833Burnes, Alexander, Sir
History
Travels Into Bokhara (Volume 1 of 3): Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833
Burnes, Alexander, Sir
Afghanistan -- Description and travel; Asia, Central -- Description and travel; Bukhoro (Uzbekistan) -- Description and travel; Burnes, Alexander, Sir, 1805-1841 -- Travel; Indus River Valley -- Description and travel
We reached Rawil Pindee on the 7th, and alighted at the house which
the ex-King of Cabool built in his exile. It was a miserable hovel.
The town of Rawil Pindee is agreeable; and we were pleased to find
the mountains covered with snow, and but twelve miles distant. Some
specimens of crystalised sulphur, in its native state, were brought to
me from these hills; and there is a town among them called Porewala,
which led me to think that it might have some relation to the renowned
Porus of the Hydaspes.
~Marks of quitting India. Hurdwar pilgrims. Reflections on seeing them.~
We were now fast leaving Hindoostan and its customs behind us. The
dandelion had become a common weed. At Manikyala, we halted next door
to a bakery, where the whole bread of the village is cooked. How much
more sensible is this custom, than that every family should prepare
it separately, as in India, and live in perpetual terror of defilement
from one another. We were glad to be considered customers of the
village oven. On our road we met a numerous body of Afghans, and also
Hindoo pilgrims, crowding from beyond the Indus to the great religious
fair of Hurdwar: they looked more like Mohammedans than the followers
of Brahma. The festival occurs every twelve years, and distance serves
to increase the devotion of the pilgrim. The sight of these people
from beyond the Indus gave rise to many curious sensations. We wore
their dress, and they knew us not; we received their salutations as
countrymen, and could not participate in their feelings. Some of them
would ask, as we passed, whether we were going to Cabool or Candahar;
and from their looks and questions, I found many a secret and doubtful
thrill pass across me. This I found to arise from the novelty of our
situation, for it soon wore off after we mingled familiarly with
the people; and, in course of time, I gave and returned the usual
salutations with all the indifference of a practised traveller.
~Seik priest.~
At Rawil Pindee we had a visit from the government officers, among whom
was a Seik priest, or Bedee, who had taken the singular vow, never
to repeat three or four words without the name of “Vishnu,” one of
the Gods of the Hindoo Trinity. His conversation was, therefore, most
remarkable; for, on all subjects, and in all answers, he so interlarded
the words “Vishnu, Vishnu,” that I could not suppress a smile. This
personage presented us with a purse of 200 rupees; but it appeared to
come from Vishnu, and not from the Maharaja Runjeet Sing.
~Pass of Margulla.~
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